budget

With little fanfare or controversy, the Senate today passed budgets for K-12 education, community colleges and higher education.
The Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 $94.2 million K-12 budget is $2.2 million less than the FY 2008 budget. It's slightly less than Gov. Jennifer GRANHOLM's $94.7 million proposed budget.
SB 1096, sponsored by Senate Appropriations Chairman Ron JELINEK (R-Three Oaks), passed 36-1, with Sen. Nancy CASSIS (R-Novi) dissenting. She said the General Fund increased at the rate of inflation plus 1 percent, so she couldn't support it.

SCHOOL AID BUDGET TAKES SPENDING CUT – Facing the prospect of having $150 million less to spend than anticipated after the January Revenue Conference, the Senate Appropriations K-12, School Aid and Education Subcommittee reported its proposed budget which makes major revisions to the spending plan envisioned by Governor Granholm. The constrained spending proposal eliminated the Governor’s plan for smaller high schools and her call for all-day kindergarten schooling.

There seems to be little support for Governor Granholm’s education initiative, MI’s 21st Century Schools. Click here for a summary of this initiative as first proposed. The way it’s developed, for many, there is not a lot to like.

The Executive Budget presented by Governor Jennifer Granholm just last month may already be in trouble, but the problem at this point is not a repeat of last year’s budget impasse between the Executive Office and the Legislature. This time, as it was going into last year’s budget debacle, the issue is again money—or, more specifically, the lack thereof.

Nearly half of the Democratic lawmakers in the House have signed on as sponsors to legislation augmenting the health care pooling reforms put in place for public school employees during the budget battle earlier this fall and the chair of the Education Committee said he plans on taking up HB 5454 .

The legislation would essentially make schools with 250 or more employees, and not 100 as in current statute, open up their health care coverage for competitive bidding.