School Aid Update
By Jim Ballard
MASSP Executive Director
SB 1107, 2008-09 School Aid has passed the Senate and is now in discussion before the House Appropriations sub-committee for Education. I’d be surprised to see movement of the bill to the full Appropriations Committee until after the report to this committee by the legislative finance research staff as to how much money they think is in the state check book is completed. There are still some things kicking about.
What’s at issue? It’s the 2X foundation formula. This concept used in last year’s (2007-08) funding formula pits the old “in-formula’s” against the “out-of-formula” against each other. Or, in more recent terms, sets up the “20-J” districts against “non 20-J” districts. Your opinion of this issue is determined by “where you sit.” This is not an issue for a statewide association to get into. Our position, for years on this type of issue has been the gain for one should not be at the expense of the other. Just put more money in the formula for all schools!
The Senate threw out the Governor’s small school initiative in favor of funding for “fixing the roofs.” It appears there will be $250M coming to Michigan from the feds to be used for school building repair. These funds are part of a national economic recovery package. The feds anticipate the money will create 4,000 jobs. So, this may open the door to the Governor’s plan to come back in the House version of School Aid act whose legislators are expected to be more open to the Governor’s wishes.
Summer school--we discussed this news in another story.
The MASSP initiative to cut costs, save time, and add value to the MME appears to be doing well. The Department is in support of our proposal and there have been no push backs from other groups.
Some of our members are still under the belief that if high school students re-take the MME and improve their scores, it will help the school make AYP and state accreditation. This is no longer true. The only reason for a student to re-take the MME is to qualify them for the up-front Promise Grant monies. The new language would allow retesting students who have earned a MME score, to use just their ACT scores to qualify for the up-front Promise monies instead of the full-blown MME. This saves Michigan $4M.
