Outraged By Cuts, Superintendent Asks Gov. Snyder To Convert Schools Into Prisons To Get More Funding

By Zaid Jilani

The conservative governors who were elected across the country last November have championedhuge cuts to public education spending while resisting efforts to raise revenues from the wealthiest among us. In Michigan, Gov. Rick Snyder (R) proposed cutting millions of dollars from the public education budget, and this week the GOP-controlled state senate passed a “contentious K-12 budget that cuts $470 per student from school districts.”

Outraged by these cuts, Nathan Bootz, the superintendent of Ithaca Public Schools, wrote a letter to the editor in a local paper proposing an idea that could come out of aJonathan Swift novel: if Snyder intends on draining funding from public schools, maybe Bootz should convert the schools in his district into prisons to get funding.

Noting that Michigan spends “between $30,000 and $40,000″ on each prisoner but can barely provide $7,000 per public school student, Bootz says that maybe we need to start treating “our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding“:

In these tough economic times, schools are hurting. And yes, everyone in Michigan is hurting right now financially, but why aren’t we protecting schools? Schools are the one place on Earth that people look to to “fix” what is wrong with society by educating our youth and preparing them to take on the issues that society has created. [...]
This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding. Please give my students three meals a day. Please give my children access to free health care. Please provide my school district Internet access and computers. Please put books in my library. Please give my students a weight room so we can be big and strong. We provide all of these things to prisoners because they have constitutional rights. What about the rights of youth, our future?!

At the end of his letter, Bootz strikes a more serious note, writing that we need to give “our schools the resources necessary to keep our students OUT of prison.” According to statistics from city-data.com, his city, Ithaca, Michigan, has a higher poverty rate than the state average, and much of that poverty is concentrated in children under five years of age and teenagers.

UPDATESnyder "on Wednesday signed a bill drastically cutting business taxeswhile raising taxes on individual taxpayers, putting in place the biggest tax restructuring move since voters in 1994 fundamentally altered the way Michigan pays for public schools through Proposal A."

Democrats Push to Protect Michigan School Money

By TIM MARTIN

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The leader of the Democratic minority in the Michigan Senate reiterated Monday that warding off proposed cuts to public school funding will be her main goal as budget debates continue for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, said she could support other parts of a budget deal if Gov. Rick Snyder and Republicans who control the Legislature agree to use the school aid fund only for K-12 schools. Whitmer said that if more tax revenue comes to Michigan than expected, it should go to schools to protect them from proposed budget cuts.

Schools could lose an additional $300 per student next fiscal year under Snyder's plan, on top of a $170 per student cut that's already in place and would be continued in the next budget. Schools would lose an additional $170 per student, on top of the existing cut, under a Senate plan. The House has a plan that would make additional cuts of 3.9 percent, ranging from $285 to $331 per student.

Democrats say the cuts would force more teacher layoffs and reduced programs at Michigan's public schools.

Snyder proposes using some school aid fund money to support budgets for universities and community colleges. Democrats say Snyder is proposing the shift to help pay for his plan to slash business taxes.

"I would maintain it was a flawed budget in many ways from the beginning," Whitmer said. "The most egregious problem in the budget, I would submit, is the raid on the school aid fund."

Democrats are proposing a constitutional amendment that would ensure school aid fund money be preserved for K-12 schools.

Democrats don't have much power to shape this year's budget negotiations. Republicans hold a 26-12 edge in the Senate and a 63-47 edge in the House.

But many Republicans also say they would like to preserve as much public school funding as possible in the next fiscal year.

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, said last week that if that revenue estimates are better than expected he would be open to exploring the possibility of further reducing the per-pupil cut.

Analysts with Snyder's administration and the nonpartisan House and Senate fiscal agencies will make new budget revenue projections in mid-May.

Michigan Town Hall Attendees Demand ‘Higher Business Tax’ Instead of Snyder’s Education Cuts

By Alex Seitz-Wald 

Angry residents confronted Republican state Sen. Tom Casperson at a town hall last week over his support for Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) proposed budget, which — like those of many other GOP governors — would slash funding for education while cutting corporate taxes. Snyder’s budget would cut spending on education by $471 per student and reduce teachers’ pay and benefits. Yet while students and teachers are asked to sacrifice, Snyder’s budget would give huge tax breaks to businesses in the form of a flat 6 percent corporate tax rate.

At Casperson’s town hall in Marquette, Ishpeming school board member Mike Flynn joined numerous other constituents in speaking out against the cuts. Flynn said his district is already struggling to make ends meet, having shut down its middle school, laid off teachers and staff, and privatized its bus and custodial services. Flynn asked those in attendance to stand if the oppose education cuts. “Nearly everyone in the room jumped to their feet while cheering and clapping,” the Maquette Mining Journal reported.

Casperson responded that he was trying to minimize the impact on education, but that cuts are necessary. “What about a higher business tax?” one constituent shouted, met with cries of “yes!” from other attendees and a chorus of applause. Watch a video of the event shot by the Mining Journal and edited by ThinkProgress for length (full video here):

Several other attendees spoke passionately against Snyder’s budget, with one constitutes receiving applause for speaking out against cuts to services for “the most vulnerable” while the top “one percent” are given tax breaks. “This trickle down theory, we’ve tried it before — it doesn’t work,” she said. Meghan McLeod, a special education teacher, said that Snyder’s cuts may force her to move back in with her parents on her 25th birthday.

Meanwhile, as TPM’s Evan McMorris-Santoro reports, Michigan state Sen. Bruce Caswell (R) has suggested allowing children who receive public assistance to spend their meager $80 per year only at thrift stores, even though Caswell acknowledged his plan wouldn’t save the state “a dime.”

As one man at the Casperson town hall said, “I don’t recall you or most of the other people who are Republicans running on anything like what is being foisted upon our state right now.” His comment was met with boisterous applause.

M.C.L Comments:It's going to be fun watching the smug look getting rubbed off the faces of Nolan Finley and his right wing ilk next year. The Republicans thought they could get away with their attempt to kill the labor movement it failed look at Wisconsin and the only reason I believe the Rick Snyder recall might come up short is this if Ricky Snyder is recalled look who's taking over for him.  


Snyder might be gone but his even further right Lt. Governor takes over and giving an young right winger that much power is like giving an 3 year old an AK-47 with boatload of ammo it's both dangerous and stupid. I say we fight the Repugs on the legal stage and get rid of their majority at the voting booths next year.

Students join protests over cuts

by Ray Kisonas

A Lansing subcommittee on education funding has proposed reinstating $200 million to public schools that would reduce cuts by $130 a pupil.

That reduction could help ease but not eliminate the pain of cuts that have been the source of protests across Michigan, including Monroe.

In its proposal, the Senate’s Subcommittee on Appropriations for K-12 Funding reinstated $130 per pupil, which would reduce the amount of cuts from $470 to $340. Today, the full appropriations committee is expected to vote on the proposal.

On Wednesday, a House subcommittee recommended that schools be cut next year by an additional 3.9 percent — a reduction that would range from $285 to $331 a student, depending on what districts now receive from the state.

Proposals vary between Gov. Rick Snyder and Republicans who control the state Legislature.

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, said he is confident the Senate committee’s plan will be supported and he is expecting committees to further reduce the proposed cuts to education.

“I think it’s very solid,” Sen. Richardville said this morning. “There is a degree of hope out there.”

In the meantime, rallies have been held in Lansing and Monroe as supporters loudly voice their concern over the cuts, which would mean millions of fewer dollars for schools in Monroe County. On Wednesday, several Monroe High School students held their own rally to protest the cuts.

Debate teacher Deb Mau said her students came up with the idea to hold the rally during class discussions regarding whether education is a privilege or a right.

She said the students decided on their own to protest the cuts and she did not encourage them to walk along Telegraph and other streets holding signs after school.

“I would never ask a child to fight for my political beliefs,” Ms. Mau said. “One hundred percent of it was student run and operated. I wasn’t even out there.”

Sen. Richardville said he supported students who show passion on issues.

“I’m encouraged that they want to become more involved in the process,” he said. “I think it’s great.”

Community colleges face cuts, too. While the governor proposed holding funding steady for those institutions, the Senate appropriations committee voted for a 3.4 percent cut, while a House plan to be voted on would cut community colleges by 15 percent.