Ed funding on State Board agenda

MEA President Iris K. Salters at the March 9 State Board of Education hearing on education funding.

MEA president testifies

MEA President Iris K. Salters asked members of the State Board of Education on Tuesday for help in fixing Michigan’s broken education funding system.

“We believe that every student in Michigan deserves a great public education and we have a vested interest in ensuring that our schools excel at providing that in a sustainable way for generations to come,” Salters said.

Salters’ comments came during the final State Board-sponsored public forum on education funding. Following a series of similar forums, board members now plan to make recommendations about how Michigan should remake its education-related revenue base, investment priorities, and spending reforms. The recommendations will be given to lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm in April.

“With looming budget shortfalls for next year, and the inability of the state to resolve the education financing problems of Michigan, it is imperative that Michigan develop long-term structural remedies,” said Kathleen Straus, president of the State Board of Education.

Salters implored board members to support smaller class sizes, early childhood education, quality professional development, and programs that target students at risk of dropping out, measures that work and that have been shown to save money in the long run.

“Instead of chasing after funding tied to unproven political whims, you must insist that our children are more than just a test score – that their value and their achievements are more than the MEAP could ever measure,” Salters said.

She reiterated support for a “Comeback Plan,” developed by A Better Michigan Future, a coalition of more than 30 groups, including MEA. Among other things, the coalition agenda includes a comprehensive audit of $16 billion worth of government contracts, eliminating tax loopholes and incentives that don’t create jobs, expanding the sales tax to cover services and luxury items, and implementing a graduated income tax that would actually cut taxes for 90 percent of Michigan families.

School districts, too, must make better use of existing funds, Salters said, specifically citing the more than $1.7 billion in unspent school aid dollars that districts have amassed.

“We believe that the money allocated to districts each year is a contract to use it to provide the best program for students – not to hoard money,” she said. “Since the state finds itself in such a crisis, we believe our elected leaders should demand schools use it or lose it.”

While not a permanent fix to the broken school funding system, Salters acknowledged that it would go a long way toward filling the hole.

In addition to school funding, Salters spoke about Michigan’s failed bid for federal Race To The Top funding. Specifically, she addressed those who blame MEA for the state’s failure to be a finalist in the first round of grants.

“MEA did nothing more than stand up for students and school employees in Michigan,” Salters said. “We asked the kind of questions that needed to be asked and we expressed the same concerns many of you had when answers were not forthcoming.”

Salters reminded board members that Race To The Top was supposed to be a collaborative process, yet MEA members and leaders weren’t allowed to see Michigan’s plan before it was submitted to the federal government.

“It’s pretty clear this wasn’t a collaborative process,” Salters said. “If it was, the concerns of thousands of school employees would not have been ignored. Because, while politicians and pundits have criticized MEA, I have not heard from a single member who thought the state’s Race To The Top plan was a good idea for them or for students.”

Read: Iris K. Salters’ remarks to the State Board of Education.

Updated: March 11, 2010