Michigan Federation of Teachers & School Related Personnel
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Michigan Federation of Teachers & School Related Personnel
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Capitol Report Archives Go to current Capitol Report for links to complete archive. January, 2003 2002 2001 2000 |
Higher Education Budget Cuts Community College Budget Cuts Alternative K-12 School Aid Budget Cut Introduced Charter School Legislation Introduced Again Educational Flexibility & Empowerment Contracts Are Back WCCC Separation Bill Returns Lobby Day 2003--Tuesday, March 18 may be found on the Legislative Hotline page of this website.  Return to Top Higher Education and Community College Budget Cuts Ordered On Wednesday, February 19, 2003, Governor Jennifer Granholm submitted to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees her proposal to eliminate the $158.2 million FY 2002-03 General Fund/General Purpose (GF/GP) budget deficit. Details of the cuts contained in Executive Order 2003-3, as approved by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, are listed below. Higher Education Budget Cuts Include: Higher Education (1.5% GF/GP appropriation reduction) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 25,497,600 Rare Isotope Accelerator (5.0% reduction) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 100,000 Each GF/GP line-item in the Higher Education budget has already been reduced by 2.0% pursuant to Executive Order 2002-22 and Public Act 746 of 2002. The 1.5% reduction contained in Executive Order 2003-3 brings the cumulative total reduction to 3.5%. Listed below are the results of these cuts on MFT&SRP universities.
Excluded from the 1.5% GF/GP reduction are the Midwest Higher Education Compact dues ($82,500), State Competitive Scholarships ($35,993,486), Tuition Grants ($64,778,121), Work Study Grants ($7,855,475), Part-Time Independent Grants ($2,844,937), and Michigan Education Opportunity Grants ($2,234,692), since the academic year is more than half over and students have already received their financial aid packages. Return to Top Community College Budget Cuts Community College Budget Cuts
The Executive Order reduces community college operational funding and the at-risk program by 1.5%. This brings total year-to-date reductions to 3.5%. MFT&SRP Community College budgets will be cut as follows:
Return to Top Alternative K-12 School Aid Budget Cut Introduced Legislators have been struggling to find an "equitable" alternative to the mandated proration of approximately 3.8% across-the-board cut in payments to school districts. The problem is that what seems fair depends on the school district where you live or work. Two bill have been introduced:
Both bills are alternatives to the Section 11 proration language in the School Aid Act. They are extremely controversial as some districts' funding is reduced more or less than the mandated proration. Because of this, the likelihood that either bill will pass both the Senate and House is slim. If no legislation is adopted, the pro-rata reduction of 3.8% set in current law will go into effect and reductions totaling $127 million will be made in six equal installments to districts' state school aid payments beginning with the March 20, 2003 payment. Fiscal experts are also predicting a $366 million shortfall for the 2003 - 2004 school aid budget. This will result in an estimated 11% budget reduction for districts next year, unless the Legislature enacts additional revenues.
Return to Top Charter School Legislation Introduced Again House Bill 4148 (Palmer, R-Romeo) would:
Return to Top Educational Flexibility & Empowerment Contracts Are Back Senate Bill 70 and 71 (Kuipers, R-Holland) would create the "Educational Flexibility and Empowerment Law" within the Revised School Code to permit school districts to apply for an Ed- Flex contract, which would allow the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to waive for a district, for up to five years, State statutes and rules that were part of a performance-based contract with clearly defined and measurable performance goals, or certain Federal requirements in accordance with Federal law allowing educational waivers. Except for health and safety requirements, any requirement placed on a school district under the state stature or State School Aid Act, or any rule promulgated under the Code or the Act, would be subject to waiver under an Ed-Flex contract. The Michigan Federation of Teachers and School Related Personnel is opposed to Senate Bills 70 and 71. A Senate Education Committee hearing on these bill was cancelled due to 24 hours of intense lobbying. However, we expect this issue to return to the committee's agenda... Return to Top WCCC Separation Bill Returns The Michigan Federation of Teachers and School Related Personnel is very concerned about the potential impact of House Bill 4228 (Gaffney, R-Grosse Pointe) on the future of Wayne County Community College. It is identical to House Bill 5157 introduced during the last legislative session. House Bill 4228 proposes that:
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