Students, others rally for Michigan school funding

Karen Bouffard / The Detroit News

Lansing -- More than 1,500 parents, students and educators from Plymouth-Canton, Livonia, Taylor and other districts rallied this morning on the Capitol steps before going inside to bring their message to elected officials.

Their message: Recent cuts to school aid were wrong and should be restored."We came here to raise our voices because they tried to cut money for Dearborn schools," said Kassem Alakhras, who has six children in the 18,097-student district, which lost about $12 million under reductions approved by lawmakers and additional cuts by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. "We came here to tell them just to fix it and put our money back."

About 150 people from Dearborn attended the rally. The Dearborn Board of Education Monday laid off 300 teachers due to a shortfall in money. Dearborn has lost more per pupil than any other district in the state. The legislature slashed $165 per student from all districts. Gov. Jennifer Granholm then ordered an additional $127 per pupil cut because of declining revenues in the School Aid Fund.

On top of those cuts, Granholm vetoed $52 million earmarked for 39 of the state's better-funded school districts, including Dearborn. Dearborn lost another $1.5 million when Granholm vetoed a line item appropriation earmarked for students in the district deemed at risk of failing.

"All together it's about $655 per kid," Dearborn Superintendent Brian Whiston said, noting that about 200 noninstructional employees will be laid off on Dec. 1, and 100 teachers will be axed in January.

"It's devastating for the people who are laid off, because they're going to lose their jobs and benefits, and it's also devastating to the classroom," Whiston said. "We know we need to make some cuts at the local level, but we need a partnership between the legislature and local district."

Granholm said some of the cuts will be avoided if lawmakers agree to raise more cash for education. At a meeting with parents and school officials from the Plymouth-Canton district Monday, Granholm urged people to attend the rally and turn up the pressure on lawmakers by being "visible, loud and persuasive."

The Senate is committed to not raising taxes, and critics have said Granholm ordered the $127 per student pro-ration, and vetoed the $52 million for better-off district, to pressure lawmakers into doing just that.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, said he sympathizes with parents and schools. He said he's frustrated because lawmakers agreed to cut $165 per students, but then Granholm made additional cuts. He called on Granholm to restore what he called "punitive cuts," including the $127 per student cut that is to start in December and the $52 million for high-spending districts.

Matt Marsden, Bishop's spokesman, called on House Democrats to approve $306 million in revenue bills approved by the Senate. About $100 million of the money would go to schools. The bills would freeze the earned income tax credit and personal income tax exemption, trim film industry tax credits and grant a tax amnesty to bring in outstanding income tax revenue.

"We provided solutions that are not tax increases but that are new revenue (for schools)," Marsden said.

Granholm said the cuts were necessary to balance the budget, based on most recent tax revenues that leave the new state budget short of money. Bishop has argued the budget is based on revenue estimates in May that the House, Senate and administration agreed to use to set the new budget.

After meeting with educators in Mason, the governor said Bishop is using outdated numbers.

"How long are we going to put our heads in the sand about what the school aid fund looks like?" she said.

Granholm added she hopes Bishop and other Republicans listen to educators and other constituents "who hired them" and support "narrowly targeted" revenue increases for schools. Up until now, the Senate has taken a "no, no, no" stance on revenue, she said.

The governor said the education community favors a ballot plan to extend the sales tax to services. She said she would back the proposal if school officials want to take the lead on selling it to voters.

Granholm said about today's rally: "Having this number of people swarm the capital is very important in a democracy."

But she said later that she's not sure if there's a groundswell of support yet for revenue increases to soften cuts in school aid and other programs and services.

"I don't know that everybody understands it fully," she said.

Many of the parents who attended said they're tired of the politics. They just want lawmakers to figure out how to adequately fund schools.

"I drove about an hour and a half to get here," said Terri Poindexter of Taylor, who has three children in the school district there. "It's just very important for everyone to know we have to stop the funding cuts."

kboffard@detnews.com (517) 371-3660