It should be easy for anyone to understand why Michigan educators are upset about state funding. Though politicians say they believe education is the key to a brighter future for Michigan’s economy, and we know it is the key to success for individual students, those of us involved in public education don’t feel they’ve treated us like a priority.
Let’s go back to 2002-03. That year, the state spent $11.33 billion on K-12 School Aid. In 2007-08 the state spent $11.42 billion. That’s a difference of $90 million or about 0.8% (eight tenths of one percent) over a five-year period. During that same time, total state spending rose by 9.2% and the Detroit CPI went up 11.9%. Community Colleges and Higher Education both received increases of 2.6% over that five-year period. Community Health spending (Medicaid) went up 55.4%, Corrections rose by 24.8% and Human Services spending increased by 14.6%. (All figures in this paragraph are from a Senate Fiscal Agency publication.)
Those numbers don’t make education seem like a priority for state spending.
Let’s look at it another way. In 2002-03 the Minimum Foundation Allowance was $6,700 per pupil, in 2007-08 it was $7,204, an increase of $504 or 7.5 percent. The Maximum Foundation Allowance went from $8,000 to $8,433, an increase of $433 per pupil or 5.46 percent over that same period. Remember, the CPI went up by 9.2 percent during that five-year span.
Given the modest increase in total appropriations of less than one percent since 2002-03 how did schools receive even these modest increases in funding? Declining enrollment is the major reason. In 2002-03, there were a total of 1.715 million students in Public School Academies and traditional K-12 schools in Michigan. In 2007-08 that number was 1.653 million. That’s a decline of 62,000 students or 3.6 percent. Between 2007-08 and 2008-09 the state estimates Michigan will lose another 24,000 students.
The decline of 62,000 students reduced the state’s financial obligations in the neighborhood of $500 million; and it appears that increases in state funding over the past five years were possible primarily due to reductions in pupil population.
Because of this, there are increases in per pupil funding for education but total state spending remains relatively constant. On the local level it means that many districts have had increases in their Foundation Allowance, but because of declining enrollment, have less to spend. And you all know that the loss of students does not translate to an easy reduction in your major overhead costs. You run the same number of buses, but with fewer students, have the same number of classrooms, but with fewer students and so on. It’s only after significant reductions in pupil population that the situation allows for reductions in overhead through closing buildings or fewer bus runs or the elimination of classes.
So where does this all go? First and foremost the numbers above are intended to help people understand what is really going on in funding for schools. Second, they reflect the admirable job that Michigan schools have done in maintaining programs in the face of significant hardship.
How have schools done it? They’ve made tough, unpleasant decisions on matters like contracting out services and holding down employment costs. We’ve seen shifts in expenses for extracurricular programs to parents and students. There have been school closings and reductions in all school staff. We’ve also seen shifts to efficiency by greater collaboration on purchasing, transportation and the delivery of many services.
Unfortunately, what comes next is probably more of the same. While we must continue to work on finding additional dollars for education, the reality of our state’s economic situation is grim for at least the next few years. No matter what the numbers reflect about an apparent disinvestment in education by Lansing, we can’t expect much better in the near term.
That takes us to the bottom line. Here’s the imperative we continue to face: schools must find ways to continue to do more with less. If we believe we are the answer to success for individual students, and to the economic vibrancy of our state, we must continue to seek solutions at the local level, through the creation of additional operational efficiencies while we simultaneously search for creative ways to improve student performance at lower cost.
MSBO will continue to partner with you in this effort. Our Board recently engaged in a planning session in which they established an overarching goal of helping bring more business solutions to our members. We’ll partner with schools, private businesses, and other associations to help you continue to do the very important work in which you are engaged. Look for more details over next few months in our publications, and please continue to stay involved and make suggestions on how we can help you.
Thanks for all you do.