Michigan School Funding Problems Solved!

Incessant poor-mouthing is a staple of the public school establishment's perennial effort to extract more revenue from taxpayers. However, as described in a previous post, total state funding for Michigan public schools has actually increased by 14 percent this decade in real, inflation-adjusted terms. When combined with a 50,000-student decline in school enrollment, it adds up to our schools spending $2,000 more per pupil in 2008 than at the start of the decade.

From the AnnArbor.com news site comes additional evidence that our schools very well funded indeed:

Nine southeast Michigan school districts paid $25,000 each to a Detroit-area public relations firm to be 'named,' a top school district. That firm, in turn, bought airtime on a Detroit-area television station to broadcast a feature on the state's best schools. A website — bestschoolsinmichigan.com — also features the nine schools.

More indications of how richly this state endows its public school establishment are found in employee compensation figures and comparisons:

• On average, teachers contribute 4 percent to the cost of family health insurance premiums, while the state average is 22 percent.
• Teacher salaries in Michigan averaged $4,079 above the national average (2006-2007 figures); that's the nation's 11th highest, while the state's per-capita personal income has fallen to 37th place and is currently $5,259 below the national average (2008 figures).
• Only Vermont spends a larger portion of its local and state tax revenue on public schools than Michigan.

Beyond suggesting the magnitudes of money sloshing around in this system, the "best schools" pay-to-play scheme illustrates shortcomings in the information we have available on school performance. The education establishment produces an abundance of data in the form of test scores, assessments, etc. — but data is not necessarily useful information. Parents are thus stuck choosing schools based on slick slogans.