Program |
Gross Appropriation |
Appropriation Breakdown |
|
|
|
Office of Enrichment |
$2,807,900[65] |
$2,397,000 from Federal Funds; |
and Community Services |
|
$410,900 from GF/GP |
Program Description:
The Office of Enrichment and Community Services includes programs for Native Americans, Race Equity, Sex Equity, Dropout Prevention, Homeless Education, Migrant Education, Bilingual Education, and Compensatory Education.
Recommended Action:
All of the programs that the Office of Enrichment and Community Services conducts should be discontinued. These programs take money from parents and communities, funnel it through the federal bureaucracy, pass it through the state bureaucracy, and give it back to the communities from which it came--less the costs of federal and state bureaucracies. They deprive parents and communities of self-determination in the use of their resources, and require school districts to complete voluminous paperwork and jump through many administrative hoops in order to receive and use the funds. They lack the accountability that characterizes locally funded projects. The Michigan Legislature should demand that Michigan resources are left in Michigan. It should eliminate these programs immediately and request that the federal government cease these wasteful, bureaucratic and redistributive programs.
Program |
Gross Appropriation |
Appropriation Breakdown |
|
|
|
Early Childhood |
$1,737,900[66] |
All from Federal Funds |
Education Program |
|
|
Program Description:
The Early Childhood Education Program funds programs at public schools for pre-kindergarten students.
Recommended Action:
Like other federal grant programs, the Early Childhood Education Program takes money from parents and communities, funnels it through the federal bureaucracy, passes it through the state bureaucracy, and gives it back to the communities from which it came--less the costs of federal and state bureaucracies. This program deprives parents and communities of self-determination in the use of their resources, and requires school districts to complete paperwork and jump through administrative hoops in order to receive and use the funds. It lacks the accountability that characterizes locally funded programs. The Michigan Legislature should demand that Michigan resources be left in Michigan. It should eliminate this program immediately and request that the federal government cease these wasteful, bureaucratic and resdistributive programs.
Program |
Gross Appropriation |
Appropriation Breakdown |
|
|
|
Office of Career and |
$3,180,200[67] |
$2,328,600 from Federal Funds; |
Technical Education |
|
$851,600 from GF/GP |
Program Description:
The Office of Career and Technical Education monitors the development of educational training and retraining programs and support services for youths and adults; it also provides programs for secondary students at local educational agencies and post-secondary students at community colleges. According to The Michigan Manual, these programs emphasize: "promoting access to quality career and technical education programs for the handicapped, disadvantaged, limited English-speaking, single parents, homemakers, and criminal offenders; providing program improvement activities such as equipment purchases, curriculum development, and technical updating of teachers; promoting cooperation and collaboration between public agencies and the private sector in preparing individuals for employment; and promoting coordination and collaboration between general education and career in and technical education."[68]
Recommended Action:
As with the above programs, the Michigan Legislature should refuse to accept federal funding for this program and demand that the resources be left in the communities for them to use as they deem fit. As was stated earlier in our discussion of the community college budget, job and technical employment training is fundamentally the responsibility of the private sector and individuals themselves, not the state.[69] Moreover, these programs are objectionable on the basis that many of them are only available to certain targeted groups such as criminal offenders and limited English speakers--instead of the population as a whole.
Program |
Gross Appropriation |
Appropriation Breakdown |
|
|
|
Office of Minority Equity |
$911,000[70] |
$376,400 from Federal Funds; |
|
|
$534,600 from GF/GP |
Program Description:
The Office of Minority Equity--which operates within the Higher Education Management Services Division--investigates reports on barriers to minority success on state college campuses; recruits minority instructors to the state's public colleges; and annually publishes a book that lists positions available to minority instructors as well as chronicles the success of minority instructors throughout the state.
Recommended Action:
This program allocates state resources based on race and is inherently discriminatory. The state should end all programs that allocate benefits on the basis of race and adopt instead a color-blind policy of non-discrimination.
Program |
Gross Appropriation |
Appropriation Breakdown |
|
|
|
Grant and |
$709,322,100[71] |
All From Federal Funds |
Distribution Program |
|
|
Program Description:
For fiscal year 1995-96, the Grant and Distribution program awarded, among others, the following grants:
AIDS Education Grants |
$150,000 |
Competitive Child Care and Development Grants |
$480,000 |
Christa McAuliffe Grants |
$77,600 |
Drug Free Schools Grants |
$14,000,000 |
Foreign Language Grants |
$593,600 |
Emergency Immigrant Grants |
$300,000 |
Homeless Children and Youth Grants |
$833,000 |
Job Training Partnership Act |
$7,952,700 |
Migrant Even Start Program |
$282,300 |
Pre School Grants |
$12,136,800 |
School to Work Grants |
$1,800,000 |
Serve America Grants |
$680,000 |
State Literacy Resource Center Grant |
$263,600 |
Surplus Commodity Grant |
$2,506,000 |
Systems Change for Inclusive Education Grant |
$266,400 |
Teacher Corps Scholarship Program Grant |
$158,400 |
Vocational Education Act of 1963 Grant |
$38,507,200 |
Recommended Action:
None of the grant programs listed above--which amount to only 11.4% of total expenditures for the entire Grant and Distribution program--are vital to the successful functioning of public schools throughout the state. Instead they are either subsidies for certain special interest groups (such as the Foreign Language Grant); subsidies to private industry (such as the Job Training Partnership Act, the School to Work Grants, and the Vocational Education Act of 1963 Grant); or programs that simply should be beyond the purview of government and should be left up to communities and families (such as the AIDS Education Grant, the Competitive Child Care Grant, and the Drug Free Schools Grant). These grants should be eliminated, producing a savings of $80,957,600.