Schools funding increases tied to improvement

LANSING, Mich. — Public schools won’t see their funding reduced in the next budget, but Gov. Snyder wants them to show improvement in order to get funding increases, according to The Grand Rapids Press.

“The good part now is that we have some incremental resources,” Gov. Snyder told The Press. “The question is how do we prioritize those. The part I did say last night is that it is about investing and saving wisely. It's not about just spending money. We are looking at ways to invest and that potentially includes K-12. But it needs to be based on best practices and things that are measurable.”

According to The Press, the governor’s plan may receive support from Democratic legislators, depending on who sets the goals and what they are. Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, was critical of the lack of details in the governor’s State of the State address.

“So the idea of putting money back into schools is positive. But we'd want to know what the goals are, and who would be setting them,” Bob McCann, Sen. Whitmer’s communications director, told The Press. “Are they just going to be linked to standardized test scores, or some things that he considers to be a best practice? We don't know.”

Gov. Snyder told The Press he would get into details of a proposed spending plan in his budgetary address in February.

SOURCES:

The Grand Rapids Press, “Gov. Snyder: School districts might have to show improvement, collaboration to get more state money,” Jan. 19, 2012

The Grand Rapids Press, “Democrats say they might back plan to give schools cash for meeting goals, but it depends on the goals,” Jan. 19, 2012

FURTHER READING:

Mackinac Center for Public Policy, “The Unstable Funding Myth,” June 24, 2010