In his most recent budget offering Rick Snyder has requested an increase in education spending for Michigan schools. For years Republicans have argued that spending more money on education is a bad idea, but this is an election year and polls show that the public supports more spending on education so rather than attempting to make a case to back up their core beliefs conservative media outlets are trying to convince everyone that the governor has actually been a big spending education advocate.
As a result of this debate you can find quotes from the Mark Schauer, the Democrat running for governor, claiming that under Rick Snyder Michigan is spending $1 billion less on education as well as the corresponding assertion from the governor’s office that under his watch spending has increased by $660 per pupil.
Both sides continue to use slanted math to posture for position in the governor's race but let's imagine for a minute that the citizens in Michigan are more interested in the money going towards education than which candidate can manipulate information better.
In that case it should be noted that since 2007 spending on education in Michigan has failed to keep pace with inflation to the tune of around $1.5 billion. Additionally in 2003 total per pupil revenue in Michigan was 7.8% higher than the national average while it had dropped to 2.9% below the national average by 2010.
Of course it is also true that less money is going is making its way to the classroom then before. According to an article by Julie Mack of Mlive "In today's dollars, the per-pupil foundation allowance was worth $8,170 in 2003-04, the report says. Under the governor's proposed budget, its $5,932 in 2013-14".
Conservative will be quick to point out that this fall in classroom spending is largely due to the increased spending on the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSER). However it should be noted that a large portion of the additional funds being allocated to the MPSER program come directly from employees. It certainly doesn't suggest education is a priority for the governor if the only way he can show an increase in education spending is by taking money out of the pockets of Michigan educators and putting it back on the balance sheet as “spending”.
Perhaps more concerning then the half truths and number manipulation coming from Lansing is the use of MPSER as a tool to undermine public schools. One of the biggest reasons the retirement fund for teachers is underfunded is due to the ratio of people currently contributing to the number of people drawing from the fund. Over the past decade the ratio dropped from around 2.5 employees per retiree to 1.23. Obviously less money going in and more money going out will have a negative impact on longevity of the retirement funds.
Some of this occurred because of loss of students due to the recession but the Michigan legislature compounded this problem by offering early retirement to cut cost. While this helped in the short term it increased the number of retirees drawing from MPSER, making the fund less solvent moving forward. To make matters worse Rick Snyder and Michigan Republicans continue to move students out of the public school system and into Charter schools. Unlike public schools, enrolment in MPSER is optional for these new entities.
Rick Snyder will happily continue to talk about education spending and tout his record because he realizes the unwinnable situation he has set up for Michigan's public schools. He will claim public schools are inefficient and expensive and then offer Charter Schools as the solution.
Never mind that two decades worth of Charter Schools haven't proven to have better educational outcomes then public schools.
Never mind that many Charter Schools actually spend more than their public school counter parts.
Never mind that Charter Schools aren't subject to the same government regulation and oversight that are a burden on public schools.
Never mind that Charter Schools have more money going to administrator and less to educators than public schools.
Never mind that foreign investors make up and ever increasing portion of Charter School owners.
Never mind that Charter Schools offer less special education than public schools.
And never mind that Charter Schools end up being a way for politicians to reward big donors.
Regardless of all of these potential problem areas, Rick Snyder and Michigan Republicans know that every school they deem failing will simply be converted to a Charter School which pulls more students out of public schools. This in turn mean less teachers contributing to the public retirement fund and with fewer teachers contributing it requires the state to kick in more. The perception then becomes that greedy teachers taking money out of the classroom and this means public schools are expensive and inefficient.
This is the self fulfilling prophecy that Republicans hope will be the undoing of public schools. The Republican solution to inefficient and expensive public schools makes public schools more inefficient and expensive requiring more of the Republican solution. It's a win - win for Republicans. They make public schools look bad while simultaneously putting more kids on the charter schools gravy train.
The question of money in education is important but when it comes to the Michigan governor’s race the better question should be what do we want our education system to look like in the future. Do we want schools that are subject to local checks and balances or a couple massive corporations that make their money based on quantity not quality? Because regardless of how much either candidate pledges to spend, their goals are profoundly different.
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