Help Keep School Aid Dollars in the School Aid Budget. Write Senator Jansen and Representative Hildenbrand today! Ask that they pledge their commitment to fully funding SCHOOLS with SCHOOL AID DOLLARS.

What Contact Governor Granholm and your state House members today and ask them to sign a pledge opposing transfers from the School Aid Fund to programs previously funded by the state's general fund. When Now! Legislators are expected to vote on the School Aid budget next week, so we need to contact them now and let them know it's wrong to take money from our children to finance other programs. How Send an email using the message language and email links below.  Background Governor Granholm and legislative leaders are threatening to divert up to $300 million from the School Aid Fund to cover shortages in the general fund.  This would maintain cuts in this year's foundation grant and continue those cuts into next year instead of restoring full funding for our children. Message Already, more than 40 members of the Michigan House have signed a pledge opposing the transfer of School Aid Fund revenues to general fund programs. Our schools have cut teachers and scaled back services to manage the $165 per student cut to school funding this year. Now that additional dollars are available, it is an outrage for legislators to consider stealing these funds from our children and giving them to other state programs.  Rep. Terry Brown and our education associations are asking legislators to pledge their commitment to fully funding schools with school aid dollars.  No diversions!  Please, join me and your colleagues in support of schoolchildren by opposing the transfer of School Aid Funds to other programs. Contact Information Use these links: http://house.michigan.gov/find_a_rep.asp http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-21995---,00.html

Letters to State Officials Regarding the School Aid Fund

According to recent Grand Rapids Press articles, the State of Michigan may have more money in the School Aid Fund than they had anticipated in January 2004.  To our dismay, our State of Michigan Legislators, including Senator Mark Jansen, are considering taking money out of the School Aid Fund to pay for other items in the budget.  Although we feel strongly that Community Colleges need to be funded (Senator Jansen suggests paying for Community Colleges with School Aid dollars), the School Aid Fund was approved by voters in 1994 under Proposal A for the purpose of funding K-12 schools.  We need to ask our legislators to leave the School Aid Fund for K-12 schools and to fully fund it by June 30, 2010 so that our schools can get their business done without guessing, borrowing and having mid-year cuts next year.


Take a look at the letters below. Please consider pasting them into an email and sending them to our legislators. The addresses are in the next column. They do listen when they hear from us. We need to work together!! Thanks--Lucy Lafleur

Dear Senator Jansen--
I have learned that the School Aid Fund may have more money than anticipated in January 2010. While this is very good news for our schools, I have also learned that some unwise decisions are being considered in Lansing regarding the utilization of these funds for areas of the budget that do not have to do with schools. Please resist this and vote against the use of the School Aid fund for anything other than funding our K-12 public schools.

Regards from an East Grand Rapids Voter,



Dear Representative Hildenbrand--

I have learned that the School Aid Fund may have more money than anticipated in January 2010. While this is very good news for our schools, I have also learned that some unwise decisions are being considered in Lansing regarding the utilization of these funds for areas of the budget that do not have to do with schools. Please resist this and vote against the use of the School Aid fund for anything other than funding our K-12 public schools.

Regards from an East Grand Rapids Voter,