The Three Main Points from the October 4, 2010 meeting

1. Candidate Forum, Hot Topics in Education Legislation, Monday, October 18, 2010 7pm at the Community Center. Please plan on coming and please encourage parents in your circle to come. Questions for the candidates are being formalized and Committee members will ask them as well as asking for questions from the audience that night.


2. $154 in per pupil funding was restored for each public school student in Michigan in due to federal funding through the Edu-jobs bill passed in August. Although this replaces all of the money cut last year, the money is one-time federal dollars and still does not address what the state is going to do next year when all federal dollars have dried up.

3. The 3% increase in teacher contribution to the retirement fund is being placed in a holding fund due to an MEA class action lawsuit. So, the % of each salary dollar spent on retirement is going to rise over the next few years even though teachers are paying more.

October 18, 2010 Candidate Forum called Hot Topics in Education Legislation

Hot Topics in Education Legislation has been set for Monday, October 18, 2010 at 7pm in the Community Center in East Grand Rapids.  We will be asking the tough education related questions to the candidates for Michigan House 86th District, Lisa Posthumus Lyons (R) and Frank Hammond (D).  Let's get to know our future legislator and let him or her know that we are interested in funding for education in Michigan!

Also, Grassroots is a Kent County Intermediate School District related education advocacy organization that meets monthly in the Kent ISD building, 2930 Knapp St. NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49525.  The first meeting is at 7pm October 7, 2010.

The EGRPS Legislative Committee is Non-partisan

At the Middle School PTSA meeting last week, a question was raised about partisanship, candidate endorsements and the EGRPS Legislative Committee.  The Committee is a PTSA Committee and therefore the primary mission of the committee are to meet the needs of the children of this community who attend public schools (see the full Mission Statement above).  We are non-partisan and our purpose is to educate parents and community members regarding legislative actions on the local, state and national level that affect public education.  Members of the committee include parents, EGRPS administration and the EGR School Board.  We currently do not have a teacher on our committee, but we are working on that.

Look for information on a Candidate Forum that will be held in the Community Center in October!

Lucy Lafleur, Chair

What's this about a School Aid Fund Surplus?

Legislative Committee meeting, 9-13-10 

At the meeting, we discussed the history of the “surplus” money in the School Aid Fund which is being used by the Michigan State Legislature to prop up the General Fund in the State of Michigan Budget.

Last winter, the projections for sales taxes and other taxes that go into the School Aid Fund were very low. In May, it was found that more was collected than those projections had anticipated which resulted in more money being in the School Aid Fund than anticipated. 

In addition to this "surplus", in August, the US Congress (or the federal government) passed a massive $10 billion bill with the purpose of keeping teachers employed. Michigan received $320 million of this new federal money.  

Our State legislature has decided to use the federal dollars to fund schools this year--even giving the schools $11 back of the $165 taken away last year and use the unanticipated sales tax money and apply it elsewhere in the budget.  This is unprecedented because when Proposal A was passed in the mid 1990's for the purpose of moving school funding to the State of Michigan, the School Aid Fund was to be dedicated to K-12 schools only.  Aside from this, the main problem is that all federal dollars run out next school year.  In the 2011/12 school year, we may have a $300 decline in per pupil funding.

We need to let the legislators know we want the School Aid Fund to stay with K-12 schools.

A Special Legislative Alert from the Kent County Grassroots Advocates

The EGRPS Legislative Committee urges you to read the Legislative Alert sent by Ron Koehler from the Kent County Education Advocacy Group Grassroots.  His Alert is asking us to contact Governor Granholm and Senator Jansen and tell him that the money cut from the School Aid Fund is not a "surplus" and should not be sent to the General Fund to fund everything in state government but education.  Hands off education funds!  Please find contact information next to this post.

Lucy Lafleur
lucylafleur@sbcglobal.net

From:  Grassroots

Stop the transfer of School Aid Funds to the General Fund! At the urging of Governor Granholm, the House last week transferred School Aid Fund "surplus" to the general fund. These are not surplus dollars, but instead are funds that were cut from your local schools.

Senators are expected to vote next week on the transfer. We need to contact our senators and let them know this is unacceptable. 

Background:  Schools received a cut of $165 per student in this fiscal year. Late in the spring, unexpectedly high sales tax revenues boosted the balance in the School Aid Fund.  Instead of returning those dollars to our schools and students, Gov. Granholm and the House said these revenues represented a "surplus" and plan to use those dollars to balance the state budget.

Transferring these dollars to the general fund defies the will of the people who passed Proposal A to stabilize school funding and represents a precedent that may be difficult to reverse in the future.

Your message should be simple: Tell the Governor and Sens. Jansen, Hardiman and Jelinek to stop the raid on the School Aid Fund. Our children deserve better.

Contact Information For more information, contact Ron Koehler at rkoehler001@comcast.net

Welcome Back to School!!

2010/11 is going to prove to be a great educational opportunity for your EGRPS student/s but it can also be a great learning opportunity for you too! Our local media have been working hard all summer with in-depth articles about school funding and how to make it work in this changed economy that we are living in here in Michigan. I encourage you to take a serious look at these articles and look for comments in this space weekly over the school year.

Our plan for this school year:

•  We plan to discuss and interpret school funding issues as they affect us in EGRPS and in the State of Michigan. We will review these issues with the EGRPS administration and school board and bring you the best information as it affects you and your student/s.
• We plan to bring you a Candidate Forum in October with the candidates for the House 86th District.
• We plan to off you an opportunity to meet with State Senator Mark Jansen who is both our Senator and a leader on the Senate Education Committee in Lansing.

What we are asking of you:

• 
  
   Watch for Legislative Committee updates in your building newsletter.
• 
  
   Please attend your PTA meetings in order to get updates from Superintendant Shubel, from the School Board and from your Legislative Committee Representative.
• 
  
   Please read the articles from the Grand Rapids Press about consolidation and the series by Michigan Radio on Michigan school funding. Educate yourself on the issues.
• 
  
   Watch this site for at least bi-weekly updates. 

Lucy Lafleur

 Chair EGRPS Legislative Committee

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