Tri-County Alliance (Update: Pending Michigan Public School Funding Legislation)

Friends - It's working.  Your voice is having a growing impact on numerous debates in Lansing, most recently with the House Republican transportation funding plan which is built on cutting approximately $800 million from the School Aid Fund. While they have moved the first two smaller pieces of that package (aviation fuel taxes), their efforts since have largely been at a stand-still since. They are receiving the message loud and clear that it's unacceptable to cut schools another $800 million with NO PLAN to replace any of that revenue. So how do we know it's working? A traditional tactic used by Lansing politicians when faced with inconvenient facts is to try to confuse those facts and often times attack the messenger. To illustrate, I wanted to share with you a specific example, this time regarding an earlier budget alert we issued a few weeks back that cited the nearly $800 million cut to schools executed in 2011. The below quoted text is straight from a response email from a tri-county area State Representative: "I am extremely disappointed with the one-sided rhetoric by 'pro-education advocates' that is being used to mislead honest and concerned citizens. The Michigan Tri-County Alliance has been sending around information stating that school funding has been cut by the Michigan legislature in the range of $800 million. This is a complete fallacy..." Later in the same email, they even accuse us of using "over-simplistic math" to get to that number. Well, here are the facts: On June 22, 2011, Governor Snyder signed into law House Bill 4325 (Public Act 62 of 2011) which contained the FY 11-12 School Aid budget. You can find the analysis here: http://1.usa.gov/11BB99P . Please note item 4 discusses the $470 per pupil foundation cut and "Total Changes" at the bottom of page 1 puts the overall cut to school funding at $931 million. From the Legislature's own analysis, it's pretty clear where the truth lies. So what does this all mean? We believe our focus is to bring facts to light - no matter how inconvenient they might be for Lansing politicians. We are happy you are a part of our efforts and are willing to share your voice for public education. Please stay tuned for more opportunities to contact your legislators and hold them accountable. Thank you for all that you do, Tri-County Alliance