{"id":5051,"date":"2019-03-08T19:06:14","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T19:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/senatedems.com\/polehanki\/?p=5051"},"modified":"2019-03-08T19:06:14","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T19:06:14","slug":"dont-believe-the-hype-michigan-school-funding-is-down-not-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/polehanki\/2019\/03\/08\/dont-believe-the-hype-michigan-school-funding-is-down-not-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t believe the hype \u2013 Michigan school funding is down, not up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For decades, Michigan was a beacon for educators from around the country looking to shape the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our education system, teachers and, most importantly, our students, thrived. Then, a massive disinvestment in K-12 education began in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a public high school English teacher for nearly two decades, I\u2019ve seen firsthand how things have changed for the worse for Michigan\u2019s schools and students over the past nine years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Districts\u2019 ability to afford employment for librarians, classroom resource professionals, literacy coaches and teachers remains difficult. Many teachers are taking second jobs to make ends meet and paying for classroom basics from their own pockets as a result of diminishing state education funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, what gives? How can Republicans continue to claim Michigan has the \u201cmost school funding in history\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It turns out one of their favorite sources, The Mackinac Center,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mackinac.org\/michigan-school-funding-situation-better-than-msu-study-portrays\">is looking only at raw dollars and the Consumer Price Index<\/a>, which is primarily intended to explain price changes in retail goods, not educational expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, while technically the past four years have seen an increase in raw dollar funding \u2014 which is how The Mackinac Center is claiming school revenues are at an all-time high \u2014 the dire reality is this:&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.senate.michigan.gov\/sfa\/Departments\/DataCharts\/DCk12_StateFundingVsDetroitCPI.pdf\">it isn\u2019t nearly enough to keep up with inflation\u2019s true impact on our schools\u2019 budgets<\/a>. The dollars going directly to classrooms, versus other expenses, also haven\u2019t increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bridgemi.com\/talent-education\/michigan-cut-school-funding-and-school-performance-plummeted-coincidence\">Michigan ranks dead last among states in school funding growth<\/a>&nbsp;since the pass of Proposal A in 1994. In fact, Fiscal Year 2018-19 funding is 38 percent lower than funding would have been if we had kept pace with inflation since 1994 as measured by the state and local government price deflator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bottom line is that Michigan schools and students have been struggling for nearly a decade now, and our kids are the ones being shorted. Our students\u2019 ability to succeed in the classroom or find a good-paying job&nbsp;\u2014 in addition to Michigan\u2019s ability to attract new high-wage jobs \u2014 are serious consequences we cannot afford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let\u2019s get our priorities straight by putting political games aside to make sure we give\u00a0<em>all<\/em>our kids a world-class education and make our state stronger.<br \/><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bridgemi.com\/guest-commentary\/opinion-hell-no-gov-whitmers-new-taxes-says-sen-peter-lucido\">https:\/\/www.bridgemi.com\/guest-commentary\/opinion-hell-no-gov-whitmers-new-taxes-says-sen-peter-lucido<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For decades, Michigan was a beacon for educators from around the country looking to shape the next generation. Our education system, teachers and, most importantly, our students, thrived. Then, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.4 (Yoast SEO v28.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Don\u2019t believe the hype \u2013 Michigan school funding is down, not up - Senator Dayna Polehanki<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/polehanki\/2019\/03\/08\/dont-believe-the-hype-michigan-school-funding-is-down-not-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don\u2019t believe the hype \u2013 Michigan school funding is down, not up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For decades, Michigan was a beacon for educators from around the country looking to shape the next generation. 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