Contents of this issue:
- Pros, cons of social promotion
- Union: Retirement incentive unfair
- Judge: District can implement insurance cap
- Summit ideas include 'spend less,' 'tax more'
- More homeless students identified
PROS, CONS OF SOCIAL PROMOTION
DETROIT - Social promotion is now banned in Detroit
Public Schools, but opinion varies on whether the ban will boost student
achievement and at what expense, according to The Detroit News.
DPS Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb signed an
executive order last week immediately banning teachers from passing students
who are not proficient at their grade level, The News said. School board
members called it a political ploy by Bobb to gain more control, but Bobb said
it was an effort to do something about academic failure in the district,
according to The News.
Bobb said he particularly wants to stop promoting
eighth graders to high school if they are not academically proficient, The News
reported.
Others, however, said that retention alone will not
work unless the student also receives intense academic intervention, according
to The News. Retention also becomes a
problem if it creates a large gap in age or maturity among the students in a
classroom, educators told The News.
State schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan told The
News that school districts should abandon strict grade levels and allow children
to progress according to their ability, The News said.
SOURCE:
The Detroit News, "Sweeping
social promotion ban could prove costly to DPS," Feb. 13, 2010
FURTHER READING:
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "The Cost of Remedial Education,"
Aug. 31, 2000
UNION: RETIREMENT INCENTIVE UNFAIR
BAY CITY, Mich. - Teachers union officials in Bay City
say that a proposal to cut off vision and dental benefits of long-term teachers
who don't retire by Oct. 1 is unfair, according to The Bay City Times.
Kevin Stapish of the Bay City Education Association
told The Times that, "It is wrong to choose between early retirement and
the benefits they've been promised and are looking forward to."
The proposal by Gov. Jennifer Granholm offers about
46,000 public employees — 39,000 of them teachers — a pension boost if they
have worked at least 30 years and agree to retire by October, according to the
report.
By replacing them with fewer employees, who would earn
beginning wages, the Granholm administration estimated the state could save up
to $450 million, The Times reported.
Those who do not retire by October would lose dental
and vision benefits upon retirement and would begin contributing an additional
3 percent to their retirement fund, according to The Times. Newly hired
teachers would have to pay a minimum of 20 percent toward their health care
premiums.
SOURCE:
The Bay City Times, "Bay
City union calling Granholm's teacher retirement-enhancement unfair,"
Feb. 11, 2010
FURTHER READING:
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Pension Obligation Bonds: Borrowing Our Way to Prosperity?" Feb. 10, 2010
JUDGE: DISTRICT CAN IMPLEMENT INSURANCE CAP
WOODHAVEN, Mich. - A Wayne County Circuit Court judge
has ruled that the Woodhaven-Brownstown School District has the right to deduct
money from employee paychecks for health insurance premiums, The (Southgate)
News Herald reported.
The Woodhaven-Brownstown Education Association had
sought to block the move, alleging that the school district improperly imposed
the $186 biweekly deduction because the district and teachers union had not
reached impasse during contract negotiations, according to The News Herald.
The deductions apply to about 260 of the district's
313 teachers who receive Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance administered through
the Michigan Education Special Services Association, according to The News
Herald.
Previously, the district paid the full annual MESSA
premium of $15,235; now, the district has capped its share at $13,000, with
employees paying the difference.
The cap is expected to save the district about
$150,000 this year, according to The News Herald.
Superintendent Barbara Lott told The News Herald that
the district needs to make long-term structural changes in operations in view
of declining revenue. Union officials did not return requests for comment, The
News Herald reported.
SOURCE:
The (Southgate) News Herald, "Woodhaven:
Judge says school district can impose insurance cap on teachers," Feb.
9, 2010
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Report, "Splitting the bill for health
insurance," Aug. 19, 2009
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Michigan School District Health Insurance,
2008-2009 (Database)
SUMMIT IDEAS INCLUDE 'SPEND LESS,' 'TAX MORE'
SAGINAW, Mich. - About 200 school administrators,
board members and business representatives gathered for an Education Summit at
Saginaw Valley State University recently, where guest panelists made
recommendations ranging from reduced spending on school employee health care to
a statewide tax on services to a rigorous overhaul of public education,
according to Michigan Education Report.
Robert Daddow, deputy Oakland County executive,
predicted that at least 60 more school districts will be in deficit by the end
of the year, the report said, partly due to the decreasing taxable value of
property.
Panelists cited health care and pensions cited as two
areas where education costs could be reduced, along with consolidation of
services, privatization and expanded online education and dual enrollment.
One panelist proposed that the state adopt a graduated
income tax or, alternatively, raise the flat tax on income as a way to generate
more revenue for education, Michigan Education Report said.
A representative of the Dow Corning Corp. said public
education should adopt certain reform measures first, including performance pay
for teachers, business management tools and early attention to learning
problems.
Michigan Education Report and Michigan Education
Digest are both published by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
SOURCE:
Michigan Education Report, "Tax more? Spend less? Reform first?" Feb. 10, 2010
FURTHER READING:
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Michigan School
Databases, "Michigan School District
Revenue and Expenditure Reports."
MORE HOMELESS STUDENTS IDENTIFIED
PETOSKEY, Mich. - School districts in the
Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District are using federal grant funding
to better identify and serve homeless students, according to the Petoskey
News-Review.
The News-Review reported that an additional 83 students
in the intermediate district have been identified as "homeless" since
implementation of training on how to identify such students as well as naming a
staff person to serve as homeless "liaison" in each district.
Those liaisons can use grant funding to purchase such
things as clothing, school supplies and tutoring for displaced students, the
News-Review reported.
In Harbor Springs Public Schools, the district also
received donations of jackets, ski pants and hats from members of the Christ
Child Society of Northern Michigan to help students in need, according to the
News-Review.
The funding is awarded through the McKinney-Vento
Homeless Assistance Act, which guarantees homeless students' right to an
education, the News-Review reported.
The article did not define "homeless," but
information at the U.S. Department of Education Web site says the act covers
"individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime
residence." That would include those living in such sites as campgrounds,
hotels, cars or with other people due to economic hardship or lack of
alternative housing.
SOURCES:
Petoskey News-Review, "Child
homelessness: A growing problem in Northern Michigan," Feb. 12, 2010
U.S. Department of Education, "Elementary
and Secondary Education, Part C: Homeless Education."
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Digest, "More kids homeless, schools say,"
Nov. 19, 2008
MICHIGAN EDUATION DIGEST is a service of Michigan Education Report (
http://www.educationreport.org), an online newspaper published by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy (
http://www.mackinac.org), a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute.
Contact Managing Editor Lorie Shane at
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