Contents of this issue:
Secretary Paige promotes school choice at think tank speech
Board members question timing of union-backed write-in candidates
Granholm pushes for tax hike
Business leaders draw up Detroit schools plan at island summit
Central Michigan University cancels charter
Census data shows troubling amount of dropouts
Bill would realign Adult Education funding
Grand Valley State University may use loophole to open charters
Colleges save by combining purchases
SECRETARY PAIGE PROMOTES SCHOOL
CHOICE AT THINK TANK SPEECH
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — U.S. Secretary of
Education Rod Paige promoted
school vouchers, tuition tax credits
and charter schools at a
luncheon in Ann Arbor on Friday
hosted by the Mackinac Center for
Public Policy, yet said he is still
an advocate of traditional
public school systems.
Paige, former superintendent of
Houston Public Schools, told some
75 members of the Mackinac Center's
boards of advisors and their
guests that school choice was
instrumental in narrowing the
academic achievement gap between
minority and majority students.
He noted that African-American and
Hispanic students lag behind
white students on standardized tests
and graduation rates. "We're
making great progress. ... The
Supreme Court has made it clear
that vouchers are constitutional,"
Paige said. "The achievement
gap is today's civil rights issue."
Paige praised the Mackinac Center and
similar research institutes
for helping "blaze a trail of
education reform in Michigan and
across the nation." Paige told the
audience he applauded the
Mackinac Center's "leadership in
support of universal education
tax credits."
SOURCES:
Ann Arbor News, "Paige touts school
vouchers," June 5, 2004
http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/ news-9/
1086430582327060.xml
Mackinac Center for Public Policy,
"Education for All: Choice,
Reform, and Optimism," speech by U.S.
Secretary of Education Rod
Paige to the Mackinac Center Boards
of Advisors, June 4, 2004
http://www.mackinac.org/6660
Michigan Education Report, "Education
Reform, School Choice, and
Tax Credits," Spring 2002
http://www.educationreport.org/4372
Michigan Education Report, "No Child
Left Behind law demands
'adequate yearly progress' and offers
school choice options for
parents," Fall 2002
http://www.educationreport.org/4846
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "A
New Direction for Education
Reform," speech by Lawrence W. Reed
reprinted in Imprimis, a
Hillsdale College publication, July
2001
http://www.mackinac.org/3541
BOARD MEMBERS QUESTION TIMING OF
UNION-BACKED WRITE-IN CANDIDATES
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Two write-in
candidates backed by the
district's school employee union
entered the previously
uncontested race for the Kalamazoo
school board late last week,
raising questions regarding the
union's role in the election and
whether it is attempting to
accomplish through politics what it
could not accomplish at the
bargaining table.
Union officials were frustrated after
their 2003-2004 contract
negotiations, which ended with a
two-year settlement on May 27
after a bitter, yearlong dispute.
When talks stalled, the board
attempted to ask teachers to pay a
portion of their health
insurance like most private sector
workers, a move the union
blocked in court.
Nancy Schemanski, who retired last
year as a representative for
the MEA-linked Michigan Education
Special Services Association
(MESSA), and Sandra Parker, a vice
president of United Auto
Workers Local 6000, belatedly joined
incumbents Tim Bartik and
Polly Freer in vying for two seats on
the Kalamazoo Public
Schools Board of Education.
Although the challengers have just
days to campaign, they have
the backing and ground support of the
Michigan Education
Association. The union is similarly
supporting write-in
candidates in Clare and other
districts, according to school
officials.
In a letter sent to its members late
last week, the union
recommended voting for Schemanski and
Parker and asked for
volunteers to make phone calls every
day this week and even to
campaign for the two women Monday at
the polls. To make sure
write-in names are not misspelled,
the union is distributing pre-
printed stickers bearing candidates'
names. Schemanski said the
MEA's political-action committee also
gave $500 toward her
campaign.
Local MEA representative Chuck
Corella would not say why the
association is backing Schemanski and
Parker specifically,
calling the decision "private."
SOURCES:
Kalamazoo Gazette, "Write-ins roil
school election," June 8, 2004
http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-9/
108671704453480.xml?kzgazette?NEKP
Mackinac Center for Public Policy,
Michigan Education Association
documents related to Kalamazoo
write-in candidates, June 2004
http://www.mackinac.org/media/images/2004/meaaction.pdf
Mackinac Center for Public Policy,
"Consolidating Elections Is
The Right Thing To Do,"
December 2003
http://www.mackinac.org/6046
Michigan Education Report,
"Consolidate School Elections with
General Elections," Early Fall 1999
http://www.educationreport.org/2232
GRANHOLM PUSHES FOR TAX HIKE
LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Jennifer
Granholm said at a news conference
last week that she may cut funding
for school aid this fall if
legislators do not enact her plan to
increase taxes in the state.
Granholm told her audience that
increased taxes on cigarettes and
liquor would alleviate a $50 million
deficit in school aid and
Medicaid. Though the House passed a
tax increase bill last week
that would give Granholm much of the
funding she would like, the
Senate has yet to act, because some
legislators say there are
other options to raising taxes. "We
just don't agree with
[Granholm]. There are other options,"
Keith Ledbetter, spokesman
for House Speaker Rick Johnson, R-LeRoy,
told the Detroit Free
Press.
Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema,
R-Wyoming, said in a
statement that he would work with
Gov. Granholm to fix the
funding problems but reminded state
officials that neither
Democrats nor Republicans will get
all of their demands met for
next year's budget. Neither side is
in a position "to dictate
their own terms," said Sikkema.
The House bill, which includes a
cigarette tax hike of 75 cents
per pack, would raise $301 million
for the state next fiscal
year. Granholm's plan includes a tax
on non-cigarette tobacco
products and would raise an estimated
$314 million.
SOURCES:
Detroit Free Press, "Pupils need tax
hike now, Granholm says," June 2, 2004
http://www.freep.com/news/mich/crisis2_20040602.htm
MichiganVotes.org, House Bill 5632,
Mar. 10, 2004
http://www.michiganvotes.org/2004-HB-5632
Mackinac Center for Public Policy,
"Lawmakers Could Balance
Budget by Cutting Spending and
Selling State Assets," May 2004
http://www.mackinac.org/6546
Mackinac Center for Public Policy,
"Sinful Sin Taxes," April 2004
http://www.mackinac.org/6468
BUSINESS LEADERS DRAW UP DETROIT
SCHOOLS PLAN AT ISLAND SUMMIT
MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. — Detroit
business and city officials
spent several days at a Mackinac
Island summit held by the
Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce
to create a new plan for
governance of the Detroit School
District.
Working with officials from the
Detroit district and Lansing, the
attendees wrote up a proposal to
allow Detroit voters a choice in
the management type of their
district.
Voters would decide whether they
prefer a district controlled by
a traditional, elected school board
or a system with a strong
chief executive appointed by the
mayor and approved by the school
board who would wield fiscal
authority.
SOURCES:
Detroit News, "Detroit Schools plan
hatched," June 6, 2004
http://www.detnews.com/2004/schools/0406/06/b01-174859.htm
Michigan Education Report,
"Compromise Gives Archer Control of
Detroit Schools," Spring 1999
http://www.mackinac.org/1678
CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY CANCELS
CHARTER
MT. PLEASANT, Mich. — Central
Michigan University will cancel its
charter with the Walter French
Academy in Lansing, university
officials informed the school late
last month, citing academic
and financial problems.
In an attempt to remain open to its
students, Academy
administrators told the Lansing State
Journal that they will seek
sponsorship by the Lansing School
District, Bay Mills Community
College, Eastern Michigan, Grand
Valley State and Saginaw Valley
State universities.
District officials say they must take
more time to study the
issue, as the district has never
sponsored a charter school.
Board members say that financial
problems and low academic
success must be taken into account,
especially due to a projected
$10 million deficit by the district.
Michigan charter schools have closed
in the past. Charter
schools that fail to attract students
or satisfy their chartering
agents cease to operate and consume
tax dollars. Traditional
public schools are rarely closed when
they fail to meet
standards.
SOURCES:
Lansing State Journal, "Walter French
to launch search for new
sponsor," June 2, 2004
http://www.lsj.com/news/schools/040602_walterfrench_1a-5adtxt.html
Detroit News, "Michigan Briefs," June
3, 2004
http://www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0406/03/d07d-171832.htm
Mackinac Center for Public Policy,
"Time to Stop Beating Up on
Charter Schools," November 2002
http://www.mackinac.org/4864
Mackinac Center for Public Policy,
"The Impact of Limited School
Choice on Public School Districts,"
July 2000
http://www.mackinac.org/2962
CENSUS DATA SHOWS TROUBLING AMOUNT OF
DROPOUTS
DETROIT, Mich. — Data from the 2000
U.S. Census give a dismal
outlook to many Michigan youths who
dropped out of school before
completing a high school diploma.
A study of population trends released
last week found that one-
quarter of 18- to 24-year olds in
Michigan are school dropouts,
leading to lives of poverty and,
possibly, crime. That number
increases to one-third of the young
adult population in Detroit.
Covenant House Michigan director
Cynthia Adams said that over
three-quarters of the youths in her
program for troubled teens
and young adults are dropouts, some
out of middle school. "They
flunk out; some don't feel safe going
to school," among other
reasons, Adams told the Detroit Free
Press.
SOURCES:
Booth Newspapers, "More Michigan
teens disconnect — no work, no
school," June 3, 2004
http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/index.ssf?/base/news-4/
1086257454289640.xml
The Annie E. Casey Foundation, "Kids
Count 2004," June 2004
http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/
Mackinac Center for Public Policy,
"The Cost of Remedial
Education," August 2000
http://www.mackinac.org/3025
BILL WOULD REALIGN ADULT EDUCATION
FUNDING
LANSING, Mich. — A bill to initiate a
pilot program requiring
adult education and job training
programs to compete with one
another for state funding will likely
be taken up this week in
the state House.
The legislation would initiate a
pilot program in Ingham, Clinton
and Eaton counties by which adult ed.
programs in that tri-county
area would have to bid against each
other to receive state
funding for different programs.
Currently, each program is given
funding based on the number of
students enrolled. About 1,650
people receive $600,000 worth of
state-funded training in those
districts from nine programs.
Robert Nole, an administrator at
Lansing's adult education
program, said that any funding cut
would be catastrophic to his
program. "We're struggling to stay
afloat as it is," he said.
"Why ... would you even consider a
pilot program that hasn't
proven itself?"
But Deb LaPine, head of the career
education programs at the
Department of Labor and Economic
Growth, said the goal is not to
deprive programs of money but to make
them more cost effective.
"It's not trying to hurt schools or
regions," LaPine told the
Lansing State Journal. "We're trying
to provide as many services
as we could."
SOURCES:
Lansing State Journal, "Bill could
shuffle adult ed funding,"
June 7, 2004
http://www.lsj.com/news/capitol/040607_adulted_1b-3b.html
Michigan Privatization Report, "Nonprofitization:
Education and
Training Group Goes Private,"
Fall
1999
http://www.mackinac.org/2139
Mackinac Center for Public Policy,
"The Cost of Remedial
Education," August 2000
http://www.mackinac.org/3025
GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY MAY USE
LOOPHOLE TO OPEN CHARTERS
ALLENDALE, Mich. — Administrators
with Grand Valley State
University's charter school program
say they may use a loophole
in the state's cap on
university-sponsored charters in an effort
to give parents more options by
opening two more schools.
Grand Valley would transfer charters
of two of its schools to Bay
Mills Community College, which is run
by a Native American tribe
and therefore exempt from the state's
cap of 150 university-
authorized charter schools. That
would allow Grand Valley two
openings for new charters, which
would be run by Grand Rapids-
based National Heritage Academies.
"We have 10 years of
experience [with charters]," said
GVSU charter school director
Edward Richardson, "yet because of
the cap we've been dormant."
Past proposals and legislation to
eliminate or raise the cap on
the number of charter schools have
failed due to opposition by
legislators, interest groups and
Governor Granholm. Martin
Ackley, spokesman for State
Superintendent Tom Watkins, told the
Muskegon Chronicle that his
department will not oppose Grand
Valley's use of the loophole. "As
long as the laws are being
followed in the ways they are
written, we aren't going to
object," he said.
SOURCES:
Muskegon Chronicle, "GVSU may open
two charter schools using
loophole," June 1, 2004
http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/ base/news-3/
108610110113980.xml
Commission on Charter Schools to the
Michigan Legislature Final
Report, April 2002
http://www.charterschools.msu.edu/cschools_rpt.html
Mackinac Center for Public Policy,
"Time to Stop Beating Up on
Charter Schools," November 2002
http://www.mackinac.org/4864
Mackinac Center for Public Policy,
"The Impact of Limited School
Choice on Public School Districts,"
July 2000
http://www.mackinac.org/2962
COLLEGES SAVE BY COMBINING PURCHASES
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — Several
independent Connecticut colleges
and universities have formed a buying
consortium aimed at saving
money by purchasing goods and
services as a group.
The Connecticut group is one of many
purchasing consortiums
nationwide that save member
institutions millions of dollars per
year through group purchases of
anything from food and soft
drinks to lawyers. "The big schools
need my volume to further
their savings, and I need the big
schools' buying power to get
down my costs," said Mike Jednak, who
is in charge of facilities
at St. Joseph's College in West
Hartford, which partners with
Yale University. "Everyone's reading
about how the cost of
education is just skyrocketing. This
is a fantastic way to get
our arms around it and save dollars
for students."
Private institutions lead the way in
purchasing consortiums, say
experts, because they are not
required to meet regulations that
public universities are, like buying
from minority- and locally-
owned businesses. Some states,
though, including Michigan and
Iowa, allow public schools to form
buying groups on their own.
David Olien, senior vice president
for administration with the
Wisconsin public university system,
says he hopes Wisconsin will
adopt a law similar to Michigan's. "I
believe we could save
millions of dollars," he told the
Associated Press.
SOURCES:
CNN, "Colleges reap savings with
joint deals," June 1, 2004
http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/06/01/ collaborating.colleges.ap/
index.html
Mackinac Center for Public Policy,
"Private Prepaid Tuition
Programs Can Help Make College
Affordable," September 2001
http://www.mackinac.org/3685
Mackinac Center for Public Policy,
"Competition Among Professors
Would Help Parents Afford College,"
August 1999
http://www.mackinac.org/2105
MICHIGAN EDUCATION DIGEST is a
service of Michigan Education
Report (
http://www.educationreport.org),
a quarterly newspaper
with a circulation of 130,000
published by the Mackinac Center
for Public Policy (
http://www.mackinac.org),
a private,
nonprofit, nonpartisan research and
educational institute.
Contact Managing Editor Neil Block at
med@educationreport.org.
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