LANSING – In a move to stave off some of the budget cuts hitting K-12 schools, the Michigan House approved a supplemental Thursday that would tap federal stimulus funds and yet-to-be-approved state revenues in order to reduce the governor’s $127 per-student proration and restore funding for higher-funded schools and early education programs.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm had vetoed $51.4 million for the state’s best-funded school districts, the so-called 20j schools, in the K-12 budget, but instead of restoring the full amount, the House split $25.7 million apiece between the 20j schools and payments made to districts receiving the lowest foundation allowance.

The bill also includes $7.6 million in funding for great start readiness program grants.

In all, the supplemental in HB 4860 would use $184 million in federal stimulus money that had been set aside for the 2010-11 budget, as well as $59 million in state money from the Michigan Future Fund.

The fund was proposed by House Democrats when they passed measures in October that would freeze the personal exemption, reduce business tax credits and institute a physician tax, but the fund does not actually exist yet in law and the Senate had so far rejected those revenue hikes.

By using the federal stimulus funds, the governor’s proration would be trimmed by $117 dollars, so a $10 per-pupil cut would still move forward on top of the $165 per-student reduction already included in the K-12 budget.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) again questioned the wisdom of tapping the federal stimulus money to soften the cuts to K-12 schools.

“They’ve got to understand that the stimulus dollars aren’t going to be around forever,” he said. “And if they try to plug that hole using these phantom dollars, they’re putting themselves in a bigger hole next year. We’ve got to figure out how to resolve this funding gap better than just short-term fixes.”

Bishop said he wants to go back to the original bill with a $165 per pupil cut and full funding of the 20j funds.

But it didn’t appear a resolution was near. Bishop said the 20j issue has split legislators based on who has those districts and who does not.

“We want to work through the weekend to figure out if there’s a solution that we could put on the table that will pass the Legislature, not just here, but over in the House as well and that will get the governor to support and sign,” he said.

Granholm told reporters in Macomb County she will sign the bill as passed by the House, even though it kicks the problem of K-12 funding down the road.

Critics of the bill say it is creating false hope for schools that they will not see further reductions this year when in fact lawmakers will not know the true decline in state revenues supporting K-12 until the next Revenue Estimating Conference in January.

House Fiscal Agency officials also have indicated that because the state is likely to miss the funding threshold required under the maintenance of effort portion of the stimulus, Michigan will have to apply for a waiver of the threshold and it’s uncertain whether that will be granted and what the repercussions would be if it’s denied.

But school groups have been putting pressure on lawmakers to do something about the severe cuts to K-12 that come more than four months into the school year.

The supplemental did include new boilerplate language stating it’s the Legislature’s intent to complete future K-12 budgets by June 1 of each year.

Rep. Jennifer Haase (D-Richmond), who sponsored that amendment along with the equity payment measure, said the Legislature’s failure to pass a budget on time has thrown schools into chaos.

“Schools across our state are wondering how they will make it through (with the cuts),” she said. “This is unacceptable.”

Rep. Daniel Scripps (D-Leland), who sponsored the early education amendment, said there is a growing business case to be made that investment in these programs pays off 17 to one.

But 29 out of 43 House Republicans opposed the legislation, questioning whether the state was going to come up with the extra money to restore some of the program cuts.

And they continued to criticize Democrats for pulling money from a non-existent fund.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

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