LANSING – The Michigan Legislature began its final push Tuesday on passing a series of education reform measures in hopes of winning $400 million in federal funds for schools through President Barack Obama’s “Race to the Top” program.

In the Senate, the Education Committee approved bills that would enable the state to take over failing school districts, create more charter schools and allow interim certification for teachers.

Meanwhile, the House Education Committee held discussions on the alternative teacher certification concept.

But even as the Senate heads toward passage of its bills this week, supporters said work would continue on the legislation.

Education interests voiced significant concern with the Senate plan (SB 965 ) to create an alternative path to teacher certification that allows teachers to receive an interim certification that has less rigorous standards than the full certification process. They especially pointed to the bill allowing an interim certificate for a teacher that had at least a 2.75 grade point average in their undergraduate education.

Work also is pending on the charter school bills (SB 925 , SB 926 ), which saw the most significant change Tuesday. An amendment from Sen. Nancy Cassis (R-Novi) struck what had appeared to be compromise language on providing transitional funds to school districts that lose students to the new charter schools.

Sen. Wayne Kuipers (R-Holland), the committee chair, and Senate Minority Floor Leader Buzz Thomas (D-Detroit), the bill sponsor, said they would continue to seek a solution. They thought they had a compromise that would satisfy Senate Republicans by taking funds from the money designated for declining enrollment school districts and giving school districts that lost at least 2 percent of their students to the new charter schools partial payment for those students for three years.

“To me, that’s a central issue,” Thomas said. “You can’t cut the legs out of districts altogether. The discussion continues, and hopefully I get it back in.”

Cassis, in offering the amendment, said there must be a natural penalty for failing schools. When they lose students, they should lose the state money that follows them.

“If you lose students, you lose them,” she said. “Get your act together.”

The teacher certification bill, which is designed to get more teachers into schools while the teacher seeks full certification, would allow the provisional status for those with a 2.75 grade point average in their undergraduate education, a level chided as too low by education interests.

Of the bills, Ed Sarpolus, lobbyist for the Michigan Education Association, said, “They still need a lot of work.” Sarpolus said the MEA would be working with both parties to come up with amendments.

The failing school measure could mean state control of 184 school buildings, Sarpolus said, questioning how the state could have the resources to handle such a large number. The House version of the failing school bills would target significantly less schools, around 25.

Brad Biladeau, lobbyist for the Michigan Association of School Administrators, said officials at his association are concerned that the Senate package does not track closely enough with the requirements of the “Race to the Top” program. The bills reported Tuesday contain no reforms to the teacher tenure process, nor do they give traditional public school districts the same flexibility on operating charter schools as other charter authorizers, he said.

“It doesn’t give us our best chance to be competitive for the Race to the Top grant,” he said. “I am hopeful that the Legislature can put together a package that does make us competitive. But if the Legislature continues to move legislation as passed the Senate (Education Committee) today, we’re very concerned that Michigan will lose its competitive edge.”

There is some expectation that language on teacher tenure will be inserted Wednesday into legislation already pending on the floor.

The committee reported SB 925 on a 3-1 vote with one abstention, SB 926 on a 3-2 vote, SB 965 on a 3-1 vote with one abstention, SB 981 on a 5-0 vote and SB 982 on a 3-0 vote with two abstentions. SB 981 and SB 982 are the failing school bills. On each bill, all three committee Republicans voted yes. The committee’s two Democrats, Sen. Gretchen Whitmer of East Lansing and Sen. John Gleason of Flushing, at times abstained, voted no or voted yes.

Granholm said there is agreement on the types of changes that need to be made to the state’s education system and on the need to act quickly in enacting those changes, but she said there was still some distance between the sides on what that implementation would look like.

“These next three weeks are critical to win this Race to the Top,” Granholm said. “For us as a state the stakes could not be higher.”

The state will have to do as much as possible to stand out among the states in its proposed reforms. “This is a competition,” she said. “Not every state will get these resources. In order to rise to the top we cannot do the bare minimum.”

Granholm said she had been working with teacher unions on the reform package, but acknowledged they would have to accept some changes that in the past had been unpalatable.

“The details are going to cause some challenges in the way we’ve always done business,” she said.

For instance, she said nothing should be tied solely to the state, or any one, assessment, but she said teacher performance would have to be measured in some way against student performance. And those teachers not measuring up would have to be asked to move on.

“It’s not fair to them and it’s not fair to the child,” she said. “We have to find a way to help them move on.”

And she urged all groups involved to work toward a solution rather than hang onto particular positions. “The sum total of all of our particular interests is capable of producing legislative gridlock,” she said.

Granholm also emphasized that whatever money the state wins through the Race to the Top program will not relieve any of the pressures from the current budget. She said the program will likely become a permanent part of the federal education funding system, but she said it is still only one-time money that can only be used to implement reforms, not to supplement general operating funds.

In the long run, she said, the state will still need to reform its school funding system. ” We need to have a more stable flow of funding to public schools,” she said.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder issued a statement criticizing the Legislature for taking too long to act on the reforms.

“Once again, career politicians in Lansing have been slow out of the gates,” he said. “Michigan should not have waited this long to become eligible for the ‘Race to the Top’ funding. Addressing our failing schools, providing an alternative teacher certification process, tracking teacher performance, and loosening charter school restrictions are common-sense reforms necessary to improve the quality of education our students are receiving.”

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

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