Posted on 03/11/2013 12:22:59 PM PDT by MichCapCon
The Michigan Education Association blames a supply shortage in the Pontiac School District on “education funding cuts.”
State Rep. Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, said education funding cuts also left Pontiac without basic supplies, including toilet paper.
But the claims don't stand up to the district’s own explanation of why it has been in deficit since 2008-09 and ignores the pattern of overspending the district has been engulfed in for the past decade.
Pontiac had a $24.5 million deficit in 2010-11. By law it was required to submit a deficit elimination plan to the state of Michigan explaining how it would wipe out its deficit. Pontiac submitted its plan, however, the next year, the deficit increased to $26 million.
How?
Pontiac’s biggest issue is that students are leaving the district. It had 10,507 students in 2005, which dropped to 5,785 in 2011. In 2007-08, the last year Pontiac was debt free, the average teacher salary in the district was $56,781, according to the state. That jumped to $76,449 in 2010-11, the latest year data is available.
There's been a 45 percent reduction in student population from 2005 to 2011 coupled with a 35 percent increase in the average teacher’s salary from 2008 to 2011.
The Pontiac School District’s own explanation submitted to the state in 2011-12 in its deficit elimination plan highlights a half dozen reasons the district is in debt.
Among the reasons: “increases in wage/benefits and other costs exceeding revenue increases”; there has been “no substantial reduction in staffing” despite student losses; and “planned decreases in expenditures that were not implemented.”
Pontiac has only managed to spend less than it took in twice in the past eight years, according to state data. For example, in 2010-11, the most recent data available from the state, Pontiac spent almost $16,400 per pupil but received $14,125 per pupil in revenue.
Pontiac received $13,488 per-pupil in 2007-08 and that increased to $14,125 in 2010-11, the latest year state data was available. Still, the district’s deficit increased from $8.5 million in 2008-09 to $24.5 million in 2010-11.
“Pontiac's problem isn't a revenue problem, it's a spending problem,” said Audrey Spalding, an education policy analyst with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
The Michigan Department of Education won’t release Pontiac’s 2012-13 deficit elimination plan until it has been approved by the MDE.
MEA Spokesman Doug Pratt and Pontiac School Board President Carol Turpin didn’t respond to requests for comment.
If anyone cares 16400 per student equals 213000 to get 1 kid from k-12.
Also if anyone cares, for a class size of 20 kids, it amounts to 321000 to run a classroom for 9 months.
Assuming the teacher gets 100k, and the rent on the classroom is 50k (that is 5k per month which will get you a 4 bedroom mcmansion in most places).
That leaves 150,000 for something else that I can’t seem to figure out.
‘...That leaves 150,000 for something else that I can’t seem to figure out...”
Michigan?
You and I both know where that’s going.
And Holder won’t do “nuttin” to stop it, since ......
That’s 200% more than I spend for sending my 6th grader to a Christian school. She and her peers could run rings around most of those government school kids.
You folks in Mich. need to do away with your “unions” the root cause of you education problems. The same solution for all the States.
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