Posted on 10/10/2014 6:24:17 AM PDT by MichCapCon
A new Mark Schauer for governor political advertisement features four teachers from four different school districts who claim that Gov. Rick Snyder has cut funding to their districts.
But in fact, on a per-student basis, all four districts actually received more taxpayer money in 2013-14 than they did in 2010-2011, which was the last budget approved by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
The ad features seven teachers but only four specifically cite lower funding.
For months Schauer, who is the Democratic candidate for the state’s top office, has claimed that Gov. Snyder cut funding to public schools. This claim has been refuted by several sources.
Specifically, this week Detroit Free Press reporter Paul Egan fact-checked and found "truthful" a political ad by Gov. Snyder denying that his administration cut $1 billion from public education.
Egan added, “That's more than can be said for the education funding stories told in ads sponsored by Democratic candidate Mark Schauer and the Democratic Governors Association."
The teachers in the Schauer ad referred to above are employed by Lincoln Consolidated Schools, Ann Arbor Public Schools, Novi Community Schools and the Plymouth Education Center charter public school. All four claim in the ad that their schools are getting less money today under Gov. Snyder.
Yet the three conventional school districts and one charter school each received more state dollars per student in 2013-14 than in 2010-11 according to the Michigan Department of Education.
State funding for Michigan public schools is complex. It contains several different components and is also tied to student enrollment numbers.
Novi High School teacher Chandra Madafferi is one of the individuals in the Schauer ad. She recently testified at a Senate hearing on behalf of the Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest teacher union.
In the ad, Madafferi responds to a question about whether Gov. Snyder increased funding to schools. “Definitely not mine,” she answers.
That answer would be accurate if it referred to just one particular part of state funding — the “per-pupil foundation allowance” — but is false for overall state funding. Adding to the potential for confusion, the foundation allowance is actually a mixture of state and local funds.
Looking at just state dollars — not federal or local money — Novi Community Schools received $6,404 per student in 2013-14, which is about $1,000 more per student than the $5,411 it received in 2010-11. Overall, the district received $34.1 million in state dollars in 2010-11, with 6,315 students enrolled, and $41.3 million in 2013-14, with 6,443 students enrolled.
These state dollars are divided into several pots, including the state’s contribution to the foundation allowance, money for school employees’ retirement benefit costs and special education, school lunch programs and “best practices” incentive payments. The foundation allowance component did fall, from $8,799 per pupil in 2010-2011 to $8,359 per pupil in 2013-14, but in total Novi schools received substantially more dollars per student from state taxpayers in 2013-2014 than three years ago.
The tale is similar in the other three districts cited in the Schauer ad. Lincoln Consolidated Schools saw its total per-pupil funding from the state increase from $6,819 in 2010-11 to $7,727 in 2013-14. State funding to the Ann Arbor district jumped from $5,215 per student in 2010-11 to $5,626 in 2013-14. The Plymouth Education Center charter public school saw its per pupil funding from the state increase from $7,691 in 2010-11 to $7,773 in 2013-14.
Here are the most recent figures (2012-2013) for how much each school district received per student when all funding sources including federal dollars are included: $10,454 to Novi; $10,104 to Lincoln Consolidated; $11,460 to Ann Arbor; and $8,434 to the Plymouth Education Center.
Statewide, the number of state dollars spent on K-12 education has increased every year Gov. Snyder has been in office, rising from $11.01 billion in 2011-12 and $11.21 billion in 2012-13 to $11.60 billion in 2013-14, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency.
Teacher Unions???
...Democrats = lying stacks of Ship High In Transit
Fire them all.
The “more money” goes to further bloat the school administration and payoff the Union leadership, so they can funnel the money back to Democrat campaigns.
Students and meaningful education see NO BENEFIT!!!
To a Rat a “cut” is giving them less of an increase than they asked for.
A few years ago they managed to recall a state senator for cutting the number of teachers in a particular district despite the fact that the district actually added 7 teachers.
Nothing but lying scum.
My entire life I have heard the lamentations of teachers and school districts being underfunded. They will NEVER be satisfied. You give them a million dollars they will cry because you didn’t give them 2.
Gee, teachers union officials and Democrat Party operatives are lying.
Who ever would have guessed?
While I do not consider it a badge of honor that Snyder is hosing more money into the Public School trough, I do think it is important to point out when your opponents are flat out attempting to deceive voters.
The more we fund schools, the poorer the outcome is.
Consider cutting funds, maybe that will help.
Yup. If they asked for a 6% increase and got a 4% increase, their budget has been cut by 2%.
To paraphrase the old CCR song, when you ask how much money the taxpayer should pay each school district, the teachers’ union only answers “More More More!”
Demonrats lie? Say it ain’t so!
The New New Math?
I wish we could always be factually accurate about things.
This is a prime example. If a budget increases 4%, but they had wanted 6%, they say it’s a “cut” in spending of 2%.
In the real world, that is not a cut in spending. In the real world, spending went up by 4%. Only in government spending, or among political operatives, are they allowed to lie and say that spending was cut by 2%, by some evil Republican administration.
All Four Teachers in New Dem Ad Claiming School Cuts are in Districts Receiving More Money
Liberal union people in a Democrat ad are lying? What is this world coming too!
The more we fund schools, the poorer the outcome is.
Consider cutting funds, maybe that will help.
I’ve researched and found that some of our big city school systems, which spend among the most per capita on education in this country, also have some of the poorest student achievement. Yet liberals always say we need more “resources”. Resources is a favorite word of the liberals, who don’t want to say “money” sometimes.
• “The National Education Association supports family planning, including the right to reproductive freedom.
• The Association urges the government to give high priority to making available all methods of family planning to women and men unable to take advantage of private facilities.
• The Association also urges the implementation of community-operated, school-based family planning clinics that will provide intensive counseling by trained personnel.”
(Reference: NEA 2014-15 Resolution I-17)
At the 1998 NEA Assembly in New Orleans, LA, a first time delegate asked the following 3-part question (from the resolution above) at the microphone:
• Through the words “reproductive freedom” in our Resolutions document, does the NEA support the choice to abort after the first trimester?
Response from the chair: Yes.
• Through the words “reproductive freedom” in our Resolutions document, does the NEA support a woman’s choice to abort after viability?
Response from the chair: Yes.
• Through the words “reproductive freedom” in our Resolutions document, does the NEA support the decision to abort up to, and including delivery, commonly termed by the media a “partial birth abortion?”
Response from the chair: We have NO limitations.
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