MICHIGAN: Granholm vetoes legislative spending plan for federal education dollars (2010-10-12)
Why don't we plan well? Who loses? Kids...oh yeah, but kids don't really count, do they?
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To be fair, Granholm vetoed the formula because the Feds said in the interim that the formula would not meet their requirements and could result in Michigan having to pay back the money.
ReplyDeleteIronically, the obvious alternative will end up benefiting lower-spending school districts more. What the Feds did not like was the provision to replace last year's cut to the foundation allowance. That would have returned the same dollar amount to each district. Instead, the likely alternative (which does meet Federal requirements) will put the entire amount through the "2x" formula, whereby lower-spending districts get twice the amount that higher spending districts do.
According to early projections, AAPS would have received some $2.8 million under the original plan, but would receive only $1.8 million under the likely alternative.
Steve, you raise a good point. On the back end, Jennifer Granholm made the right decision because distributing the money and having to give it back would have been worse. On the other hand, it's my understanding that this was (at least informally) known before the budget was passed (and not in the interim), and so the legislature totally screwed up in passing this budget in the first place.
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