Traditional schools could be doomed
In his State of the State address last winter, Gov. Rick Snyder boasted of his support for public schools in Michigan.
"We've invested $660 more per student than there was previously before I took office," he said. "That's a huge investment in K-12 education."
But wait, a 30-second TV spot from the Democratic Governors Association laments: "Gov. Snyder cut a billion dollars from education, but gave his own administration officials huge pay raises. One of them actually makes $330,000 a year."
Cue the dueling banjos.
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HERE ARE SOME NUMBERS you can trust, I think. They arrived at our home in the mail the other day, and I don't believe anyone was trying to spin them.
The document, addressed to my wife, Carol, came from Social Security and was called "Your Earnings Record."
Anyone who has received a paycheck in the United States has probably received a similar document. It lists the years that you worked and how much of your annual earnings were taxed for Social Security and Medicare.
In 2009, Carol was paid $74,075 to oversee the special education program at Port Huron Northern High School.
In 2013, her last full calendar year as an educator and in the third year of Snyder's "huge investment" in public schools, she earned $60,243.
I'll leave the math to you.
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ODDLY ENOUGH, neither the governor nor the Democrats are out-and-out fibbing with their dueling claims.
In February 2011, his second month as governor, Snyder submitted a budget calling for a cut of nearly a billion dollars — $961 million — in school aid.
His request came as he searched for money to pay for eliminating the Michigan Business Tax, the equivalent of a state income tax on businesses.
The problem with the Democratic claim is that it ignores what actually took place.
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FOR STARTERS, $520 million of the $961 million came with the drying up of stimulus money from the Obama administration. Snyder had no control over that jackpot.
Also, the Republican-led Legislature refused to cut schools as deeply as the governor desired.
There were other mitigating factors as well, including a continuing shift of money to higher education. That diversion has drained about a billion dollars from K-12 schools in the four years since former Gov. Jennifer Granholm decided it might be a good idea.
FactCheck, a website that examines the veracity of political claims, and the Detroit Free Press both report that state spending on public schools has jumped from $10.7 billion in Granholm's final year to $11.8 billion in the budget that begins Oct. 1, which will be the final fiscal year of Snyder's first term.
That is an increase of $1.1 billion, and a far cry from a cut of $1 billion.
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BEFORE WE GET too giddy, let's remember that most of the increase — $883 million — has gone to cover the fast-rising costs of pensions as the Baby Boom generation retires.
According to the state Department of Technology, Management and Budget, the amount of state funding for "basic operations" — what actually happens inside the classroom — has plunged by $119 million since the governor took office.
To be sure, Snyder could have steered that $883 million from retirement funds into basic operations. Doing so would have been smart politics. He could have branded himself "the education governor" with the receipts to prove it.
It also would have left local districts to struggle with finding nearly $900 million to prop up the retirement system. Well-run districts undoubtedly would have risen to the challenge, just as poorly run districts surely would have fallen deeper and deeper into debt.
Snyder chose the responsible option, and as so often happens, he may pay a political price for his courage.
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IF SNYDER BOASTS of his investments in education, he cannot claim to be a friend of traditional public schools. In fact, he may be conniving to destroy them.
When I say "traditional" schools, I mean the sort of schools your parents attended, and your grandparents, and their parents and grandparents.
On Snyder's watch, Michigan has become the nation's leader — far and away — in funding charter schools run by for-profit companies.
No one has promoted charters more avidly than state Sen. Phil Pavlov, R-St. Clair Township, the chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Among other things, he successfully pushed for the removal of a cap on the number of charter schools statewide.
Michigan now spends about $1 billion a year on charters. That is money that would have gone to traditional schools, which, by and large, are the worse for the experiment.
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MANY DEMOCRATS suspect that Snyder, Pavlov and other Republican leaders are intent on destroying Michigan's traditional public schools, replacing them with a smorgasbord of charters, evangelical and parochial schools, home schooling, online learning and other newfangled alternatives to old-style schools.
Why would conservatives, who tend to favor the old ways, press for such revolutionary change?
Three reasons are often cited, beginning with the straight-forward goal of crushing the teachers' unions, which Republicans rightly view as little more than extensions of a rival party.
Bernardo Licata, a retired computer industry executive from Harsens Island and a candidate in the 81st House District race, echoed the Democratic view the other day when he said: "I believe the Republican long-term agenda is to break the unions using charter schools as the vehicle."
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A SECOND REASON is cultural, a belief that families, not society, should have the ultimate choice in how and what children are taught.
Fifteen years ago, Amway billionaires Betsy and Dick DeVos fought fiercely for vouchers that families could spend at their school of choice, whether it was a public school, a church school or, presumably, a madrasa.
Their opponents included fellow Republicans such as John Engler and Dan DeGrow. In 2000, voters overwhelmingly rejected a voucher system.
In the wake of that defeat, the DeVoses and their allies took over the state GOP, bankrolling candidates who pledge not to oppose them on educational issues.
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THE THIRD REASON is the easiest to understand: Money.
Foundation grants for public schools in St. Clair and Sanilac counties have declined by about $300 per pupil under Snyder, but the minimum remains more than $7,100 per child. Or, to put it another way, a school collects about $1 million for every 140 kids.
That's big money, especially for operators whose schools are not expected to work with a significant number of more costly special-needs students.
For-profit companies are pouring into Michigan to launch charter schools. No state is more friendly to them.
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IF THE DESTRUCTION of traditional public schools is not the Republican goal, then it suggests something every bit as troubling — a ruling party without any real strategy for improving our schools.
School superintendents across the state complain the GOP's billion-dollar-a-year experiment with charter schools is weakening the traditional model of education.
Frankly, this would be fine — if charters were performing better than old-style schools.
The evidence indicates they are not. Charters are, at best, more of the same, a different way of spending money rather than a better way.
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THE DETROIT FREE PRESS recently published its findings from a year-long review of charter schools in Michigan.
Perhaps the most worrisome finding was that Snyder, Pavlov and other Republican leaders have not troubled themselves to demand strict accounting of how charters spend tax dollars or of how well they educate children.
Bad actors can and do gouge taxpayers, and then they hide their misdeeds by claiming that as private businesses they are not subject to disclosure laws.
Michigan has replaced a flawed but transparent model with an equally flawed but opaque model. This is not reform; it is insanity.
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DO I BELIEVE that every Republican elected official in Michigan has taken the pledge to blow up public schools as we know them?
No way. In fact, I doubt if a majority of them would knowingly destroy a system developed over the course of 150 years.
My concern is too many elected officials come across as rubes. They are pawns in the game, going along with "reforms" that weaken the old system while failing to produce a superior alternative.
Make no mistake, powerful forces are at work here. They understand that if they bleed traditional K-12 schools, it only creates opportunities for them.
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WHAT WE COULD USE in Michigan is a statewide, grassroots conversation on the future of K-12 education in our state.
We need a thoughtful leader, someone of stature, someone with public credibility, to referee the process.
We need to steal good ideas, whether from states such as Massachusetts and Maryland, or from nations such as Singapore and Finland.
We need a plan, a written strategy, and we need it soon, because the special interests are winning.
Mike Connell is a freelance writer and a retired reporter for the Times Herald. Contact him at fortgratiot@gmail.com.