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Health & Fitness

Lord of the Flies public schools

Bryan Bentley has done a great job touching on the school of choice issue in the PCCS public schools, I would like to add a post script to that excellent article in light of PCCS acceptance of school of choice students.  The initial blame has fallen on the Board of Education, however the educational ecosystem that we now live in has made such a choice much more palatable than in the past and has provided a temptation to Boards of Education that is hard to resist.

The proud progenitors of this current educational / political ecosystem are Republican legislators and Governors Engler and Snyder.(and to be fair Democrat Debbie Stabenow who originally proposed elimination of property taxes for school funding as a tongue in cheek proposal). Today 45 percent of school districts are in distress. Depending on which Republicans you talk to either:

1. Snyder has actually increased funding for schools
2. Snyder was forced to cut school funding due to external reasons
3. There was no money to fund schools properly. (see #5)
4. Snyder funded the schools properly but Hillary Clinton stole the money to   finance her campaign for President.
5. Greedy public employees have leeched all the money from the educational system.
6. All of the above

The truth of the matter is that our Board of Education took the easy road and opted for the quick cash that comes with each school of choice child. In this respect students are commoditized, viewed as per pupil funds first and foremost. This quick fix is like crack, a nice high but once spent the need for more becomes paramount. This additional funding will soon be spent and the need for more imported students comes again and again.

Michigan has created a Lord of the Flies educational system, where districts cannibalize other districts for per pupil aid and charter schools try to cannibalize both. Districts now are also encouraged to disassemble their employee groups by such tactics as "best practices" where the state withholds some funding from school districts unless they meet certain stipulations, such as outsourcing district non instructional district employees (a traditional democratic voting group) and forcing districts to accept state mandates on health care negotiations (interference in collective bargaining).

The enhanced focus on employee groups is a bonus in the current situation, these groups have been stigmatized as THE cause of educational funding problems, diverting attention from such facts as the raiding of the school aid fund to the tune of hundreds of  million dollars to fund higher education. The school aid fund was originally developed to fund P-12 education ONLY. The stigmatization of employee groups has created an educational kristallnacht for political purposes.

The funding model of our education system in Michigan is in dire need of repair. However I wonder if some in Lansing are not too sorry about this sorry state of affairs. The current situation allows them to play Whac-a Mole with public school employee groups, leveraging districts desperate need for funds with conditions and stipulations that are designed to eviscerate groups that traditionally do not vote in the manner in which they would like. Politics is a very real surrogate father to the current school funding crisis .

I have not touched on other issues related to school of choice, such as property value impact, local control or the impact on other less affluent school districts that have had their students raided.  Others have covered these issues in depth and they are also very valid and critical to this discussion. . Be disappointed with your Board of Education, but be cognizant that many issues orbiting school of choice have aligned perfectly to create a temptation that is hard for many Boards to resist.





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