Politics & Government

House of Representatives OK Education Cuts

By a 57-53 vote, the House approved a measure to cut aid by at least $426 per Plymouth-Canton student.

A vote by Michigan's state representatives Thursday night to approve cuts in state funding for education could mean school districts lose at least $426 per student starting in the fall.

State senators have approved a $340 cut and two chambers will now have to reconcile their bills.

Plymouth-Canton School board members were contacted by Patch late Thursday and may respond Friday to the potential impact. Already the district's proposed budget called for $18 million in cuts -- based on a premise that state funds would fall by $470 per student.

Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The school board agreed last month to lay off 269 teachers before the next school year in light of proposed state funding cuts.

State Rep. Dian Slavens, D-Canton, said she can't even imagine what cuts will do to class sizes.

Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"When my children were in kindergarten their class size was 19," she said. Her children are now grown and Plymouth-Canton kindergarten classes currently have as many as 26 students. Under the proposed district budget for next year, class size would be raised to 28 kindergarteners under one teacher. Slavens suggested cuts will cause overcrowded classrooms, which will create barriers for learning and "in first grade they'll be behind and in second grade it will get worse, and so on."

State Rep. Kurt Heise, R-Plymouth, visited Tuesday's Plymouth-Canton Community Schools board meeting to announce that he did not support proposed cuts.

After Thursday evening's vote in which he was one of six Republicans to vote against the bill he posted the following comment on his Facebook page: "I have consistently said the cuts go too far for Northville, Plymouth-Canton, and Wayne-Westland on top of their many other unfunded mandates and other lost funding," he wrote.

Slavens had her own Facebook comment, saying in part she voted against the House Republican's "plan for slashing $1.1 billion in K-12 funding that will devastate Michigan's ability to prepare our children and students to compete for 21st century jobs."

She praised Heise for voting against the measure. "I was very proud they didn't get him. I'm glad for our district."

The bill now goes to a Senate-House conference committee.

Slavens said she hopes voters make their wishes about state spending on educate clear to all lawmakers in the next few days. Without any additional cuts to the state's education funding, Slavens said, the state's school aid fund would have a surplus of $650 million next year.

Heise cautioned his Facebook audience to "make no mistake - there will be cuts in the final state budget, and concessions, innovations, and consolidations will be needed in our schools, local governments, counties and state to remove our $1.4 billion deficit and create jobs for our residents."

Slavens said Snyder's proposed budget does not match his earlier promises to support education.

The House of Representatives reconvenes on Tuesday.


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