Michigan's governor said Thursday that the
state should capitalize on its brightest economic outlook in a
decade by opening its checkbook to school districts - but only
those that can show their students actually are learning from year
to year.
Republican Rick Snyder's plan for districts to compete for $70
million in extra state money is part of a growing trend in
performance-based education funding as cash-strapped states look
for ways to do more than just spread scarce dollars around.
With Michigan heading into a new budget year without the chronic
deficits that plagued it for the past 10 years, Snyder wants to
reward schools for how well they educate, not for merely having the
best and brightest students. Several states have tied financial
incentives to standardized test scores, but Snyder's plan is
somewhat different.
"This year we had a surplus, so we had a lot of requests for
funding," Snyder said. "But good budgeting isn't about taking
that surplus and giving everyone a little bit more money ... (it's
about) rewarding success and results."
It's the same carrot-and-stick approach Snyder used last year to
encourage school districts and local governments to shrink their
share of employee health care benefits, share or privatize services
and post online reports to make their activities more transparent
to taxpayers.
The education money would be divvied up based on district
performance, not individual schools. Districts would get a share of
the money if their third- through eighth-graders have shown a
year's worth of learning in reading or math, or have acquired
above-average knowledge in several subjects over a four-year
period.
While critics praised Snyder for spending more on education,
they argued his plan leaves schools without the resources to make
the improvements he wants.
"Any money that will be funneled back to our schools is, of
course, a step in the right direction," said state Rep. Ellen
Cogen Lipton, the top Democrat on an education spending
subcommittee. "However, these funds will only provide the bare
minimum in restoring the drastic and unnecessary attack on our
children's education that left our schools to increase class sizes
and without money for books, teaching materials and support
staff."
The Republican businessman-turned-governor has clashed with
teachers unions after cutting K-12 spending by $1 billion during
his first year in office. His latest proposal, for the fiscal year
that begins Oct. 1, restores about a third of that.
"Putting a fraction of that $1 billion back into schools
doesn't fix the problems that such a massive cut caused last year.
It only continues to enrich the corporate special interests who
benefited from the $1.8 billion tax cut that the education cuts
enabled," Michigan Education Association President Steven Cook
said in a statement.
Teacher Jennifer Bonutti also found Snyder's proposed increase
inadequate. Her son is a first-grader in Farmington, northwest of
Detroit. Cutbacks there have meant teacher layoffs and at least 25
students in her son's classroom, while fourth-grade classrooms
often have 35.
"They want to tie the money to performance, (but) we're still
going to have overcrowded classrooms," she said. "How can that
teacher be effective with 35 kids? As a parent, it's frustrating.
As a teacher, it's tough."
While Snyder is seeking $70 million for the incentive project,
that's just a small fraction of his proposed $12.5 billion school
aid budget, which he outlined during a speech Thursday.
Mike Griffith, senior policy analyst at the Denver-based
Education Commission of the States, said that while several states
are trying some sort of performance-based program, most represent
only a small chunk of their schools' spending.
The federal No Child Left Behind program penalizes individual
schools where students don't make annual progress, and Michigan
isn't the first state to consider rewarding schools that do well.
Ohio gives an additional $17 per student to districts and community
schools rated excellent or excellent with distinction, and Iowa
offers incentives for districts that meet a wide number of measures
that go beyond test scores.
Griffith said he didn't know, however, if Michigan would be the
only state to tie extra money solely to year-to-year improvement,
rather than overall test scores, graduation rates or other such
measures often used by states to award bonuses.
Besides the changes to elementary and middle school, the
governor also would require results when awarding funding to
universities and community colleges.
Higher education, which saw its funding cut 15 percent in the
current budget, would get a 3 percent increase - but only for
universities and colleges that meet certain benchmark improvements
in the number of undergraduate degrees awarded to all students and
to low-income students receiving Pell Grants.
Michigan State Board of Education member John Austin, a
Democrat, said Snyder is taking the right steps to reward public
schools, community colleges and universities for their performance.
But he worries funding remains too low, noting that cuts to
elementary, secondary and higher education have been "decimating"
in recent years.
"We have not combined accountability reforms with sufficient
resources to empower great teaching, and turbocharge our colleges
and universities as engines of opportunity," Austin said. "Other
states and countries are much more committed to education."
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