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State Slashes Budget for Dearborn Schools

The Dearborn School District would face cuts of $17 million under the state's current budget plan.

The Dearborn School District could see a cut in state funding of nearly $8 million if Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s budget recommendations are approved in its current form by the Michigan Legislature.

Such a cut would be devastating to the Dearborn School District, which already is facing an $11 million deficit for the 2009-10 school year, including a $1.8 million reduction in state aid.

Gov. Granholm, however, decided to cut much deeper for Dearborn and several other school districts.  The Dearborn district is now looking at an overall reduction of $17 million or about 10 percent of the district’s total general fund budget.

The governor’s proposal included the following cuts for Dearborn Public Schools:

  1. $59.00 per pupil cut = $1,064,411
  2. 20J Cut = $616,928 (20J Funding was created in 1999 to ensure equal funding increases to all school districts.)
  3. Bilingual (Sec 41) = $381,000
  4. At Risk 31a = $5,875,000 (31a funding helps those students who are at risk of not being successful in school.)

All of us understand the need for cuts given the state’s current economic condition, but cuts need to happen across all districts equally. That isn’t happening under the current plan.

The Dearborn School District is seeing both its 20J and 31a funds slashed. Hardly equitable when you consider that Dearborn sends more local tax dollars to Lansing to fund public education than it receives from the state. In all, Dearborn taxpayers send $14 million more to Lansing than the district receives back, thanks in large part to Proposal A.

Dearborn’s own House and Senate representatives understand the impact such cuts will have on our district and are fighting to ensure that if cuts need to be made then all districts across the state should be cut the same per-pupil amount.

Gov. Granholm, however, doesn’t quite understand that part so it would be in all of our best interest to call her office at 517-373-3400 to ask her to treat all school districts the same. What is on the table now is unfair to Dearborn.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • BVM

    What a mess. We all need to call blondie in Lansing because she just doesn’t get it. This will crush Dearborn schools.

  • Al

    But at least Dearborn High will have a new million dollar sports field.

  • RobertB

    A 10 percent cut in the school’s general fund budget would be absolutely crippling for Dearborn schools. If there was ever a doubt that our governor was clueless this is proof positive that she is.

  • electedforwhat

    Ok. Explain to me what our state reps are doing in Lansing. Hello, Gary W, anyone home? I’m confused that our reps haven’t been able to explain to the gov. why this plan was a bad one for Dearborn BEFORE it got to this point. That is there job, isn’t it? It isn’t our job to change the gov’s mind. Our reps are supposed to be our voice in Lansing.

  • Bill

    Everyone should be on the phone to the State Rep. Polidori and State Sen. Coleman and insist they walk themselves across the street from the Capitol to the Gov’s office and ask just what the hell she thinks she is doing!

  • Michael D. Albano

    Dearborn gets singled out and punished to the tune of over $8 million when DPS spends millions other districts do not to be a magnet school system for handicapped children.

    Dearborn takes a hit even though DPS has more English challenged students than any other city in the state and it costs Dearborn taxpayers millions attempting to make them English proficient.

    Dearborn also spends millions trying to mainstream and educate poorly performing students which is also a never ending challenge.

    Dearborn taxpayers contribute far more to the state in education funds than we ever receive back, yet it seems the state’s modus operandi is let’s give Dearborn back even less???!!!

    Due to these challenges and other factors as well, Dearborn has gone from a top rated school system into a bottom dweller, all these challenges are overwhelming the DPS budget and now the state wants to cut EVEN more???!!!

    This ought to be more than enough to make every single Dearborn resident enraged and should result in us flooding this sorry excuse of an ‘education’ Governors office with calls demanding a fair and equitable return on our tax dollars for all we’ve invested in DPS and the state school tax base.

    I wouldn’t expect our state district congressional leaders to offer much help here though as their ‘clout’ seems to be about as effective as our state leaders ‘clout’ was in helping the American auto federal bailout which resulted in restrictions put on them that were not applied to financial companies.

  • Gary Woronchak

    ElectedForWhat: Anyone home? I haven’t been State Rep for more than four years. When I was in the Legislature I increased the at-risk funding for Dearborn Public Schools, adding at least $2 million a year to Dearborn in that category. That’s why we’re the only school district in the state getting both 20j and 31a funding. That said, the economy is much worse now, but I’m certain Rep. Polidori and Sen. Clark-Coleman are working very hard to avoid these cuts and are letting the Governor know in no uncertain terms how it will impact us. We certainly must assume our legislators are acutely aware of the terrible effect this would have on Dearborn schools.

    To clarify Said’s information, which some may take to mean that the state is targeting Dearborn schools for reductions, the cuts aren’t directed specifically at Dearborn, but across-the-board reductions for all districts. Dearborn and some other districts get hit harder because of the cuts to the extra funds they get, in our case the hold-harmless, bilingual and especially at-risk money.

    I absolutely share your concern about the impact these cuts would have on our schools, and I hope they can be avoided.

  • LX

    This district should’ve collapsed years ago but was handed exemptions that other districts were not allowed. The Board Members then went headlong into making as Mr. Albano stated, “Dearborn has gone from a top rated school system into a bottom dweller”.

    Well, that is the bait pile Dearborn chose to put in place for its schools and neighborhoods. What do you expect? If you put up a bird feeder, don’t complain about the droppings on your car.

    And now the money well went dry? Too bad, so sad.

    You reap what you sow.

  • Anonymous

    Dearborn Schools financial crisis is not because of the football fields installed at the High Schools. The crisis is not because of the 14 million that goes to the state that Dearborn Schools doesn’t see returned.

    It comes down to how Former Governor Engler and the State House and State Senate decided to fund Michigan Public schools. Specifically, Proposal A.

    Prior to Proposal A, all the districts were responsible for paying for their schools education out of property taxes. If you could raise the millage, then, you could have the programs, etc. This led to the have’s versus the have not’s.

    To fix this situation, Gov Engler put before the voters Proposal A. The state will not raise property taxes, the state will increase the sales tax and this will pay for the schools state wide. Individual school districts can have bond issues to improve and building new buildings. But the operating funds are dictated by the state and the student count.

    Also remember, the school district has to set their budget every year by July 1. The budget has to be balanced. The legislature doesn’t have to have a budget until Oct 1. The schools are caught operating for 3 months without know what their budget will be!

    Dearborn has no where else to cut. The retirement costs are fixed. Health Care costs have to be negotiated. The only avenue left to the district is to cut another 125 teaching positions.

    Oh, don’t count on the stimulus that the President has signed. There is no money there for education either.

    Just a thought

  • Michael D. Albano

    Gary Woronchak,

    Sorry if you thought my comments were directed at you because they were not meant to be as I know that you’ve done plenty for Dearborn and others that you represent.

    Other than my comments being directed at Governor Granholm which I meant, I was directing my comments at most of Washingtons leaders and especially state leaders representing other cities and areas that have seemed to severely diminish the abilities of legislators that represent Dearborn to accomplish what needs to be accomplished.

  • Gary Woronchak

    Michael,
    No worries, I was responding to “electedforwhat,” not to anything you wrote. Thanks.

  • Al

    How can a governor from 6 years ago be blamed. The voters six years ago voted in proposal A, not the governor. No one wants to give our current governor any credit for the mess this state is in.

  • confused

    more wonderful logic from the above post:

    why would anyone 6 yrs ago support a republican idea on public education??

    thats right, because their are large number of hillbillies in this state who consider themselves republican, or at least vote that way, we all know them, fat, high school educated, make about 40,000 a yr and scared of everything including the “ridiculous idea” to have our tax dollars work for public schools.
    As far as the the curent governer and our current economic climate, the last time I checked 1 out of every 3 jobs in this state are tied to the auto industry, which essentially means every job is tied to the auto industry. The auto industry is republican big business, who have continued to operate in a the 1970′s era according to alan greenspan (who by the way is 1 of the largest fiqures responsible for the wallstreet greed and the housing meltdown) Our governer inherited an absolute shitstorm from the the outgoing fatass engler, (a little thing happened back in sept of 01 that also put us here 1st on the map of the downward spiral) This is what we all get for the completed lack of vision between the auto companies as well as the unions for both being guilty of trying to appear much brighter than they really are….How many more tax breaks can we afford to give to companies to stay here? (which the state of MI gave millions for pfizer to stay, and they still bolted) It is not a governers fault for uneducated factory workers who made great money for 30+ yrs who act shocked, and feel that employment is owed to them. Yes you work hard, join the club! but you also were rewarded very well $$$ over that peroid of time….

  • Michael D. Albano

    No matter that many differ in the reasons here for our declining DPS schools and declining state revenues, it might help if we all contact our governor and all state legislators and the budget committee as I have at the link below:

    http://www.michigan.gov/

    Sure it takes some time to do so, but it’s much easier than calling and playing phone tag and if enough of us contact all of them, then it may help Dearborn. So if you care please contact every one of them ASAP.

  • Anonymous

    Good Morning,

    There are many issues with the state of Michigan economy. We all agree on this point. What is significant is how we got to this point in the first place.

    First off, The state of Michigan has not diversified enough to weather a recession. There are many reasons for this and frankly, Said doesnt have the space for all the reasons and explanations.

    Al states that “why would anyone 6 yrs ago support a republican idea on public education??”

    The idea was not 6 years ago, rather, it was in 1993.

    In July 1993, the Michigan state legislature eliminated local school property taxes, thereby reducing annual funding for the state’s public schools by almost $7 billion. That action grew out of several concerns: (1) property taxes were too high (Michigan had the eighth highest property tax burden in the country); (2) property assessments were increasing too quickly; and (3) geographic differences in the revenue from property taxes—which were the chief source of funds for the public school system—were creating significant disparities in per-pupil funding across school districts.

    To fill the new funding gap for the public school system, the legislature voted on December 24, 1993, to offer the voters two alternative revenue proposals through a ballot referendum identified as Proposal A. This measure was placed on the ballot in a special election to be held on March 15, 1994.

    If voters approved Proposal A (called the “ballot plan”), the state constitution would be amended to increase the state sales tax from 4.0% to 6.0%, increase the state cigarette tax from 25¢ to 75¢ per pack, limit future property assessment increases, and reduce the state income tax rate from 4.6% to 4.4%.

    Defeat of the ballot measure would automatically put into effect the alternative plan (called the “statutory plan”), which included an increase in the income tax from 4.6% to 6.0%, an increase in the state cigarette tax from 25¢ to 40¢ per pack, and an increase in the single business tax rate. The two proposals had other differential effects on tax policy.

    However, both options imposed an identical ad valorem tax on tobacco products other than cigarettes (cigars, non-cigarette smoking tobacco, and smokeless tobacco) at 16.0% of the wholesale price.2 The ballot plan
    included a provision earmarking 6% of total tobacco tax revenues (about $35 million) to “improving the quality of health care of the residents of this state.” The statutory plan did not include a health earmark.

    By allowing the state to set the amount a school district can spend on students and then forcing the districts to pay the health insurance and retirement costs for employees from the per pupil spending is what is harming education. The scary part of this is the Office of Management and Budget forcasted that this was going to happen with in 10 years of Prop A

  • hopeful

    In today’s Freep – Mayor to deliver State of the City address tonight at 7:00@ Henry Ford Centennial Library. Limited seating. Speech will be broadcast on CDTV by end of week.
    Also, use this web site for Dearborn & stimulus info:

    http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state

  • Michael D. Albano

    Thanks hopeful. It seems there are numerous projects soon to be going on in Dearborn. Can you give us an explanation of the what the positive and negative numbers mean in “Vote Ratios”? Thanks…

  • Michael Arabucki

    we do need to address some issues in Dearborn like bi lingual education. it needs to go, it keeps a wall up. Every dollar spent on it is a dollar that our mainstream kids do not have access to.

    it is time to forgo the current pension systems everywhere, they are time bombs. any new employee needs to be paid an amount into their private control pension account so we can eventually close the books on these items. we cannot pay pensions for longer than people worked???

    End 90% of bussing.

    publish what percentage of students receive free lunches. then jump into expensive cars in the parking lot and go home???

    get rid of admin people like gail shenkman who in my opinion was anti education and less than truthful on things.

    i like the things Brian Whiston is doing.

  • Anonymous

    Michael: I am confused. 90% busing? The last time I checked, and my number maybe wrong, we are busing general ed and special ed students. The total is about 4500 which is about 25% of the students.

    As for Gail Shenkman, I am not going to apologize for her lack of leadership and people skills. Those speak for themselve.

  • Mary

    Michael, I do not know the busing numbers, so I will skip that. What I will say is that I do PR in the schools and go to every school in the district. About half of the classes I go to have two teachers to assist with the billingual education. How about having people learn ENGLISH!! Printing handouts in two languages, having staff that are billingual.
    I agree with you Michael, cut coners where possible. And there are lots of possibilities. My husband got a 20% pay cut this month because of the economy, you know what we learn to leave within our means. We saw this coming for a few months, so we changed our spending. the school district needs to learn the same.

  • LifelongDbnRes

    Michael Arabucki,

    Do yourself a favor and get some research on bilingual education. Here is some for your perusal:

    http://www.kidsource.com/education/ten.fallacy.biling.ed.html

    If you want students to be SUCCESSFUL, we have to give some instruction in their native language while we teach them English, otherwise they will completely flounder. Are you ready to move to Germany and go to college classes there in German? Would you learn much of anything? Doubtful because you don’t know the language. No difference than the bilingual students in our district. As educators our primary responsibility is to teach content. English is only one part of the content.

    Until you have done your research on bilingual education, please don’t post your closed-minded, racially motivated comments here.

  • Michael D. Albano

    LifelongDbnRes,

    Thanks for providing the link informing us about all the misconceptions about bilingual education. Some of the information amazed me and made me realize many of us are not all as well informed as we think we are, including me. In my humble opinion, the report you provided can help us become better informed, even though I am sure many might disagree with me.

    With that said, I still take issue with all the millions that are being spent on bi-lingual classes for so many students, but I am not sure there are other better options. In all probability, Dearborn has more English challenged students that most other U.S. cities. It takes a ton of money to offer this, not only from the states and feds, but also from the city taxpayers. I also believe it sometimes comes at a high cost to the mainstreamed English speaking kids, many who are not getting a decent, well-balanced education anymore. This part I do think is not fair to those students and this is also one big issue DPS needs to figure out how to resolve.

    Nonetheless, despite my ‘emotional’ feelings’ on this issue, logic and common sense tells me that the days of a few students like my mother being told by Detroit Public schools to go home and not come back until she knew English because she only knew Italian are over. Today Dearborn Public Schools have thousands of students that know little to no English and if we just simply tell them to go home until they learn English elsewhere, especially when many of the family members do also not know English, we are going to further erode the qualify of our already underperforming Dearborn public schools.

    While the dollar cost DPS has paid throughout the years may be very high to mainstream these children in English, the money saved by going to a program that does NOT immerse these children in English in our schools will be FAR higher, especially in the end. Perhaps it takes longer these days than it used to, perhaps some or many of the programs DPS is using are not working all that well. Perhaps DPS needs to find ways to rectify and make this program more successful, but to just give up on these children and not afford them the ability to learn English in our schools will just further push them away from what success is in America, becoming mainstreamed into society.

    Therefore, despite my ‘emotions’ that run counter to what DPS has accomplished or not accomplished with these students in the past, cooler heads are going to have to prevail to invest whatever it takes to bring these kids up to speed into English because for DPS to not do so would simply be shooting ourselves in the foot. We would simply end up reaping what we sew with the end-result being even worse.

  • Mary

    Who learns English faster the kid who goes to school and is taught in his native tongue and goes home and is only spoken to in his native tongue, watches tv in his native tongue; or the kid who is immersed in English all day and has to learn it to keep up. When kids come here from Poland is there a Polish translater in thier class? No there is not. LEARN ENGLISH OR LEAVE!!!

  • Mary, Mary, Mary

    Actually, the answer to your question is yes. In fact, if a student speaks only Polish, the district hires an aid to help mainstream that student as fast as possible. Funny how native english speakers take “English” every day their entire school career but we want non-native speakers to learn in an instant. What other language do you speak Mary? Redneck?

  • Michael D. Albano

    Mary, Mary, Mary,

    Thanks for informing us that no matter what language other than English a DPS student speaks that DPS hires an aide to bring them up to speed in English. I’m sure many of us, including myself never knew that.

    Mary,

    Your point is also valid about kids being immersed in learning English at DPS then going home to a family that speaks in their native language and perhaps watching TV programs in that same native language. I can understand most people just do what they’re comfortable with and what they understand. But let’s hope that DPS can someday, somehow get the message across to their parents how much they’re setting their children back from becoming mainstreamed and more successful Americans in business and in their personal lives by making it far too comfortable for their children, if that makes any sense…

  • Mary

    That is interesting Mary Mary Mary because when I went to Dearborn Schools 16 years ago and spoke only English I had no one that could even assist with translation. I dont speak Redneck I speak Spanish, English, Polish. Thank you.

  • Michael Arabucki

    Anonymous comments like yours are cowardly, why hide show who you are!!! i lived in Germany for nearly four years, i learned German, i had to!!! they are not in college. as someone else said above learn the language. or is it ok with you to keep lowering employment standards also??? we have had 18 exchange students over the years and they HAD and HAVE to learn the language. they do!!! your way keeps them down, i believe in pushing them up the ladder.

    what about weekly fights in Dearborn high school??? i was in Inkster High School lately. THE HAVE AN ABSOLUTE ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY ON 10 ISSUES. FIGHTING FOR ONE, AND YOU ARE REMOVED FROM THE SCHOOL. DO WE DO THIS???

    WITH A RECORD LIKE SHENKMAN’S HOW DO YOU GET A PROMOTION??? DOES ANYBODY HOLD HER IN HIGH REGARD

  • Michael Arabucki

    BY THE WAY I AM NOT OPPOSED TO MAINSTREAMING KIDS INTO OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM BUT THERE IS NO PROOF THAT BILINGUAL IS BETTER IN ANY WAY!!!
    Some research reviews of bilingual program evaluations have concluded that bilingual education makes no difference in the English language development and academic achievement of language minority students (Baker & DeKanter, 1981; Rossell & Ross, 1986; Rossell & Baker, 1996); that is, they found no difference between the English language development and academic achievement of students in bilingual programs versus students who received instruction in English only.

    IF THIS IS MOSTLY TRUE LET’S GO WITH THE CHEAPER METHOD.

    Additionally i am for busing handicapped students, and also believe parents have a responsibility to get their students to school.

    and as far as the racial remark you are a cowardly fool to make that statement from behind your cloke, come into the light or remain quiet!!!

  • Michael Arabucki

    do students pay for busing. if not why not??? why drive your child to school if you can get your neighbor to pay for it???