Politicians across Michigan are arguing about the Governor’s record on education as the November election approaches.
State Democrats say Republicans cut $1 billion from schools. But Republicans are defending their record on education.
This issue is a key one in the race for the state house district that spans from Ludington to Northport.
Budget Cuts
Tom Stobie was in education for 40 years. First as a special education teacher and football coach. He was superintendent of Frankfort-Elberta Schools for the last ten years.
“In the last three and a half years I sat in the superintendent’s chair and endured the cuts that were handed down by the legislature and Governor Snyder," Stobie says.
Now Stobie is running for a state House seat in the 101st District. His opponent is two-term representative Ray Franz, a Republican from Manistee County – elected during the conservative wave of 2010.
Stobie says funding cuts approved by politicians like Franz inspired him to join the race.
“I just kept getting madder and madder every year," Stobie says. "And we had to cut teachers and we had to cut aides and we had to cut programs.”
This is a familiar refrain heard in the state right now – that budget cuts made in Lansing are leading to serious school funding problems. Flip on a TV and you’re likely to hear an advertisement claiming that Republicans cut $1 billion from schools.
Ray Franz – Stobie’s opponent – says ads like these are just plain wrong.
“As the saying goes, they tried to repeat a lie often enough that it becomes the truth," Franz says.
He says that education funding has actually been improving in the state since 2010.
“When you look at the state funding, it has been increasing every single year from $10.6 billion to right now we’re at a little over $12 billion in state funding for education," Franz says.
So – which is it?
Has funding been cut by $1 billion, like Stobie says? Or is it increasing, like Franz argues?
Cuts – then increases
Charles Ballard is an economics professor at Michigan State University.
“It is definitely true that there were very substantial cuts to K-12 education in Snyder’s first year in office," Ballard says.
“Since then there have been some increases.”
Ballard says overall – things haven’t changed much since 2010. The funding amount per-student is about equal to what it was when Governor Granholm left office. Some of the recent increases have been to pay for retirement costs.
But in the long-term schools have been pinched.
“If you make the adjustment for inflation, even with the increases that we’ve had, funding is down from where it was around 2000 or so," Ballard says.
Declining populations
Ray Franz says a big problem in his district is declining population. Schools in Michigan get funding from the state based on how many students they have.
“We’re not talking about not enough money in school," Franz says. "We’re talking about not enough kids in school.”
Franz says Suttons Bay Schools is a good example of the problem with population loss. The school district has struggled to keep its head above water in recent years. Franz says the work he’s done to improve the business climate in the state will ultimately help out local schools.
“If we can put 150, 200 more kids into Suttons Bay School system because there’s more jobs in that area, that would significantly solve their finance problem.”
Whatever the source of budget woes, Tom Stobie says schools in Michigan have been forced to make tough decisions in recent years: "Cutting personnel. Making class sizes larger. Cutting programs. Cutting art, music, physical education," Stobie says.
"All of those things have come in to play because districts just don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Ray Franz won re-election two years ago by about 1,000 votes. But Democrats have had success in the 101st in the not-so-distant past. In 2008 – a Democrat won by 10,000 votes.