To pay for Snyder's radical, deliberate revenue shift, along with changes in Michigan's tax law that also reduced K-12 funding, Gov. Snyder's budget is proposing deep cuts in education.
Rick Snyder says that THIS WILL FORCE LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO BECOME MORE EFFICIENT (cut supplies, and curtail all manner of instuction and programs) and lower their costs. School districts would get $300 less per student, on top of a $170 cut this year. (This us un-precidently radical, no other governor set out to do this not even Engler who found more money for education, not hundreds of millions less.
In particular, Snyder wants school boards to extract concessions from unions by getting employees to pay 20 percent of their health care premiums. The governor also asserts that schools can save through consolidation of services and improving purchasing practices. The budget cuts will also make it much more difficult for unions to negotiate pay raises.
Concessions with labor unions are unlikely to come easily. If unions balk, teacher layoffs will be imminent, leading to impacts such as larger class sizes (and statewide acrimony and unnecessary disruption of our children's vital education).
These remarks are interpolated from material presented by The Michigan Truth Squad, Project of the Center for Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder's Proposed Budget Analysis 2.24.11
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