LANSING — Michigan lawmakers still disagree on how the state should support public education, including whether they should continue to spend $125 million in funding for transport services.
Less than a month from the start of school and more than five weeks after their self-imposed legal deadline, Northern Michigan superintendents say they’re concerned that the plan could leave out the funding the helps cover increased rural transportation costs.
“Where we’re located, we have to travel significantly farther than in suburban or urban district with our busses,” said Katy Xenakis-Makowski, superintendent of the Johannesburg-Lewiston Area School District.
At the center of the disputes are different approaches to so-called “categorical” funding — money that the state assigns based on the specific needs of each district.
In recent years and current proposals from state Senate Democrats, those items have included $15 million for rural educator training, $140 million for early literacy instruction and the $125 million for transportation funding, which is given out based on the size of a district and cost of transport per student.
Republican lawmakers have proposed doing away with most categorical spending in favor of higher per-pupil funding, which is the same for each district regardless of size.
“By adding the categorical, you even the playing field so that the students still get the same opportunities, and the transportation doesn’t eat away from those opportunities,” said Amy Scott-Kronemeyer, superintendent of Sault Ste. Marie Area Schools.
According to the state, Sault Ste. Marie’s district covers more than 270 square miles — without the transportation spending, a district’s funding would be based only on the amount of students enrolled.
“When you get the same amount of money as a school that only has maybe seven square miles, it really is inequitable for the students in those in those — low-resource, high-geographic locations, in terms of square miles,” Scott-Kronemeyer said.
Every day, Sault Ste. Marie’s district buses drive the equivalent of a trip from the UP to Myrtle Beach — over 1,100 miles.
The Johannesburg-Lewiston Area School District is spread out over nearly 300 square miles.
“It is not equitable for our districts, who service hundreds of miles of of routes, to not have a transportation offset when there are districts downstate that serve less than 10 square miles,” Xenakis-Makowski said.
Lawmakers broke for a summer recess on July 1, and have returned for only one day of voting since then.
“In the last 15 years as a superintendent, I haven’t had to wait this long for a budget,” Xenakis-Makowski said. “This is the first time we’ve had the situation.”
Xenakis-Makowski, also former president of the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators, encouraged lawmakers to come back to Lansing as soon as possible to ensure that schools can go into the year with financial confidence.
“We need everybody working together to get this done, so that we can stop worrying about what the revenue and the expenses are going to be and start worrying about — how do we help our kids get to the next level?” she said.
