In This Issue / May 29, 2013 MEA members successfully push for increased investment in early childhood education Education budgets go to governor's desk for approval Progress Michigan introduces 'Skunk Works' mascot To Mackinac Conference attendees Cook in Detroit News: School employees need seat at the table to help keep schools open MEA staff helps members navigate issues in special education MEA members successfully push for increased investment in early childhood education Thanks to the hard-fought efforts of MEA members, the state Legislature on Wednesday voted to increase the state's investment in early childhood education funding. More than 1,400 MEA members called and emailed their legislators in recent weeks to urge them to support more funding for early childhood education. Because of the outreach conducted by teachers, education support professionals and higher education employees, the Legislature sent an education budget to the governor's desk that includes $65 million in additional funds for early childhood education. "The MEA has long championed greater investment in early childhood education programs, because these investments help prepare our students for success," MEA Vice President Nancy Strachan said. "The additional investment for early childhood education is a critical step to help our low-income students have access to high-quality preschool opportunities and enter kindergarten prepared to learn." "Research has clearly shown the direct correlation between early childhood education programs and increased graduation rates, reduced crime and a healthier economy," Strachan said. "The MEA will continue to support this and other increased early childhood investments so that all Michigan children have the opportunity to succeed."      Education budgets go to governor's desk for approval The House and Senate this week passed education funding bills that provide slight increases for K-12 schools, community colleges and universities - but still fall short of providing proper funding for public education. House Bill 4228, which comprises the School Aid, community colleges and higher education budgets for the 2013-14 Fiscal Year, passed the House on Tuesday and the Senate on Wednesday. The funding bill now goes to Gov. Rick Snyder's desk for his signature. Click here for an analysis from the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency. K-12 budget The state's lowest-funded districts will see an increase of $60 per pupil, while the wealthiest districts will get a $30 increase. Other districts will receive proportional increase between $30 and $60 per pupil. Higher education Public universities will get a $24.9 million increase in state aid, bringing the total state investment to $1.43 billion. In addition, public universities must cap tuition increases at 3.75 percent or else be ineligible for performance funding. Community colleges House Bill 4228 provides $336 million in state funding for community colleges, giving each of the state's 28 community colleges roughly 2 percent in additional state said. The budget continues the practice of taking money from the School Aid Fund to pay for community colleges; $197.6 million of the community college budget comes from K-12 funds. Progress Michigan introduces 'Skunk Works' mascot To Mackinac Conference attendees Citizens' watchdog group Progress Michigan introduced Pepé Le Voucher, the mascot for Gov. Rick Snyder's secret "Skunk Works" school voucher workgroup, to attendees of the Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island on Wednesday. Members of Snyder's administration had been holding secret nighttime meetings with corporations to develop a school voucher plan for Michigan. The group purposefully excluded educators from its discussions, which centered on weakening public education for the benefit of the information technology corporations that would step in to "rescue" schools and make huge profits. Pepé passed out "privatization stinks" air fresheners to Lansing insiders as they landed via ferry onto the island. Progress Michigan and others are encouraging the governor to stop his secret work groups and clear the air by increasing transparency in state government. Read more. Cook in Detroit News: School employees need seat at the table to help keep schools open In a column published Wednesday in the Detroit News, MEA President Steve Cook called on state and local leaders to bring school employees to the table to help find solutions to the problems facing local school districts. "I think we can all agree that something is very wrong when any public school suddenly finds it does not have the funds necessary to finish the year or has to eliminate a large part of its educational offerings for the next year," Cook wrote. "That's exactly what happened this month in the Buena Vista School District and Albion Public Schools, and almost happened in the Pontiac School District. It causes one to wonder, what district is next?" "Districts are clearly in a crisis situation when they must decide to eliminate quality programming or close their doors before the school year ends. These crises must be dealt with through the involvement of all affected parties." Click here to read Cook's full column. MEA staff helps members navigate issues in special education It's an unconscionable stain on our nation's history: Fewer than 40 years ago, many states had laws that actually forbid special needs students from attending public schools, including students who were deaf, blind or had developmental disabilities. Until the Congress passed the first version of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975, American public schools accommodated only 20 percent of these children with disabilities. About 1 million children with special needs had absolutely no access to public schools. An additional 3.5 million special needs children were "warehoused" out of sight of the general population, according to the National Council on Disability. Thanks to progress made by educators and disability rights advocates, times have changed. More than 6 million students now receive public education through IDEA, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities. That includes more than 222,000 special needs students in Michigan. With greater access to special education comes a greater need for teachers and education support staff to be properly trained in special education issues. That's why MEA provides assistance to members in addressing specific questions related to special education rules and services, including topics involving IDEA and Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) rights. In addition to working with members on federal and state compliance, MEA provides training to both EA members and ESP members on special education issues as they arise on a case-by-case basis. To learn more about special education training, contact Marty Lankford of the MEA's Professional Development and Human Rights Department at (800) 292-1934 ext. 5479, or email him at MLankford@mea.org.            In This Issue / May 28, 2013 Michigan Teacher of the Year awarded to Grosse Pointe North High School science teacher Saginaw Township school employees lend aid to Buena Vista teachers Michelle Rhee to headline Mackinac Policy Conference  MEA staff helps members navigate issues in special education  Log in to mea.org to update your info  Michigan Teacher of the Year awarded to Grosse Pointe North High School science teacher Grosse Pointe North High School science teacher Gary Abud Jr. has been named the 2013-14 Michigan Teacher of the Year by the state Department of Education. Abud, who received the 2012 Science Teacher of Promise award from the Michigan Science Teachers Association, is a proponent of project-based learning, combining service experiences, digital learning and social media to provide his students with a broad palette of learning experiences. "It has been my philosophy that all students can learn and achieve in the classroom," Abud said. "Finding the right combination of strategies to match various learning styles is essential." Grosse Pointe Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Harwood said Abud is "a teacher amongst teachers; an innovator of instruction, a supportive guide of knowledge, and a creator of dreams for students who wish to further explore their understanding of science." Read more. Saginaw Township school employees lend aid to Buena Vista teachers Saginaw Township school employees raised about $1,200 to help teachers in the Buena Vista School District, who haven't been paid since May 10. Each Buena Vista teacher received a white envelope on Friday with a $45 gift card to Meijer, courtesy of members of the Saginaw Township Education Association, who paid for the gift cards out of their own pockets. The Buena Vista School District did not pay its teachers Friday - a pay day - despite the state of Michigan's sending over $400,000 to the struggling district to keep it open for the remainder of the school year. "We just felt like we wanted to help the teachers at Buena Vista, and we were heartbroken to hear they might not be getting all of the pay they earned," said Peter Tyson, president of the Saginaw Township EA. "We knew this was not the fault of the teachers or the students, but yet they were the ones who were paying the price for the financial mismanagement of Buena Vista schools. We also did not think that Lansing would do anything to help the teachers and students, so we wanted to show them that people in the area did care about what was going on in Buena Vista." Buena Vista EA President Joe Ann Nash told the Saginaw News the donations were "amazing," and offered a thank you to her colleagues in Saginaw Township. "We appreciate this from the bottom of our hearts," she said. Michelle Rhee to headline Mackinac Policy Conference So-called school "reformer" Michelle Rhee will headline the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce's Mackinac Policy Conference, held Wednesday through Friday on Mackinac Island. Rhee is the founder of StudentsFirst, a fast-growing lobbying organization that aims to turn neighborhood public schools over to private, for-profit corporations. Launched by Rhee in 2010 after she resigned as chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools, StudentsFirst has spent millions of dollars in Michigan alone to lobby state lawmakers. The group is pushing for a number of policy changes that would weaken traditional public schools and strip away school employees' collective bargaining rights - thus allowing private companies to come in and "fix" the school system. Read more. MEA staff helps members navigate issues in special education It's an unconscionable stain on our nation's history: Fewer than 40 years ago, many states had laws that actually forbid special needs students from attending public schools, including students who were deaf, blind or had developmental disabilities. Until the Congress passed the first version of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975, American public schools accommodated only 20 percent of these children with disabilities. About 1 million children with special needs had absolutely no access to public schools. An additional 3.5 million special needs children were "warehoused" out of sight of the general population, according to the National Council on Disability. Thanks to progress made by educators and disability rights advocates, times have changed. More than 6 million students now receive public education through IDEA, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities. That includes more than 222,000 special needs students in Michigan. With greater access to special education comes a greater need for teachers and education support staff to be properly trained in special education issues. That's why MEA provides assistance to members in addressing specific questions related to special education rules and services, including topics involving IDEA and Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) rights. In addition to working with members on federal and state compliance, MEA provides training to both EA members and ESP members on special education issues as they arise on a case-by-case basis. To learn more about special education training, contact Marty Lankford of the MEA's Professional Development and Human Rights Department at (800) 292-1934 ext. 5479, or email him at MLankford@mea.org. Log in to mea.org to update your info Please take a moment to log in to the Members' Only section of mea.org to ensure your contact information is up to date. Keeping your information current allows you to access member-exclusive benefits, provide a way to make your dues payments, stay in the loop for MEA information, and sign up to receive MEA Voice Online and Capitol Comments.

Despite help from state, Buena Vista School District refuses to pay its teachers Friday Without warning, the Buena Vista School District did not pay its 28 teachers Friday - despite it being a pay day and despite the state of Michigan's sending $400,000 to the struggling district to keep it open for the remainder of the school year. "The teachers in the Buena Vista School District have made numerous sacrifices on behalf of their students, and they deserve to get paid for the work they do so they can feed their families," MEA Executive Director Gretchen Dziadosz said. "Teachers and their students should not be made to suffer for the school district's financial mismanagement and Gov. Rick Snyder's lack of support for public education." Friday was a scheduled pay day for the teachers, who haven't been paid since May 10. Sick teachers have also been barred by the district from calling substitute teachers, resulting in crowded classrooms. Students and school employees in the Buena Vista School District are innocent victims of gross financial mismanagement by district and state administrators, as well as Gov. Rick Snyder's reckless $1 billion in cuts to school funding. Read more. Joint House and Senate panels agree on education budgets Michigan K-12 school districts are set to see a small increase in funding for next year's budget, but nowhere near enough to make up for the $1 billion in cuts that the Snyder administration previously made to local schools. A joint Michigan House and Senate conference committee Thursday agreed on a compromise K-12 budget bill that would increase per-pupil funding by $60 for the state's lowest-funded districts and $30 for the wealthiest districts. Other school districts would receive a proportional increase between $30 and $60 per pupil. The slight increase in funding would bring the minimum state foundation grant to school districts to $7,026 per pupil, up from $6,966. In addition, the conference committee has recommended keeping in place performance grants and class-size reduction grants. The Senate's plan had eliminated those grants. The budget passed by the conference committee also increases funding for early childhood education by $65 million - a major win for MEA and the 1,400 members who called their legislators to demand more support for early childhood education. Read more. Poll: Voters don't agree with Snyder's 'pretty cool' assessment of 'Skunk Works' plan Michigan citizens abhor the value-meal education proposal developed by Gov. Rick Snyder's secret "Skunk Works" group, according to a new poll, which also shows that voters aren't too happy with the job Snyder's been doing. According to the poll, conducted May 11-15 by Lansing-based EPIC/MRA, 64 percent of citizens oppose the concepts developed by Skunk Works, while only 10 percent approve. Snyder administration officials had been holding secret meetings since last December, working with corporate executives from IT companies to develop a plan that would replace qualified, professional teachers with long-distance video conferencing. The plan would create "value schools" and would spend less than half what we currently spend to educate a student, putting those remaining meager funds on debit cards for parents and students to purchase their learning - not unlike food stamps.  Snyder denied being involved with the secret group, but called its ideas "pretty cool." Opposition to the value schools plan is fierce; 53 percent of respondents said they "strongly oppose" the concept, while only 4 percent said they "strongly support" it. Read more. Merit pay bill 'foolhardy,' conservative newspaper says The conservative Livingston Daily Press & Argus on Thursday editorialized against House Bill 4625, which would bar school districts from considering a teacher's experience or education when determining his or her pay. Snyder's relentless negative attacks on public education and middle class families continue to harm his approval ratings. The same poll found that only 39 percent approve of the job he's doing as governor, while 58 percent disapprove. The state House Education Committee reported the bill out of committee Wednesday. The legislation, which also makes teacher performance the primary factor in determining pay, now goes to the full House for consideration. "It's clearly a good idea to look for ways to improve teaching techniques," the Livingston Daily Press & Argus' editorial board wrote. "It's also sound policy to upgrade the quality of teacher evaluations. And there is nothing wrong with finding ways to better identify and to compensate excellent teachers. "But tying teacher pay and evaluations almost exclusively to the results of standardized tests is a horrible idea. Our Lansing lawmakers should scrap this poor idea before it has a chance to flourish. Better to work with public educators than to continually look for ways to harass them." Read more. MEA will appeal state ruling that claims school secretaries not protected from outsourcing Attorneys for MEA and the Reese Professional Support Personnel Association will appeal a recent ruling by a state commission that claims school secretaries are non-instructional employees and thus do not have the right to bargain over decisions to privatize their jobs.  The Reese Public School District in 2011 laid off six secretaries and outsourced their jobs to a private company, without bargaining with the RPSPA, an MEA local affiliate.  The Michigan Public Employment Relations Act only allows school districts to bid out for "non-instructional support services." The Michigan Employment Relations Commission ruled that school secretaries do not perform instructional support services as a "substantial part of their duties," and as such should be considered non-instructional support employees. MEA and RPSPA disagree, arguing that secretaries perform importantinstructional support services. After all, they assist instructional staff with their duties by tutoring students, overseeing students' work while they're in detention, and helping to develop special education plans - among other instructional support tasks. The key word, according to MEA attorneys, is "support." MEA argues that MERC's interpretation of "instructional support services"ignores that key word. The MERC decision simply and wrongly concludes that since secretaries do not a spend a majority of their days providing direct instruction, they should be considered non-instruction support service employees whose jobs can be outsourced without bargaining.  Prior legal decisions have determined that paraprofessionals, occupational therapists and speech therapists are instructional support personnel, so MERC's ruling does not affect those employees.

School funding plan advances as Michigan lawmakers dive into budget

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By Tim Martin | tmartin4@mlive.com
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on May 23, 2013 at 8:22 PM

A budget plan for Michigan schools is advancing at the state Capitol.MLive.com file photo 

LANSING, MI - All Michigan public school districts would get at least a little bit more money per student next fiscal year through a budget proposal that likely will be voted on in the state Legislature next week.

A measure advanced Thursday by a Republican-led joint panel of House and Senate members would provide a roughly 3 percent increase overall for Michigan’s K-12 school system. But much of that increase is eaten up in additional state contributions toward school employee retirement costs. And funding would vary by school district under terms of Senate Bill 182.
The state’s minimum foundation allowance per student -- $6,966 right now – would rise to $7,026 for the next fiscal year under the plan advanced Thursday. Increases would be less for districts in the middle and on the higher end of the state’s funding scale. And there are multiple other factors influencing how much money per student certain districts would get next academic year.
Steps were taken Thursday aimed at ensuring that all school districts would get at least $5 more student in the next fiscal year after certain adjustments are made in the funding formula. The vast majority of schools would get more than that. A larger-than-expected overall state budget surplus has helped improve the outlook for the schools budget.
The additional state support for schools is generally higher once funding of the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System is considered. School districts may not see that money directly, but it saves them money compared to what they otherwise would have to contribute to the system.
Some school officials have discounted the significance of the retirement system piece of the funding plan, which has frustrated Republicans. And Democrats say that more money overall should go to K-12, in part to offset funding cuts from previous years. The state's minimum per student foundation allowance was $7,316 in the 2008-09 fiscal year.
The proposal for the new fiscal year boosts early childhood funding through the Great Start Readiness program.
Michigan’s community colleges and universities are in line for roughly a 2 percent funding increase in the next fiscal year, although those increases also would vary by institution.
Michigan’s next fiscal year starts Oct. 1, but lawmakers want to wrap up key votes long before that. Leaders among legislative Republicans – who hold the majority in the Legislature – have reached agreement on broad budget targets with Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration. Now they are working out details and resolving differences between earlier budget versions approved by the House and Senate.

Increased funding necessary for early childhood education

Posted on 05/17/13 at 3:56pm

Early childhood education has been underfunded in Michigan for years, and it is time that Michigan’s lawmakers increase our children’s education opportunities by expanding early childhood education programs.

​Gov. Rick Snyder is asking lawmakers to increase funding for early childhood education programs by $130 million over two years, beginning with a $65-million increase in 2013-2014 budget.

​Increasing funding for these programs would provide more opportunities for low-income preschoolers to enroll in early childhood education classes.  JUMP

There's currently $109 million allocated for the Great Start Readiness program, serving 32,000 of Michigan’s children. Another 29,000 children are eligible, but cannot be served.

​If the Michigan Legislature adopts Snyder’s plan, 16,000 more children could enter this program next year, and an additional 18,000 could enter a year later. This means 66,000 openings would be available for these children to enter preschool, more than doubling the current number of openings available.

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Budget surplus should go toward restoring education cuts

Posted on 05/17/13 at 4:07pm

Leaders from across Michigan are calling on Gov. Rick Snyder and state legislators to invest a newfound budget surplus into public schools, to help make up for  the massive cuts previously made to K-12 education.

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Snyder signs bill relaxing snow day penalties for current school year

Posted on 05/17/13 at 4:11pm

Gov. Rick Snyder signed a new law Thursday sparing school districts from losing state funding for missing too many days due to this past winter’s unusually poor weather.

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Snyder and Duncan shadowed by Progress Michigan’s ‘Pepe Le Voucher’

Posted on 05/13/13 at 2:44pm

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited Michigan on Monday to participate in several media events with Gov. Rick Snyder to promote the governor’s Education Achievement Authority experiment.

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Skunk Works gets a Facebook account

Posted on 05/17/13 at 4:12pm

Gov. Rick Snyder’s previously top-secret “Skunk Works” group now has a home on Facebook.

In an attempt to give the impression of being more transparent, the so-called “Education Technology Work Group” has launched a Facebook page to collect input from Michigan citizens on education policy, particularly with regard to technology expansion.

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MEA members get free and discounted life insurance

Posted on 05/15/13 at 3:30pm

It pays to plan ahead -- and MEA members don’t have to pay much to do just that.

Every MEA member is eligible for free life insurance through NEA Member Benefits, as well as deep discounts on group term and individual life insurance plans through MEA Financial Services.

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Southeast Michigan educators collaborate on parent summit

Posted on 05/10/13 at 4:16pm

The debate surrounding reforms to the education system has prompted several MEA locals in Southeast Michigan to put together a parent education summit in Novi on Monday, May 13.

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