I was sitting watching TV with my husband a week or so
ago. One of those Snyder ads came on
and they were telling we viewers that Snyder had actually paid money to into
the retirement system. My husband
looked to me and said, "Is that true?"
I sat there for a minute. If someone I’m married to can ask
me that question ….and I’m not one to stay quiet….then, there are a whole lot of
people listening to that ad and not bothering to ask, “is that true?”.
I am so passionate about the topic, I can not let this go
unaddressed. I am communicating with you
member to member, and you can communicate this with other members and
friends. This Tuesday’s election will be
one of the most important ever in the history of public education. Our survival is dependent on it. But first, I believe I need to address some
of these financial claims made on TV by the Snyder group.
Let’s start with Mr. Snyder’s first year in office - He did
make over $1 billion dollars in cuts to the School State Aid Fund. This amounted to $470 per student cut for
Walled Lake! That has NEVER been
replaced. There have been different ways over the
last 3 years that our district could earn some of those funds back. Remember
“best practices” and “performance money”?
WLCSD has been able to meet “best practices” for two years, and we did get some
“performance money” in one year, but not to the tune of $470. Some years the government put money into the School State Aid Fund, but it went to community colleges. Despite these bits of money over the years,
they never stay as part of our state aid from year to year. They are not accumulative. They go away. So, at the beginning of each new school year,
we have $470 less per student than we had the year before Snyder’s cuts.
This past year Mr. Snyder says he put over $700,000 new
dollars into education, but here’s how that worked out. The “poorer” districts in the state received
an extra $175 per student in state aid (this does not fill in the $470 hole
from previous years). Walled Lake was
considered a “richer” district because we get about $8165 per student, so the
state gave us an extra $50 per student.
Huron Valley, our neighbor, got the $175. Farmington didn't get $175 per student, but Farmington’s state funding per student
is closer to $10,000 compared to our $8100.
Just to measure ours against some other neighbors; Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham get over $11,000
per student, Southfield gets $10,800 per student and West Bloomfield get $8676. Feeling “rich” yet?
Just to give you a few facts:
In 2009 WLCSD’s per pupil payment amount was $8926.
In 2011, it was $8165
In 2013, it was $8195
In 2008 WLCSD’s total fund revenue was $162, 991,000
In 2013-2014, their total revenue was $153,954,661.
Fund Equity…..our district is spending plenty of its fund
equity.
In 2012, the fund equity in Walled Lake was a little over $16 million
This year our fund equity is $8,383,329. We have spent close to 8 million out of the
fund equity to make up for lost state funding.
So, that could be considered a good thing. Why save that much
money? However, that kind of spending
cannot be sustained too much longer.
The next funding piece that the Snyder group brags about is
when they say they have helped the school districts pay the retirement costs for
teachers. Honestly, they have, but there
is WAY more to it. In fact, it is a bit
of a shell game. To explain it I need to
go back to the recent retirement reforms.
During the retirement reform year, all of us needed to go to our ORS Retirement Accounts
with the state and make choices. We had
to agree to pay more to retain a 1.5% multiplier, and we had to agree to pay 3%
to have a health care subsidy in retirement.
You could choose not to pay those things, but then your retirement income
and healthcare would be figured in different ways and would be reduced.
In exchange for these INCREASED COSTS TO YOU, the state was
going to lower the percentage of our incomes the school districts had to pay
into the state retirement system themselves. At the
time, the schools were paying a bit over 26% into the system. (the amount varies a bit because it is determined by how many teachers at any particular time are enrolled in the multiple
different retirement plans that have different costs). Well,
the state did lower that amount to around 25%, not much of a savings. However, they then raised it to
30%. So, what the SNYDER group has
done is that they send the school districts the extra 5% above the initial 25% charge in real dollars, but
the next week the school districts are billed for that SAME 5%.
It is just money IN and money OUT.
The school districts don’t get to keep it! And, the school districts are still paying
the SAME 25% into the retirement system as they have in the past.
Snyder then tells the state voters of the millions of
dollars he is paying into the teacher retirement system. He says he is "shoring it up", and that this means
the schools should have more money to spend on other things. But this money being given to the districts
is not money they have to spend. They just send it back to the state. There are no new savings on retirement costs for the districts. They are still $470 down in per pupil funding…..they
hope they can meet “best practices” requirements to get $50 more…..they are
still paying 25% into the retirement system.
Snyder tells a story that distorts the truth. The schools are being broken, caused to slowly fail, between funding
cuts and new requirements. If you are a
teacher, you live this every day in your classrooms through increased class
sizes, increased testing and curriculum, and you get very little if any extra
support services for students who need help.
Can you live through another 4 years of these kinds of
stories and mis-truths?
Can your
families continue to have you working day and night just to do the basics of
your job because so much has been piled on?
Has the education of Michigan’s children been improved by Snyder fiscal
policies????
Ask yourself, what will be
the next move of a Snyder-based state government? Will it make your situation better?
Please
have no doubt, we need a new state government to be able to survive as an
institution and as individuals. TUESDAY!
