Senator David Knezek
Late this afternoon I received an
email blast (it is also in his Twitter feed) from a state senator named David
Knezek. I am not quite sure how I got on
his list, but probably because I read through many entries on the internet
looking for information.
David Knezek is the Senator from
District 5: Dearborn Heights, Detroit,
Garden City, Inkster, & Redford Township.
He is the youngest senator and he is a democrat. I like his point of view. If you are looking for a perspective that isn’t
the regular stuff you read in the paper, I would suggest visiting his website.
This was Senator Knezek’s message
late this afternoon:
The Michigan Senate has adjourned until December 6, 2016
without taking a vote to eliminate teachers' pensions.Legislation to eliminate
healthcare benefits for police officers and fire fighters received a committee
hearing today and may soon receive a vote in the Michigan House of
Representatives.
Your phone calls and emails to legislators are working.
Please don't stop. Michiganders need to mobilize, keep up the pressure, and
hold our elected officials accountable.
Capitol Comments
Another good
place for information is through the MEA’s Capitol
Comments. You can register to
receive Capitol Comments through your email by going to www.mea.org
At the bottom of the page you will an icon of Capitol Comments. Click and sign up.
News from
Capitol Comments today has some good, but there is more very destructive
legislation that was introduced.
The
legislature did adjourn today and will not meet until next Tuesday. They did this without voting on the SB 102 –
the pension changes.
The Newest Threat – TAKE ACTION!!!!
However, today
a bill did gain traction that would DRAIN $403 MILLION dollars from the State
School Aid Fund. That amounts to $273 per student. When the State of Michigan has to pay income tax
refunds to Michigan citizens, the money is taken from the General Fund. This bill would have that money taken from
the School Aid Fund instead.
Why? I can come up with lots of reasons why they
might be doing it, but I think the result of this is even more important to
consider. For school districts that
receive between $7600 to $9000 per student, that amounts to an average of 3%
cut in funding. For a district of
14,000 students, that is a cut of over $3 million dollars. For a district of 2000 students, that is over
a ½ million dollar cut in funding. The
cuts that would have to be made by school districts are unimaginable when you
think about how much they have cut already.
Programming for students, class sizes, technology, class books…..how
would that all be affected.
CLICK HERE
to write your legislator and tell them NOT to rob the School State Aid
Fund! Tell them that students deserve
the best education possible, and taking money from the SAF denies them that right!
