Birmingham Public Schools decided against a new federal program that could have given the district $60,000.
Michigan schools applied for 400 million dollars of federal funds to help compensate for recent deficits through the program, called Race to the Top.Birmingham Public Schools Superintendant David Larson, said in an email to the Highlander that he stands behind the board’s decision to reject Race to the Top funding.
“Birmingham board trustees cited uncertainty and a lack of clarity regarding a state plan that is not yet finalized,” Larson said. “We are being asked to make decisions without seeing a complete plan.”
Seaholm Principal Terry Piper also agrees with the board’s choice. Piper explained how $ 60,000 is not nearly enough to relieve the school’s deficits.
“If you needed 10 thousand and you had nine thousand around your household, and somebody gave you an extra 50 dollars a month, you say ‘well that’s great, thanks a lot, but that is not really coming close to fixing the problem,” Piper said. “That’s the situation we’re in but in a grander scale.”
According to Larson, the RTTT plan has yet to be finalized.
“The agreement we were asked to sign states the plan has yet to be promulgated,” Larson said. “The memo asks the district to sign up for something that is not complete, has not been published, and will affect the district in unknown ways.”
The district, who joined Bloomfield Hills, Lake Orion, Novi, South Lyon and Walled Lake’s in rejecting funds cited four main reasons why the school decided against joining the Race To The Top.
• It is an unfunded mandate.
• It does nothing to address the ongoing structural funding deficit.
• There are unknown obligations, both educationally and financially, including potential impact on the Headlee Amendment and collective bargaining rights. The Headlee Amendment requires the state to pay for any mandated programs—legal opinion indicated that if a board voluntarily approves a memorandum, it has basically waived the right to file a Headlee complaint.
• The financial obligations could be greater than what we would receive from the Race to the Top funds.
Larson says the law is unclear and the mandate keeps changing.
“It would be irresponsible of our board to make decisions with incomplete information and without knowing what the obligations and ramifications of those decisions will be,” Larson said. “Also, our legislature has passed a battery of ‘school reform’ bills in order to qualify for RTTT without addressing the real problem facing public education—adequate, equitable and reliable funding.”
The ever changing language and content of the mandate helped guide the board’s decision.
“Unfortunately there has been little clarity on the guidelines and expectations,” Larson said. “There has been significant confusion, including the language on the Memorandum of Understanding documents from the State Superintendent changing every day.”
In addition, the mandate’s unreliability and changing language do not provide enough clarity for the financial responsibilities that Birmingham would acquire.
“There was precious little in the Race To The Top grant directed to Birmingham, or to the other school districts that chose not to sign the RTTT grant request,” Larson said. “For Birmingham, the grant may have cost the district more than the award.”
Michigan Education Association Media Relations Specialist Kerry Birmingham told the Highlander that MEA agrees with the board’s decision.
“We support the efforts of the Oakland schools’ superintendant and school board,” Birmingham said. “…the reason is simple—the plan would negatively affect local schools and take away their ability to decide what’s best for their own students. Local school districts are being asked to sign off on a plan that they don’t have all the information on yet.”
Pontiac’s school district would be receiving $3 million from race to the top, due to the fact that Pontiac has financially struggling students and is struggling as a school district.
Piper said the school has about a $100 million budget, with a deficit of four to five million with each year.
“So our issue is how can we, as a school district, structurally make some significant changes in the way we do business, so that we can basically get in line with what the state’s providing,” Piper said. “And that is making cuts along the way.”
In the past five years, the school has cut counselors, teachers, hall monitors, secretaries, and hired a company to provide custodial and maintenance service.
“All are a result of the fact that we’re taking in less money than we need to run the organization,” Piper said.
Larson said that regardless of whether or not schools partake in Race To The Top, the new changes will still have an effect on schools.
“Mike Flanagan was given a nearly impossible task, with no time to accomplish the task,” Larson said.
DROPOUT AGE INCREASED
As part of the new legislation, the dropout age was changed from 16 to 18.
Piper believes that the new law is not fair to the students who want to choose a different path than school.
“To force them to stay in school until they are 18, I personally think that that’s a mistake,” Piper said. “For the few students who, by 16, really think that school is just not for them, they’re going to get their GED and go to work, they’re going to take a different career path they ought to be able to start that process at 16 or 17 as opposed to staying in school until they’re 18.”
