LANSING (WKZO AM/FM) — A new report from the League for Public Policy claims that 4.5-billion dollars has been diverted from the school aide fund for other purposes since 2010, mainly to Higher Education, money that voters said should go to public schools when they approved Proposal A.
The study’s author, Peter Ruark claims that lawmakers cut businesses taxes so deeply, that when it became time to pay the bills, they dipped into money intended for classrooms.
The study found that Governor Jennifer Granholm dipped into it once as a last ditch remedy as the state was headed into the great recession.
Governor Snyder has dipped further into it each year, providing all of the state funding for community colleges from the SAF for the last three years.
The report says that it cost public education $637-millon this past year, and will cost them over a billion in the year ahead.
Republicans argue that the state has never spent so much on Public Education, but Ruark says when inflation is factored in, schools are getting nearly $1,000 less per pupil, or a 7% drop in spending power than they had in 2011.
The plan is to take the data and use it as a lobbying tool to change how schools are funded in Michigan.
