Republicans propose late year cut for schools, plus many more cuts

The Record-Eagle reports that last night the Republican controlled Senate passed a $34-per-student midyear cut for K-12 schools, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in reductions to local governments, health care and other programs.

“We should be thinking about we can invest in public education, not how we can take money away from kids in public education,” said Sen. Ray Basham, D-Taylor.

Republicans countered that the $34 per-student cut is a modest amount for schools to have to make up in the two months remaining in the school year and that a tax increase this budget year is unacceptable. Some districts have warned they’ll have to lay off teachers if their state aid is cut at this point in the school year.

For a local take on this “modest cut” (which comes at a point where there are 3 months or less remaining and most money has been spent), here are our rough calculations:

• $17,068 for Leland
• $31,178 for Suttons Bay
• $365,000 for Traverse City

Note that Glen Lake & Northport are out of formula and as such, I believe they are unaffected by these cuts. Sorry there’s no pretty picture with this … as a school board member I can’t see much attractive in this.