Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share with you the impact that the reduction of 20j funding will have on our school district. And I would be happy at any time to explain in more detail the history of 20j funding.I will start by saying that last Monday our school district was trying to address a $165 per student reduction in funding that was approved through the House and Senate through a very difficult state budget process for K-12 schools.

This reduction meant a loss of $2.7 million to our budget, well after the beginning of the school year. This is in addition to the loss of $2.7 million we incurred due to anticipated enrollment decline. As we balanced our budget last spring, our school district reduced its budget by over $4 million.

Because of enrollment decline and flat state funding for many years, we have actually reduced our budget by over $30 million over the past 7 years. We have closed schools and reduced other expenditures. I have provided for you a summary of these reductions. While the reductions have been extremely difficult, we are still very proud of the programs in Livonia Public Schools. Having said that, we know our ability to protect these programs for students is becoming almost impossible.

As we considered our plight, we found out last Monday that our school district was chosen along with a handful of other districts for additional reductions. This came through the Governor’s veto of section 20j funding in the school aid bill. In our district, we all of a sudden, four months into our fiscal year, were staring at a loss in revenue of $7.7 million above the enrollment loss of $2.7 million.

As you know, all school districts then received a $127 per student reduction due to a state proration, which caused an additional loss in revenue of $2 million for our district. Thus, within the space of two weeks, and four months into our fiscal year, our district lost $2.7 million to the initial approved state budget, an additional $5 million due to the reduction of 20j, and an added $2+ million due to a state proration. This totaled a loss of $608 per student, or $10 million, well after school has begun.

To try to put this in perspective, our district’s entire teaching, cleaning, and other supply and equipment budgets add up to $3.4 million; our entire utility budget for the district is $4 million; $10 million in terms of teachers would represent well over 100 staff; and our entire cost to transport 10,000 students for the year is $8.7 million. The savings from the reduction of any of the preceding items would be much less this late into the school year, as commitments have been made and items have been purchased. Simply put, no district can cut that type of money from their budget this far into the school year.

We anticipated that there would be some reduction in funding for schools when the school aid budget was eventually resolved, but the reduction of 20j funding last week was unexpected and unwarranted. We feel the following has occurred:

• Our children have been put in the middle of a political battle

• School districts have been pitted against other districts

• A promise held for many years has been broken

• School districts have been severely compromised financially, well after school has begun

This action was clearly and simply wrong, and regardless of who did it or why it happened, it must be corrected. Whether or not you believe this was justified, the legislature is now the only body that can correct this. The 20j categorical is widely misunderstood. Many people believe that this money is somehow extra money given to rich school districts. The reality is that school districts received this categorical due to a quirk in the school aid law that had an unintended consequence, limiting certain districts in the amount of annual funding increase their district was scheduled to receive. As an example, if all school districts were scheduled in the year 2001 to receive a $200 per student increase, the quirk in the law would have limited our district to receive only $100. The legislature knew this was not their intent. So they created a separate section of the school aid bill, section 20j, to provide us with the additional $100 dollars per student so that we received the same $200 per student that every other district received. This was making good on the Promise of Proposal A, that school funding equity would occur by bringing those at the bottom up, not bringing others down. With the elimination of this funding, this promise has been broken.

We are now left with an unmanageable deficit in the middle of our fiscal year. Our parents are furious and scared. Districts are now pitted against each other. The divisions between districts have been rekindled. In 2007, taxpayers in our community paid into the school aid budget $20 million more than they received back in school funding. The thank you they have received for this contribution is the additional loss of $5 million in the middle of the school year. They have not been in these quarters complaining about this contribution. This was part of the funding for all schools under Proposal A. But they will no longer feel this way. Fairness needs to prevail. No district should be asked four months into their school year to cut their budget by $10 million. Districts should not be pitted against each other at the very time they need to be pulling together. I have spoken personally to the Governor, the Senate Majority Leader, and the Speaker of the House. They have all personally committed to me that they wish to resolve this issue and restore 20j funding. But as of today, nothing has occurred. I encourage them to get together and make good on the commitment they made to me and to our community. I urge you to talk to them and get this done right away. Only the legislative body of our government can correct this.

I don’t have to tell any of you that the 2010-2011 school year offers significant challenges for school districts once the federal stimulus money runs out. We have a small window of three to six months to make significant reforms to revenues and expenditures or watch the demise of Michigan public schools. Please immediately address this 20j issue so we can make our adjustments to this year’s budget, and get to the task of addressing the school crisis that is here and will be amplified next school year.

Thank you for your time and, again, the opportunity to come before you.

20j District's Explained (pdf file - 22kb)

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