By now, most of us have heard of the budget cuts made by the State of Michigan to K-12 schools around the state. But the news has gotten worse almost by the day. At this point, if nothing changes in Lansing, AAPS stands to lose $8.7 million for the current school year.
This is in addition to the nearly $2 million in hard cuts and several million dollars in other reductions and adjustments already incorporated into the AAPS budget passed last June. It comes after years of budget cuts, more than $16 million in cuts to AAPS programs in the last four years. But we still have the same number of children to educate.
If nothing else, these events hammer home the fact that Michigan’s system of funding public education is broken. As a community, we have a responsibility to take what steps we can to protect critical assets like our public schools. The Washtenaw schools millage is the only option we have, under current law, to take the fate of our schools back into our own hands.
The current standoff in Lansing over school funding is clearly part of a larger political struggle. But it is our schools that are bearing the cost and the risk. Whether our state lawmakers find a compromise or not, the fact remains that the system created by Proposal A cannot protect our public schools from serious damage just when we need them the most. These cuts are the first of many that we will see in the next few years. Fixing that system, even if everyone were agreed on a solution, will take time - time we do not have.
The Washtenaw school millage can give us that time. It will not solve all our problems: schools will still need to make cuts and other changes to keep their budgets in balance, as they have been doing for some years. But the millage will make the difference between cuts that are merely difficult and those that are devastating. Moreover, all of the revenue from this millage would stay in Washtenaw County, while we only get back a fraction of the tax revenues we send to Lansing for schools.
Good schools make all the difference for our community’s present and our children’s future.
Our kids need the best preparation possible for the economy of the 21st century. Good schools also bring jobs and economic growth by making our community attractive to employers and people who want to live and work here. These are tough times, but if we dismantle our schools, it will only get tougher. We owe it to children and our community to keep our schools strong!
I ask every voter in our community to Vote YES on Proposal I November 3rd!
Steven J. Norton
AAPS parent and Campaign manager
Ann Arbor Citizens Millage Committee
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