We received the following from Rep. Thomas Albert’s office.
Legislature passes school budget, Rep. Albert warns of long-term unsustainability.
Rep. Thomas Albert gave the following speech during the Sept. 19 session of the Michigan House of Representatives, explaining his position on the state’s next school funding bill. The legislation, House Bill 4242, was approved by Albert and the Legislature and is headed to the governor:
“Many among us, and throughout the great State of Michigan, will look with favor at what we have accomplished here today. In what at times seems like a constant battle of political rhetoric, we as a Legislature have come together to find common ground. This accomplishment is both commendable and a breath of fresh air. However, I for one will not be celebrating.
As a legislative body we seem to be wholly incapable of looking at what lies beyond this budget cycle. This is not a partisan issue; however, to my unending frustration, I cannot seem to open people’s eyes to the great vulnerabilities that lie ahead for school finance.
About 10 years ago there were substantial structural issues with school aid revenue. Instead of recognizing the problems and avoiding catastrophe, this Legislature ignored reality. In the infinite wisdom of the federal government, they provided millions of dollars of temporary school funding to keep us afloat. At the end of the day, when extending and pretending was no longer an option we had to face the music.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the crisis that ensued allowed the state to reform how we collect school revenue. Facing reality was painful in the short term, but as we can see now, at least from a revenue perspective, we are setting records. However, we are now a decade into unprecedented economic growth. I can tell you markets are cyclical, and we cannot keep this pace forever. God help us when we see an economic slowdown. The future costs are simply going to outpace revenue growth.
Let this be a warning to those among us who believe we will grow ourselves out of future realities. For years now I have been warning people that our horribly funded pension system is wreaking havoc. We are now spending 26 cents on every dollar of state school aid revenue on the pension system. Unfortunately, our predecessors left us with a plan that has faulty assumptions and defers payments to a later date.
One may ask what all of this means going forward. I can tell you that today it means stagnant wages for teachers. For the future, it is in my humble opinion that we will move from stagnant wages to declining wages. It also means that structural inequities within school funding mechanisms will persist. Case in point, the statewide underfunding of special education by an estimated $700 million. As we have seen in the past, these structural problems will persist as long as we fail to fully address them.
Others may celebrate what we have accomplished today, and it is not altogether wrong for them to do so. However, I will not celebrate because I look at what lies ahead and to me it does not merit celebration.
That being said, I will vote to support this budget because failing to provide funding for this school year would have significant and immediate negative consequences. I urge my colleagues to support House Bill 4242.”
Leave a Reply