The state is proposing cutting funding for K-12 schools by $218 per student.
Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 5:18 p.m.
Read more: Local, Education
CRYSTAL FALLS -- With the deadline to trim the state budget fast approaching, the state is making cuts left and right. One of the areas is public schools.
The state is proposing cutting funding for K-12 schools by $218 per student.
While these cuts hurt schools like Forest Park in Crystal Falls, the possibility of more cuts next year is looming even larger.
"My concern is that they address the problem for the future so we don't continually get cut because it may then, or there it will effect students in a negative way," explained Superintendent Tom Jayne. "More so than it already has."
The proposed cuts still need the state legislature's approval and Governor Granholm's signature.
Granholm says there will be cuts in K-12 education, but says she's fighting to protect against deep reductions.
The state needs to eliminate a $2.8 billion deficit. And if the state takes away $218 a student, it'll mean a loss of more than $700,000 to the Marquette School District.
According to Superintendent Jon Hartwig, the outlook is gloomy. He says they'd use the general fund money to make up the difference in the short-term. But the district would have to look at personnel reductions for the future.
Hartwig says 70 percent of Michigan's school districts had no increase in their spending plans this year. So any reductions will impact programming and students.
