Apparently There's Educational Funding, and Then There's Educational Funding

This whole “Yes you did!”, “No I didn't!” thing is getting old. How are we supposed to know who's lying and who's not if all we get is sound-bites in 30 second political ads?

First of all, the Nerd says he's increased education funding. He did.

Mark Schauer says that the Nerd cut school funding. And he did.

 The confusion stems from the Schauer definition of education funding as money that actually finds it's way into a school building.

The Nerd's first budget (2012) cut $930.6 million dollars from the education fund. He had to because businesses got a big tax break, remember? The state dropped $300 from it's per pupil support, a move that was exacerbated by the end of the Federal Stimulus money which had equaled $170 per pupil. Net loss: $470/pupil. And in addition to losing federal per pupil funding, schools also lost $316 million of federal job training money meaning the state would no longer receive around half million federal dollars per year that the Nerd had no intention of replacing. Must be the “structural change' he campaigned about in 2010.

But to offset that, the Nerd promised an additional $100 per student for schools that adopted a “best practices”(presumably because some schools thought “worst practices” were acceptable) and a quick shot in the Education Retirement fund of $455 million.

Snyder claims he's been increasing education funding since that disastrous first year. But

one of the ways he bolsters his argument is by including state contributions to the education retirement (MPSERS) fund as additional education spending (not as in classroom spending, though). Which is the kind of logic that says, “I can't believe I ran out of gas this afternoon! I just put air in the tires yesterday!” Actually the MPSERS problem started when Jolly Johnny Engler put MPSERS in the hole with some budget cuts twenty years ago.

Snyder's biggest ally in per pupil funding has been the state's declining student population, which I don't actually regard as a good thing, but it is what it is. (It also helps the Nerd because a declining population makes the unemployment numbers look better). Spending a little more each year for fewer students increases per student spending.

So while the Nerd takes credit for vastly increased spending (he claims $660 per student increase) $366 per student never sees a school building because it goes into the MPSERS retirement fund. Add in the $214 per pupil boost from shrinking student enrollment and Snyder has increased student spending by a whopping $180 per pupil.

 And then there's the Foundation Allowance. At one time it was another way of saying “per pupil” spending, but in a few magical strokes of the pen, it doesn't anymore. Jolly Johnny Engler and crew invented the Foundation Allowance, but even the medieval policy wonks at the Mackinac Center have a hard time explaining it and their attempt to decipher it seems intentionally obfuscated.

Foundation spending dropped from $7,146 in 2011 to $7,026 in 2014, but I think that just means that they didn't want to exceed that figure. There was no danger of that. The ramifications of the Proposal A tax changes are profound and echo even today. I guess you would call Engler's masterpiece “destructural change”.

If anyone tries to tell you that the schools must be getting more money because the Foundation Allowance has been growing (but it's still lower than in 2005), ask them if your school district receives the full per pupil allocation of the allowance. Yeah, mine neither.

Is the education budget growing? Yes. Is there more money flowing into the classrooms? Not so much.

So what to make from all the “he said, she said”ads? If you're a teacher crabbing about lowered student funding for your school, that's the truth.

And if you're in an ad as a retired teacher, you're already paying higher state taxes courtesy of the Nerd so thank god he's trying to ensure your future. And that's the truth.

But constitutionally, shoring up MPSERS had to be done, and by jockeying the way the money gets into MSPERS the Nerd can call it education spending. Hey if he wants to bring in Campbell soup labels and call it education funding, who's going to stop him?