Thanks Politicians

This recent action comes straight out of a typical politicians' playbook and illustrates what is so wrong with the Michigan legislature.  Schools districts recently won a landmark decision in the Michigan Supreme Court which said that school districts are not subject to state requirements if the state fails to pay for those requirements.  At issue was all the new reporting guidelines and data collection that districts must do and then pass that information on to the state.  When passing the bills to introduce this new regulation, the legislature failed to provide any money to carry out those duties: an unfunded mandate.  The Supreme Court ruled that dollars must accompany any new requirement.  In this example, it was determined that approximately $16 per student is needed to fulfill the new reporting measures.  I have no idea where they came up with that dollar figure, but at least they came up with something.  So, in order to fix the situation, here's what Michigan politicians did.  They cut the per pupil foundation (how school districts are funded) by $16 per student this fiscal year (which is already 1/3 of the way over) and then moved that $16 into a special fund which covers the cost of individual districts' new reporting guidelines.  That's like saying you transferred $100 from your savings into your checking accounts, and saying you have an extra $100.  Only in Lansing...