KALAMAZOO (WKZO) -- Governor Rick Snyder has proposed his budget to state lawmakers and educators and democrats are attacking his ideas for education funding.
Snyder told legislators in his budget presentation yesterday that he will be increasing funding for education by 1%, Kalamazoo Public Schools officials don’t believe it. They say if his proposal passes they will wind up with a $5.5 million hole blown in their revenue stream, and superintendents all over the state are reporting that this is a funding cut, not an increase.
It’s an addition to the billion dollar cut to public education last year.
Kalamazoo Public Schools Finance Director Gary Start calls it devastating.
They say it’s still early in the budget process and this is just a proposal and its now up to them and parents to contact their legislators and make sure this budget proposal is altered and funding restored.
Snyder’s budget also calls for a 3% increase for public universities, but it’s tied to graduation rates and limiting tuition hikes to under 4%.
Local Lawmakers agree on one thing, that the Governor’s Budget proposal is just that....a proposal and it’s their duty to go thru it an make changes as necessary. It’s the degree of changes that they may differ on.
Representative Sean McCann (D-Kalamazoo) calls it an “amnesia budget” that completely forgets the huge cuts that schools and cities suffered last year, and only returns a little bit of the money removed for teachers, police, and firefighters.
Democrats may protest, but because they are in the minority, their complaints will probably fall again on deaf ears, as they did last year.
