5-28-07, 11:41 am

Layoffs, program cuts, classroom consolidation, outsourcing, retirement buyouts, cutting health care and retirement benefits, and even bankruptcy are all on the table, said members of the School Board of Ypsilanti in a public meeting May 23 at Ypsilanti, Michigan's East Middle School.

Facing a deficit of more than $2 million, Ypsilanti Public Schools shares the growing crisis of about 1 in 6 school districts in all parts of the state of Michigan, rural and urban. The state's budget deficit is expected to be about $800 million this year, and the main target for cuts in order to balance the budget will be Michigan's public schools. Unless serious action is taken, next year looks even less promising.

Making cuts provokes fear, competition, and anxiety. Nobody likes to do it, was the message of Ypsilanti's School Board. But we have to make sacrifices and do it.

Some parents, worried about the quality of their children's educations being threatened by the looming cuts, sometimes blame hard-working teachers and their union contracts, which usually guarantee the enviable health care benefits and pension packages all working people deserve. There's the source of our financial troubles, the parents say.

Teachers point at the fat salaries and benefits of administrators and say that is where the cuts should come from.

Administrators are already salivating to get tough at the bargaining table to force deep cuts in teachers' pay and benefits.

But instead of pointing fingers at each other, let's look at the real source of the crisis.

After more than a decade of Republican-pushed tax cuts and a measure billed misleadingly as reform (Proposal A) in 1994 that revamped and undermined how revenue for public schools is collected and distributed, the current budget crisis is being solved on the backs of Michigan schools, children, and working families.

Republicans view the whole system of public education as a waste. Anti-public schools ideology (and personal investments in a corporation that provides services to private schools) drove Michigan Republican Party patron and billionaire Dick DeVos to personally finance a ballot initiative in 2000 to gut public school funding and force school closures. Fortunately, Michigan voters rejected his private agenda in 2000 and rejected him as a gubernatorial candidate in 2006.

On the issue of taxes, Republicans point to the economic crisis fueled by the decline of Michigan's manufacturing base and insist that higher taxes will prevent recovery.

But they refuse to comment on how more than a decade of the tax cuts they sponsored failed to stop the economic recession. They cannot explain how it is that, despite taxes that are lower than the national average and a flat tax that has billionaires and low-wage workers paying the same rate, people and businesses are leaving Michigan in droves. They also fail to respond adequately to those who point out that dismantling Michigan's public education system as well as other public services will block efforts to attract new people to the state.

State Democrats are ready to make compromises on how to solve this crisis in the short term. They are saying, we can't cut our way of the crisis, and the Republican majority in the state Senate won't let us find new sources of revenue. So both sides need to compromise and do a little bit of both.

For the short term, the governor and the state Democrats are proposing a $125 per pupil cut in what the state contributes to local school districts across the board. Additionally, they call for revenue raising measures including a 2 percent sales tax on services, an estate tax on Michigan's 350 wealthiest families, and higher liquor and tobacco taxes.

Voters should support the governor's plan and pressure their legislators to save our schools and make the hard decision to back her up.

The long-term solution is going to have to start with the voters firing Republicans in the state legislature who led the efforts to undermine the state's tax structure. If we want to save our schools, legislators who are driven by an irresponsible tax cutting ideology have to be sent home in 2008. If they refuse to stand up for a children and our schools, they don't deserve to keep their jobs.

--Joel Wendland is managing editor of Political Affairs Magazine and can be reached at