MONROE — Education groups across the state have united to change school funding. On May 16, 2024, a group of 13 organizations, including the Michigan Education Association, AFT-MI, Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity, Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators, and many more jointly addressed a letter to members of the Michigan legislature that demanded a proper allocation of recently-available school funding.

The background of this letter goes back to 2011, when, due to financial decisions made by previous legislators, a fund part of the Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System was under budget. The solution was for the government, school districts, and teachers to put extra money toward filling in this gap. The districts paid 13.9% of the annual cost, the teachers were obliged to pay 3% for every dollar they earned, and the government kicked in an additional 7% to what they were already paying.

It was expected that the fund would be fully restored by 2032, but Governor Whitmer announced that in 2024 the fund had been 120% funded. However, she also said that the government would stop paying their extra share without mentioning a decrease in the amount the districts and teachers paid. Additionally, Governor Whitmer is attempting to take the excess money from the fund (about $600 million according to State Rep. William Bruck) and put it into the general fund to use for other government projects.

The united education groups are against this and explicitly state in their letter that they support “maintaining all section 147 allocations in the upcoming FY 2024-2025 budget, permanently lowering the cap of school contributions to reflect the full funding of the MPSERS OPEB Trust Fund and committing to continued reductions of this rate moving forward.” They also called for the state to permanently decrease the amount districts pay and entirely discontinue the requirement of teachers to pay 3% on the dollar to the retiree health debt since it’s been dealt with.

According to Bedford Public Schools superintendent Carl Shultz, if the districts and teachers were allowed to keep this money it would greatly benefit the ability of districts to improve education and provide for their employees. The joint letter said that the extra money would raise district funds to $500 per student.

“It’s an impossible situation when you’re trying to hire quality people and you can’t afford to give them a living wage,” he said.

The fund allocations Governor Whitmer wants to make have found opposition in Lansing, even among her own party members.

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“I think a big hanging point is that $600 million transfer, which the more it gets out is not very popular to do,” Bruck said.

This instance is notable for being the first time in recent memory that these state educator organizations have come together to back a single agenda.

“As we look at this and examine what the facts are, clearly we believe this is an important enough thing that we’re working hand-in-hand,” said chief of staff at MEA Blake Mazurek.

— Contact reporter Connor Veenstra at CVeenstra@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Educators unite for school funding