Contents of this issue:
Kalamazoo Catholic schools to offer sliding tuition scale
Report: federal Head Start program mismanaged, faulty
Michigan's public university officials denounce higher education cuts
Oakland County educators react to Granholm curriculum plan
Several Detroit-area Catholic high schools to close
West Michigan school contracts bring contention, stress
KALAMAZOO CATHOLIC SCHOOLS TO OFFER SLIDING TUITION SCALE
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The Catholic Schools of Greater Kalamazoo announced
last week it would set tuition on a sliding scale based on family
income, the number of children per family attending Catholic schools in
the area, and family membership in area parishes, reported the
Kalamazoo Gazette.
David Rutten, executive director for the school system, said the new
tuition scale would make attending Catholic schools more affordable for
some families. "One of the reasons people commonly give us for not
considering Catholic schools is that they feel they can't afford it,"
said Rutten, according to the Gazette. Officials hope the tuition scale
will increase enrollment in the area's Catholic schools; enrollment has
reportedly dropped by several hundred students since 1996.
Elementary tuition will range from $500 to $2,875 for one-student
parish families, and from $350 to $2,015 for two-student families,
according to a statement released by the school system. The maximum
rate will be assigned to families with a household income of $120,000
per year or more.
The school system also announced that St. Joseph School, one of its
kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools, will eliminate grades seven
and eight after this school year.
SOURCES:
Kalamazoo Gazette, "Catholic schools switch to sliding-scale tuition,"
Mar. 17, 2005
https://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1111076464301420.xml
Catholic Schools of Greater Kalamazoo, Town Hall Update, Jan. 24, 2005
http://www.catholicschoolsgreaterkzoo.org/GraduatedTuition.TownHallUpdate.20050124.ppt
http://www.catholicschoolsgreaterkzoo.org/GraduatedElementaryTuitionProposal.012405.xls
Michigan Education Report, "Painting the private school picture,"
Spring 2000
https://www.educationreport.org/2890
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "The Case for Choice in Schooling:
Restoring Parental Control of Education," January 2001
https://www.mackinac.org/3236
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Forging Consensus," April 2004
https://www.mackinac.org/6517
REPORT: FEDERAL HEAD START PROGRAM MISMANAGED, FAULTY
NEW YORK — A report released by the Government Accountability Office
found that government attempts to fix management and financial problems
in the federal Head Start program have failed to produce results,
reported The New York Times.
A GAO review of financial reports of Head Start preschool programs over
a three-year period found that half of the financial irregularities
found in 2000 were not resolved, in part due to government failure to
repair the problems, according to The Times. Over 75 percent of Head
Start programs were found to have financial irregularities in 2000.
House Republicans, who requested the 2003 review of Head Start
programs, criticized the inability of the government to resolve
financial mismanagement in the program. According to The Times, some
representatives allege that an "unacceptable share" of program funds
have been "lost to financial abuse, mismanagement, impropriety or
outright theft."
Sarah Greene, president of the National Head Start Association, said
that many of the criticisms have been blown out of proportion. "It is
hugely misleading to equate 'parking ticket' offenses with a tiny
number of actual problem situations," said Greene, according to The
Times. "The G.A.O. makes a whopper of an error."
SOURCES:
The New York Times, "Government Is Criticized on Oversight of Head
Start," Mar. 18, 2005
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/18/politics/18start.html
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Re-Hyping the Head Start Program,"
August 2003
https://www.mackinac.org/5672
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Hyping the Head Start
Program," April 1993
https://www.mackinac.org/159
MICHIGAN'S PUBLIC UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS DENOUNCE HIGHER EDUCATION CUTS
LANSING, Mich. — Booth Newspapers reported last Thursday that
representatives for Michigan's 15 public universities decried Gov.
Jennifer Granholm's proposed budget cuts for higher education.
Granholm has proposed a $25 million cut to the state's higher education
budget for 2006, according to Booth; that budget has already been
reduced from $1.6 billion in 2002 to $1.4 billion this year. "It's been
a tough year, but we have to question how the state can hold down
tuition, cut our state aid and conclude that we're properly investing
in higher education," said Mike Boulus, executive director of the
Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan, in testimony to the
state House last Wednesday.
The governor's administration defended the planned cut, saying that a
proposed $200 million bond issue would be available for universities to
maintain and improve university and community college plants. "We
absolutely disagree with the notion that a promise was broken," a
spokesman for the state budget office told Booth. "As a matter of
fact," he argued, "more money was made available to universities" under
Granholm's plan.
SOURCES:
Booth Newspapers, "Universities lash out on budget cuts,"
March 17, 2005
https://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/index.ssf?/base/news-5/111105780570130.xml
Michigan Privatization Report, "Bringing the Market to the Ivory
Tower," Winter 2005
https://www.mackinac.org/6914
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Going Broke by Degree,"
September 2004
https://www.mackinac.org/6805
OAKLAND COUNTY EDUCATORS REACT TO GRANHOLM CURRICULUM PLAN
PONTIAC, Mich. — In an Oakland Press report yesterday, Oakland County
educators reacted to Gov. Jennifer Granholm's plan to make Michigan's
high school curriculum more rigorous.
Granholm's plan would require high school curricula statewide to
include "four years of English, three of math, three of science, two of
a foreign language and 3 1-2 of social studies," according to The
Press. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that almost
one-third of students continuing to college have to take remedial math
and language courses. "Obviously, we want our students to be as best
prepared as possible before they go off to college and the work world,"
said Larry Boehms, president of the Michigan Association of Secondary
School Principals.
The planned curriculum, along with local requirements, could take time
away from elective courses, some educators observed. Karen Eckert,
director of curriculum for Oxford schools, told The Press, "This would
not leave students a lot of time to do exploration through electives,
and I think high school is a time when kids need to explore where their
interests and aptitudes lie."
State officials attempted to standardize curriculum across the state
nearly a decade ago, according to The Press. The proposal failed in
part because of concerns over local control of education.
SOURCES:
The Daily Oakland Press, "Reaction to governor's education plan mixed,"
March 21, 2005
https://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/032105/loc_20050321027.shtml
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Dancing Around Education: A 170-Year Waltz With Reform," December 2004
https://www.mackinac.org/6906
Michigan Education Report, "Markets, not MEAP, best way to measure
school quality," Spring 2000
https://www.mackinac.org/2872
SEVERAL DETROIT-AREA CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOLS TO CLOSE
DETROIT — Cardinal Adam Maida announced last week that the Detroit-area
Catholic school system would close at least eight area high schools due
to budget deficits and declining enrollment, reported the Detroit Free
Press.
"The enrollment in Catholic schools in the city of Detroit has declined
47 percent in the past five years," said Ned McGrath, spokesman for
Cardinal Adam Maida, according to the Free Press. "The schools involved
have been running operating deficits of over $3 million for the last
five years. They have outstanding accumulated debts over $16 million."
Though the number of students affected by the closings amounts to about
5 percent of the local Catholic school system, some are worried about
the fate of displaced students. "We have a wonderful school here.
Ninety percent of our kids go on to colleges," Kim Redigan, a teacher
at Holy Redeemer High School, told the Free Press. "Where are those
kids going to go? I don't know. This is a momentous loss."
The archdiocese served nearly 200,000 students at its peak enrollment
in the 1960s, according to the Free Press. Between 2002 and 2004, the
system closed around 20 schools.
SOURCE:
Detroit Free Press, "Catholic schools to close," March 16, 2005
https://www.freep.com/news/education/skuls16e_20050316.htm
WEST MICHIGAN SCHOOL CONTRACTS BRING CONTENTION, STRESS
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Disagreements over benefit and salary costs have
caused the most problem- and stress-ridden school employee contract
negotiations in Western Michigan since the 1980s, reported the
Kalamazoo Gazette.
In the past two years, contract talks at the Portage, Comstock, Gull
Lake, Kalamazoo and Climax-Scotts school systems have dragged on for
months, due in part to a sharp increase in health care costs. Health
insurance premiums will increase by $1 million at Kalamazoo schools
next year, even with a reduced employee base, according to the Gazette.
Pension payments will increase by about $650,000 at Portage schools.
Several teachers for the Kalamazoo district were arrested in 1985 while
picketing during contract bargaining that ultimately took six months to
complete, according to the Gazette. The current contract for Kalamazoo
took a year to negotiate. "This year ... is a more complicated
process," Kalamazoo finance director Gary Start told the Gazette. "It's
considerably more difficult than it was 10 or 20 years ago."
SOURCES:
Kalamazoo Gazette, "Teacher talks take toll on all," March 20, 2005
https://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-13/111131775467720.xml
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "A New Day for Michigan Schools,"
April 1995
https://www.mackinac.org/12
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Collective Bargaining: Bringing Education to the Table," August 1998
https://www.mackinac.org/791
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "MEA Abuses Public School Health
Care Funds," Aug. 7, 2001
https://www.mackinac.org/9404
Michigan Privatization Report, "Ensuring Insurance Competition,"
September 1998
https://www.mackinac.org/667
MICHIGAN EDUCATION DIGEST is a service of Michigan Education
Report (
https://www.educationreport.org),
a quarterly newspaper
with a circulation of 130,000 published by the Mackinac Center
for Public Policy (
https://www.mackinac.org),
a private,
nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute.
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