On paper, state spending on education has increased nearly every year for the past 15 years. That sounds great, even if the increase is well under the increase of inflation, it was still an increase, right? The problem is that schools haven't seen this increase. The amount going to schools is lower now than when he took office.
Where is the money going, then? Most of it goes to testing. Some of it goes to educational programs with questionable value. Some of it goes to much needed programs that are now filled with layers of bureaucratic paperwork.
Meanwhile healthcare, transportation, retirement, and basic costs are all going up. Our state has cut the funding to schools and then blamed them for not paying their bills, sometimes putting "emergency" managers in place to deal with emergencies that the state created in the first place. Our children deserve better.
I wish I could say that I think Governor Snyder's main opponent, Mark Schauer, will fix the problem, but most of his promises are just to reverse the bad policies of the current state government. While he hopefully won't work towards the wholesale demolition of public education that seems to be the current government's focus, we need something better than just returning funding to previous levels.
Our education budget needs to increase to a point that, not only are there enough teachers to reduce class sizes to educationally beneficial levels, not only buildings and materials used in education of a good quality and not from the lowest bidder, not only are all of our students adequately fed and protected, but educational programs can be researched and developed to help all children receive a premium education.
Our schools should be palaces dedicated to building a better future.