An overhaul of Michigan’s school funding system is in the works. Governor Rick Snyder wants to include school funding reform in his budget proposal next year.
Governor Snyder’s outline of the project’s mission includes creating a system that gives students more opportunities for online learning, college courses and taking specialty classes offered by other districts. He also called for a system that better rewards performance, and not just attendance.
The governor asked Lansing attorney Richard McLellan to lead the project. McLellan says the current per-pupil funding system was created in 1979 and is overdue for a shakeup.
“People are demanding more options than they did in ’79,” he says.
McLellan says private tuition school vouchers will not be one of those options – that’s not allowed by the Michigan Constitution.
School funding has been a topic of controversy during the first year and a half of the Snyder administration – especially the governor’s plan to use the School Aid Fund to pay for universities and community colleges.