DING: Senate Bill 1165 (2016) - Parents will be given control of per pupil funding via a savings account. They can add to this account and then chose to spend at a 'public school' or on 'public school services'.
Kicker?
"This act and any agreement under this act shall not 2 be construed or interpreted to do any of the following:
..." Guarantee that amounts contributed to an account will be 8 sufficient to cover the eligible services of a student."
Translation: There will still be 'free public' education that you can afford with your basic per pupil allotment in your savings account...you just won't want to attend that school due to staffing, facilities etc.. A widening of the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' will happen when you will have to contribute to your savings account to afford the new shiny 'public' charter down the street. Traditional schools will deteriorate as only working class families will be able to afford to attend with the ~$7500 per pupil allotment to their savings account as Snyder and his friends will send their kids to Ann Arbor Greenhills 'public' school using our public funds in and then supplementing to get up to the $24,000 tuition. Thanks for the great idea Heritage Foundation!
P.S. The savings account holders (many of whom I'm sure have lobbyists pushing for this law, will be able to collect fees from these public monies as they will manage the accounts and disbursements. Dwindling private monies --> private coffers.
DING: Senate Bill 1046 (2016) - Public schools must provide transportation to public or non-public schools of a students choosing...
Kicker?
"A school district is not required to transport or pay for the transportation of resident pupils to state approved nonpublic schools located outside the district unless the school district transports some of its resident pupils, other than students with a disability under article 3, to public schools located outside the district, in which case the school district shall transport or pay for the transportation of resident pupils attending a state approved nonpublic school at least to the distance of the public schools located outside the district to which the district transports resident pupils and in the same general direction. " (There's even more to this but you get the point...)
Translation: Does your district send a bus to an ISD Career and Technical Education (CTE or sometimes called a Tech Center) or similar location? If a student in your district wants to go to a private school (or elitest 'public school') in that general direction, even if its out of the way, you will have to pay for their transportation. Your transportation budget strained? Too bad, we need to support and expand private school's attendance with public funds.
What can you do? Contact the legislators in the Senate Education Committee (or their Committee Clerk | 517-373-5314) and let them know your tax monies are not being collected to support the financial sector and/or elitist 'public' schools. Better yet? Tuesdays at 12:00 p.m. in room 110 of the Farnum Building in Lansing you can speak up at the committee meeting. Our public schools have produced some of the best and brightest in our state and country through a taxpayer system for well over 100 years. Straining, stressing and attempting to defund public schools should not be acceptable to our communities. Please speak up.