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Michigan, and especially the Great Lakes Bay Region, is in a real education bind.

SCHOOL DILEMMA: Funding Gap Doesn't Provide Base for More STEM Focus

November 16, 2014       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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It's time to stop fooling ourselves: political leaders and economic policy leaders just aren't yet on the same page regarding education.

Michigan, and especially the Great Lakes Bay Region, is in a real education bind.

While policy leaders are pushing acceleration of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education, financial support for public education is declining.

In fact legislators granted $125 per student added money to charter and cyber schools at the expense of traditional schools in the current school aid budget.

"The assault on public education must stop immediately," said William Mayes, Michigan Association of School Boards Executive Director. "Without a serious investment in our public schools, we will see larger classroom sizes, more program cuts and a drop in student achievement. If the Legislature is serious about wanting local neighborhoods to thrive, investing in education rather than taking money and resources away would be a good start."

The Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance (GLBRA) recently launched a campaign to accelerate STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education, convening educators and business leaders last Thursday at Central Michigan University.

The region's economy is STEM driven, with an estimated $3 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) driven by manufacturing and health care, as reported by The Bay City Times reporter Sam Easter.

"We are more dependent than the rest of the nation on STEM, and we are only growing more dependent," said Michael Loiero, consultant for Accenture, a firm that conducted a four month study on STEM issues in the area.

Matt Felan, GLBRA director, citing a coming "race for talent," said the group is forming a steering committee to push STEM education strategies for the 2015-1016 school year.

"Our region has historically been a STEM region, just based on the manufacturing that we've had for many, many years," said Douglas Trombley, Saginaw Township Community Schools superintendent. "We also have a very extensive medical network."

Trombley said the region has many STEM-related jobs, but there seems to be a disconnect between job opportunities, what employers need and job candidates.

Dow Chemical's public affairs director Nancy Lamb agrees: "Companies like Dow have advanced manufacturing needs that require all levels of job skill. These jobs don't look like the assembly line jobs of the past. Today's manufacturing jobs are high-tech and highly focused and they offer excellent long term career opportunities. Companies foresee a gap between available talent and needed jobs, and this effort is one way to stem that gap."

Experts agree that the demands of today's science, math and engineering (STEM) curriculum focus requires pay levels for teachers that are at least somewhat competitive with industry and higher education.

Experienced teachers are critical to student achievement, yet they are burning out, being laid off and taking pay cuts to help district finances just when they are in greatest demand, according to educational experts.

The Michigan Association of School Administrators and Michigan Association of School Boards have issued a joint statement that the 2014-2015 School Aid Budget fails to adequately invest in public education.

"SB 775 gives even less money to schools than Governor Rick Snyder's proposal. Nearly 150 schools in the state would receive an increase of only $50 per pupil, which is not enough to prevent teacher layoffs and program cuts."

State political and Mackinac think tank folks seem to think that charter schools are the answer to saving money on education. Savings for what? To pour more money into a $2 billion per year corrections system?

And to further erode the performance of the outstanding schools Michigan taxpayers have fought to build and maintain for so many years?

The George W. Bush Global Institute shows Bay County charter schools at 23 percent in reading, 35 percent in math versus schools worldwide.

The Bay City school district's latest ranking among schools globally is 39 percent reading, 45 percent math; Bangor Township, 39 percent reading, 54 percent math; Essexville-Hampton 50 percent reading, 63 percent math; Pinconning, 43 percent reading, 54 percent math.

Most Bay County school districts are in the lower rankings among state schools in general fund revenue per pupil from local, state and federal sources, as reported by the Michigan Department of Education:

Bay City, $8,185, rank 676;

Bangor Township, $8203, rank 669;

Essexville-Hampton, $8,161, rank 690;

Pinconning, $8,514, rank 518;

Bay County Public School Academy, $8,808, rank 392;

Bay City Academy, $7,989, rank 753; and

Bay-Arenac Community High School, $10,018, rank 141.

The obvious answer to the question: are we investing in education to meet the demands of employers globally? is NO!

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently said that teachers should earn between $60,000 and $150,000 per year.

That's a far cry from the current national average starting salary for teachers, which is $35,139.

Michael Van Beek of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy states that the average salary for conventional school teachers in Michigan was $63,094 in a recent study, some 30 percent higher than charter school teachers.

However, the charter school pay averages are based on a small sampling since most charters contract with educational management companies that hire and pay their teachers, and these charters do not report spending money directly on teacher salaries.

The only Saginaw Valley area school district with average teacher salaries in the top 20 in the state is Midland, 17th on the list with average pay of $75,272 per year. Utica is first with $85,725.

Retired teacher and author Jaime O'Neill believes this ongoing threat to job security has a destabilizing effect. As a new teacher, he wrote, you can expect your job "threatened each and every year when the annual state budget reveals once more that big cuts to education are coming, that you've been pink slipped until or unless there's a last-minute reprieve.

"That yearly panic will cause you to wonder why you ever went into teaching in the first place, and you will surely make plans to seek other employment with each mention of just how precarious your employment is."

We suggest that business and educational leaders get together with political leaders and decide whether there can be agreement on funding STEM and education generally. Otherwise, our students will be short changed and at risk of falling further behind their peers globally.

The GLBRA needs to get the Mackinac Center education gurus, the news media and area legislators in a room and give them a dose of reality about funding educational needs to meet the lofty goals of STEM, and even basic educational provisions.

Otherwise, all the chest thumping about STEM will be just that -- empty blather.



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Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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