The academic school year was cut short for the 435 students in the Buena Vista School District in Saginaw, Michigan. Amid budget shortfalls, the district closed its three schools and laid off its entire teaching staff.
“Our analysis of
the District’s cash flow demonstrates to us that, absent an extraordinary
situation, we will not be able to make payroll for staff on May 24,” according
to a letter on the school district’s official website.
Part of the
immediate crisis is that the district wrongfully received $400,000 in state
funds for the Wolverine Secure Treatment Center for juvenile offenders, but the
facility had cut ties with the district in 2012. The district brought it to the
attention of the state, which demanded the return of the
funds.
Because the
district is running a deficit, the state is withholding aid for April, May and
June to recover the losses of the erroneous payment. The district didn't
discover this until they didn't receive payment in April.
On Monday,
Michigan Education Association members in the district voted to continue
teaching students for free so they could finish out the academic year. As of
Thursday, school remained closed.
MEA President
Steve Cook said the move is “proof that politicians, administrators and other
so-called ‘leaders’ consistently put money first and our kids
last.”
The MEA contends
that students are "innocent victims of gross financial mismanagement by district
and state administrators, as well as Governor Rick Snyder’s reckless $1 billion
in cuts to school funding." Buena Vista teachers had agreed to freeze their own
pay for four years running, and the number of teachers has dropped by more than
half since 2009, down to 27.
May 3 was the
last paid work day for employees, and the district is considering having an
Emergency Manager take over. Local Emergency Managers are appointed by the state
and given authority to overrule the decisions of mayors, city councils, school
boards and superintendents. UPI
FACTS & FIGURES
Many cities in
the U.S. state of Michigan are facing problems.
Detroit,
Michigan’s largest city, has faced the steepest population decline of any
American city in recent decades. Once the fifth largest U.S. city that shone as
the birthplace of the U.S. automotive industry, it now ranks 18th with about
700,000 people - after suffering a 25 percent decline in population between 2000
and 2010. NBC News
With the exodus
of residents and jobs as the auto industry contracted, the city has suffered
from declining tax revenue and rising crime while saddled with the
infrastructure and labor costs of a bygone era. Reuters
As many as 400
workers at more than 60 fast food restaurants in the Detroit metro area walked
off the job on Friday, in what may be the largest fast food strike in American
history, NBC News reported.
Detroit was
named in February as the most miserable city in the United States, according to
Forbes.com
Flint, another
city in Michigan, which is being run by an emergency manager appointed by the
state governor more than a year ago, faces similar problems and has some of the
worst crime rates in the country and a jobless rate of 11.3 percent, according
to Forbes.com.
AHT/HJ
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