Fix Michigan's Schools!

We, the undersigned parents, residents and employees of Farmington Public Schools, want fundamental change in the way Michigan funds public education. Further, we ask for your support in overriding the Governor's vetoes, reversing the additional $3.5 million (20j plus $127 million) cut in our district.

These line item vetoes by the Governor and lack of alternate funding solutions by the legislature means that the promise of Proposal A is broken.  Proposal A was intended to keep higher funded districts where they were (held harmless) and bring up the lower funded districts, not lower all districts.  As such, our citizens pay higher taxes to maintain the quality of the schools that we have here in Farmington.  We are, in fact, a donor district in a donor county. That means our citizens pay to support all the public schools in Michigan and now we are being financially penalized greater than other districts. The impact of the 20j cut in Farmington is $2.2 million for this current school year, along with the $3.5 million ($165 and $127 per pupil) funding cut, equals $5.7 million!

We ask that our students be treated in an equitable manner and not unfairly punished because they live in a donor district. These cuts are coming at a time just when the expectations have never been higher for public schools, and the failure of our Legislature to fully fund education makes meeting these expectations extremely difficult.  

We urge you to vote to override the line item vetoes to reverse the latest cuts to school aid.  The inherent unfairness of these cuts and in the current system of funding K-12 education, not only to students, but to taxpayers is not the way to rebuild our economy and a bright future for Michigan.  The Legislature needs to return to their "classroom" and properly fund all public schools in Michigan.