LANSING – Schools across the country are struggling to meet student needs. But overall, Michigan schools could be the worst off of all, according to analysts reached by Gongwer News Service.

Michigan’s ongoing economic problems have dragged schools in the state down, and the reliance on the state as a funding source has given them little opportunity to catch back up, school officials said.

“I don’t know that in the aggregate there’s any place worse off than Michigan,” said Bruce Hunter with the American Association of School Administrators. “In some ways it’s a function of the way Michigan finances schools; in some ways it’s the fact that Michigan has a pretty tough economy right now.”

Dave Martel with the Michigan School Business Officials said Michigan’s ranking near the bottom on school funding stability would not be a surprise. “Michigan back in 2001 hit the recession like everyone else but we never recovered,” he said. “The property tax and the state sales tax have not really kept up with inflation for schools. We’ve been in reduction mode for last seven years.

Michigan is far from alone in seeing education funding cut. Information provided by the National Conference of State Legislatures showed more than a dozen states had cut education funding for either the 2008-09 or 2009-10 fiscal year, or both. Several of those, however, made up those cuts with federal stimulus funds.

“In most of America most people are having a hard time holding their own,” Hunter said. “Class sizes are going to grow, wages are going to remain constant, schools will be doing little things like lengthening bus routes and dropping student activities.”

But he argued that Michigan would be among the bottom three with California and Oregon in terms to the financial struggle schools are facing right now. And the common thread is all three states rely on state revenues to fund schools.

And he said Michigan has more of a struggle because of the duration of the economic decline. “California numbers are bigger, but I think Michigan has more trouble,” he said.

Oregon’s problems appeared more acute, however, with some districts closing early to make up funding loses.

There are also some isolated areas of the country that have been harder hit, he said. In particular, some districts in Arizona and Florida have seen substantial funding drops because of losses in the real estate market, he said.

Martel argued there is growing support in Michigan for allowing local districts to raise revenue. “District by district you’d see a lot of districts willing to pay a little bit more in order to maintain funding for the classrooms,” he said. “I think there’s a certain frustration level that’s been building. I don’t know that it’s built to the point that it’s affecting legislators.”

And he anticipated there would be more districts in deficit funding this year, depending on what the state finally does with the School Aid Fund budget. The local districts have already adopted their budgets for the year, based on assumptions of state funding.

“We’re going to see a lot of districts see they have nothing else they can do but go into deficit,” he said, “which is a problem for them.”

State law prohibits districts from having deficits and they risk a state takeover of their finances if the deficit cannot be erased in a reasonable time.

Martel said parents are also going to see services offered by districts begin to wane, particularly if the warned revenue drops in 2011 happen.

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