LANSING – With the Legislature not moving on a plan to provide guaranteed increases to education, the K-16 Coalition is now planning to take the proposal directly to the voters, which would ask voters to guarantee inflationary increases for all K-12 schools, community colleges and universities.
“We don’t see any interest in the Legislature at the present time so we’re going to take the next step that we feel we have to take,” said Al Short, lobbyist for the Michigan Education Association, a member of the coalition. “Hopefully in the next couple of weeks it will be approved by Secretary of State as to form.”
The new version of the proposal would remove the 5 percent cap on increases, leaving the guarantee at whatever the rate of inflation is. Short said the cap was confusing.
The proposal also removes the back payments that would be required under the current version of the legislation (SB 246), which requires the inflationary increases back to the 2002-03 fiscal year. The version that will go to voters would require the inflationary increases from the 2004-05 fiscal year and would begin that requirement for the 2006-07 fiscal year.
But Short said the group would still welcome renewed legislative interest.
“We are willing at any time if the legislature wants to pass these bills,” he said. “We will always work with the Legislature if they’re willing to pass something like this.”
If the Legislature does not take up the issue, Short was confident that, with all the school groups involved, the coalition would collect the 257,000 signatures needed to put the issue on the ballot.
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