From: Whipple, Deb (GOV)
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009
3:47 PM
Subject: What the Governor is talking about today
What the Governor’s Talking about
Today
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Local
Governments’ Ability to Provide Essential Services Hurt by Revenue Sharing
Cuts
Governor
Commends Bipartisanship Effort on Michigan Education
Reforms
Local Governments’ Ability to Provide
Essential Services Hurt by Revenue Sharing Cuts
To attract and retain residents and businesses,
communities must be able to provide police and fire protection, good roads,
water and sewer systems and other essential services. Cuts in revenue
sharing are making it difficult for many local governments to provide these
services, and are pushing some toward insolvency.
The Michigan House has passed HB 5403 that would
restore statutory revenue sharing for cities, villages and townships to the
amount actually received in the 2009 fiscal year. That bill is now pending
before the Michigan Senate.
Key messages:
• We are working to diversify Michigan’s
economy and create jobs. For Michigan communities to be attractive for
economic development, local governments must be able to provide essential
services.
• According to the Michigan Municipal League, revenue
sharing to local governments has been cut by more than $3 billion in the last
eight years, not including the most recent $111 million in cuts. As a
result, more than 1,800 police officers and 2,400 fire fighters have been laid
off in Michigan.
• The governor wants to restore funding for revenue
sharing so we can keep police officers and fire fighters on the job protecting
our communities.
Governor Commends Bipartisanship Effort
on Michigan Education Reforms
The governor today sent a letter to Speaker of the
House Andy Dillon and Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop saying December marks a
crucial point in the effort to reform education in Michigan.
“President Obama and Secretary Duncan have
challenged us to be bold when it comes to improving our schools, and we are more
than ready to meet that challenge,” the governor said. “I am encouraged
and grateful for the bipartisan support the Race to the Top reforms have
engendered in both the state House and state Senate, and I want to personally
extend my appreciation to you for your commitment to pass education reforms
during this critical three-week period.”
“The reforms you stand poised to pass and that I am
prepared to sign into law will give us a stronger education system in Michigan —
the kind of education system that the new economy demands,” the governor
continued. “In the process, these reforms will position Michigan to
compete successfully in the Race to the Top.”
The education reforms would:
• Require school principals to be
certified
• Create high-quality alternative routes to certification for
both teachers and administrators to help bring more of our best and brightest
into education
• Give the State Superintendent of Public Instruction
clear authority to intervene in low-performing schools
• When failing
schools are clustered in a few school districts, allow systemic changes needed
to make individual school-turnaround possible
• Increase the number of
high-quality charter schools in Michigan
• Require an annual evaluation
of teachers, principals and other school leaders that uses student growth data
along with other factors
In the Obama administration’s Race to the Top
competition, all 50 states are racing to reform their education systems so
American children can compete in a global economy. Only a small number of
states will be winners. Each will receive as much as $500 million in
federal Recovery Act funds to improve their schools.
Key messages:
• Michigan can be one of the winning states
in the Race to the Top competition, but we don’t have a lot of time.
Critical education reforms must be in place before Christmas.
• While
each of these reforms meets a clear Race to the Top goal, each in its own right
will give us a stronger education system in Michigan.
• We need to
enact these reforms and then be one of the winning states in the Race to the Top
competition. This will allow us to build on those reforms an education
system that will be the foundation of a new Michigan.
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