Barbara faithfully served the MANS organization and its members for over 13 years as its Assistant Director and as the Director of the Michigan Non-public School Accrediting Association(MNSAA).  She was a trusted colleague and a valued mentor for thousands of faith-based educators in Michigan and across the country.  She was a true leader for Michigan faith based schools and most importantly, she was a dear friend to all that came in contact with her.  She will be greatly missed.

Senate Bill 621 (Hansen R-Hart) passed the Senate the Senate today on a 26-12 vote.  Thank you to all who called your Senator and helped make it happen.

The process now moves to the House.  Please contact House Education Committee Chairman Paul Scott (R-Grand Blanc) at PaulScott@house.mi.gov or (517) 373-1780 and ask for support SB 621. You should also call your local Representative in the Michigan House by going to the linked House Directory: http://www.mirsnews.com/house_directory.php

SB 621 passed the Senate.  The bill amends the State School Aid Act, with respect to the provision of State aid for instruction of nonpublic students by public schools (SHARED TIME), by broadening geographic boundaries for nonpublic student instruction, for eligibility to receive State aid, when the resident district refuses or is unable to provide instruction.

Close to 80% of MANS member schools utilize shared time.  Most work with the public school district in which they are located.  This bill would broaden the geographic boundaries in situations where the resident district (i.e., the district in which the nonpublic school is located) does not agree or otherwise cannot provide instruction to nonpublic students.

Specifically, under the bill, a nonpublic student could be counted for State aid purposes if the instruction were provided by a public district or PSA located within the same intermediate school district (ISD) as the district in which the nonpublic school was located, or were located in an ISD contiguous to that resident ISD.

OPPONENTS of this bill have mysteriously called this bill a “back-door voucher” – even though shared time has

• been in existence for over 30 years
• was upheld by the Michigan Supreme Court in the 1984 Snyder v. Charlotte Public Schools case
• in most cases employs teachers who belong to a teachers union (MEA or AFT)

DO NOT LET THE FALSE RHETORIC OF THE TEACHERS UNIONS INFLUENCE YOUR HOUSE MEMBER.  CALL TODAY!

Please contact your House member today and send this alert to your school communities so that they may contact the House of Representatives as well.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Brian Broderick at 517 372-9315.

SBs 622-23 and 709-710  (Emmons, R-Sheridan) passed the Senate today on a 26-12 vote!  Thank you to all who made calls to your Senator asking for support for these bills. 

The process now moves to the House.  Please contact Chairman of the House Education Committee, Paul Scott (R-Grand Blanc)  at PaulScott@house.mi.gov or (517) 373-1780 and ask for support for these bills.  You should also call your local Representative in the Michigan House by going to the linked House Directory: http://www.mirsnews.com/house_directory.php

SBs 622-23 and 709-710 passed the Senate on October 27^th.  The bills would amend the Postsecondary Enrollment Options Act and the Career and Technical Education Act to broaden the guidelines for students eligible to participate in dual enrollment. Dual enrollment is the practice of enrolling in a high school and in an eligible postsecondary institution simultaneously, earning college credit while a high school student

Specifically, the bills would remove the requirement that a student be in at least grade 11 to participate in dual enrollment and now include in the definition of “eligible student” a student enrolled in a State-approved nonpublic school.  MANS member students would no longer have to enroll in their public school district in order to avail themselves of dual enrollment.  In order to receive high school credit as well as college credit, the course must be a course that would have been considered a “non-essential elective course under Snyder v. Charlotte School District 421 Mich 517 (1984).  This is essentially the same rationale that allows for shared time courses to be taught in Michigan. 

OPPONENTS of this bill have mysteriously called this bill a “back-door voucher” – despite the language in the bill cited above that restricts the receipt of high school credit to only non-essential courses. 

DO NOT LET THE FALSE RHETORIC OF THE TEACHERS UNIONS INFLUENCE YOUR HOUSE MEMBER.  CALL TODAY!

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Brian Broderick at 517 372-9315.

Private Schools Ask For State Funds
Private school advocates asked an informal legislative panel today for state funds to cover the “administrative costs” of meeting state requirements, but public school officials lashed out at the idea of taking money away public schools.

Brian BRODERICK, executive director for the Michigan Association of Non-Public Schools, told the 13-member House education workgroup that “non-public schools” have to complete certain administrative tasks to meet state standards for being recognized as a school. That’s why he came there asking for “mandated services reimbursement for non-public schools.”

The state saves money when students attend non-public schools, Broderick said, and the more students can attend those schools the more the state will save. That’s part of why, he said, it would make sense for the state to help stabilize the number of students in non-public schools by giving aid for completing state-mandated functions like taking attendance. Ohio, Illinois, New York and Louisiana are some of the states that already give aid to non-public schools, Broderick said.

The per-pupil cost is difficult to pinpoint until administrators can give estimates on how much time they spend meeting state requirements, Broderick said, but in Ohio the amount is about $275 a student.

“I think the number varies all over the board,” Broderick said.

Peter SPADAFORE, assistant director of government relations for the Michigan Association of School Boards, said the money would amount to vouchers.

“I think it’s definitely an unconstitutional move,” he said. “The constitution, as pointed out today by the speaker, was amended in 1970 to prohibit public dollars going to private schools and the voucher movement has been unsuccessful a number of times in the past. Michigan voters have flat out rejected the idea of public dollars going to our private schools.”

Spadafore said he was also concerned that this would further drain the state School Aid Fund.

“This would exacerbate the problem,” he said. “Whatever dollar amount you pick would be dollars that would not be there to support public education that the voters have time and time again insisted on supporting. We’re trying to educate as many students as possible with limited resources. Further shelling public dollars out of the School Aid Fund would exacerbate that problem.”

Paul STANKEWITZ, policy advocate for the Michigan Catholic Conference, disagreed.

“I don’t think it’s about taking money from anybody,” he said. “I don’t think people realize there is that compliance list. Most people think non-public schools are just off on their own, but there are a lot of things we have to do.”

The main issue with the state funds is the state’s “vested interest” in the “health and safety” of all students, Broderick added.

“I don’t ever question why am I paying taxes to support the health and safety of the public school students. I’m not sure why public schools would be concerned about the health and safety of students whose parents chose to put them in a non-public school. I think it’s a non-issue,” he said.

Rep. Earl POLESKI (R-Jackson) said he interpreted Michigan laws as trying to avoid the kinds of payments Broderick and Stankewitz were asking for at the meeting. Poleski said the non-public schools were just inviting more state oversight if they were going to ask for funds.

“I would counsel it’s unwise to allow that camel’s nose in the tent, otherwise the next thing you know the whole camel is in your tent,” he said.

“The camel is already in the tent,” Broderick retorted.

The 13-member House education reform workgroup has been taking testimony throughout with interest groups and individuals about what changes should be made to the way Michigan runs its schools.

Other testimony at today’s workgroup meeting came from Don WOTRUBA, director of legislative affairs of the Michigan Association of School Boards, who talked about the considerations that should be made during consolidation.

Convincing parents and community members of the need to consolidate can be a challenging task, he said, when they want to preserve their community identity, school pride, and sports programs’ reputations. He also made the case for considering flexibility in the setup of school boards in the consolidation process.

“Legislators are going to have to entrust in voters to make the right decision,” he said.

Stephanie KEILES, a teacher in the Plymouth-Canton School District, gave testimony about her thoughts as a teacher on education reform in general. Among some of her suggestions were reconsidering merit pay — which “doesn’t affect student achievement,” considering specialized math or reading teachers for kindergarten through fifth grade, and revising the criteria for choosing principals. She also took a strong stance against the privatization of teachers that has been discussed as part of Sen. Phil PAVLOV‘s (R-St. Clair) education reform package.

“You want to bid us out to the lowest bidder?” she said. “This was stunning to me.”

The education reform workgroup is currently made up of Reps. Poleski, Bill ROGERS (R-Brighton), Paul SCOTT (R-Grand Blanc), Deb SHAUGHNESSY (R-Charlotte), Kevin COTTER (R-Mt. Pleasant), Thomas HOOKER (R-Byron Center), Bob GENETSKI (R-Saugatuck), Margaret O’BRIEN (R-Portage), Ken GOIKE (R-Owosso), Tim MELTON (D-Auburn Hills), Sean MCCANN (D-Kalamazoo), Douglas GEISS (D-Taylor) and Rudy HOBBS (D-Lathrup Village). Melton is leaving the Legislature to take a job with an education reform non-profit next week.

GONGWER – Volume #50, Report #171–Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Private School Advocates Seek State Reimbursements
Since the state mandates private schools maintain certain records about students and staff, advocates say those schools should be reimbursed with tax dollars despite the Constitution stipulating no public money can be appropriated directly or indirectly to aid or maintain private schools.

But Paul Stankewitz, policy advocate for the Michigan Catholic Conference, said providing these reports does not encourage students to attend private schools, nor would the reimbursement payments be used to pay for teachers.

“It’s not about asking for money,” he said. “It’s asking for a basic level of fairness.”

At an education reform workgroup Wednesday, he and Brian Broderick, executive director of the Michigan Association of Non-Public Schools, made the case that the state has a vested interest in providing for the safety of all students, regardless of what type of school they attend.

These mandated reports include information on curriculum, criminal background checks on staff and immunization records for students.

Rep. Earl Poleski (R-Jackson) said many of the reports the schools are required to collect are ones the schools would collect anyway to make sure they hired qualified teachers, and ones with clean backgrounds. He asked why the state then should pay these schools to do something they would do anyway.

Mr. Broderick agreed that most of these reports would be done anyway, but he added that if non-public schools didn’t exist, it would cost the state much more.

Mr. Broderick said Catholic school enrollment in the state has dropped from 95,000 in 2000 to about 60,000 this year. That is largely attributed, he said, to the downturn in the economy and parents being unable to afford the private tuition.

As non-public schools close, or students leave and enter the public education system, they become a cost to the state, he said.

The students in nonpublic schools save the state about $700 million annually, he said.

Non-public school advocates did not provide an estimate on how much the reimbursements would cost the state each year, or how to devise a formula that would properly quantify how much it costs for each non-public school to comply with state mandates.

In Ohio, Mr. Broderick said non-public schools receive about $275 per pupil from the state.

Mr. Stankewitz said New York, Indiana and Louisiana also reimburse some costs to non-public schools.

“There is precedent across the nation,” Mr. Stankewitz said.

Rep. Bill Rogers (R-Brighton), who has led the workgroup this summer, said businesses also have a number of state regulations with which they have to comply and aren’t reimbursed and are sometimes even charged to fill out the paperwork.

He said he is open to having a discussion on the issue, but doesn’t foresee it being legislation that’s going to happen this fall.

Rita Baxter of South Bend said she won’t be dissuaded from sending her 14-year-old daughter to the private Marian High School in Mishawaka.

The Baxters’ 16-year-old son attends a public high school in South Bend, and his parents are pleased with his education. But they think Marian is a better fit for their daughter.

Baxter and her husband planned to pay their daughter’s tuition to Marian on their own until he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer two years ago. His illness devastated their finances and made it impossible for him to continue working as a vice president for the Silver Hawks minor league baseball team. He is still recovering and can’t work full time.

At first, they assumed Sara would have to forget about Marian. Then they heard about the voucher program.

“We’re hoping that my husband makes a full recovery and goes back to work, and we can go back to just being normal and let somebody else have the voucher,” Baxter said.

The red stone outcropping that gives this community its name is just a facet of the histrionic geology of Douglas County that sprawls prettily along the front range of the Rockies south of Denver.

The county is named, Lord knows why, for Stephen Douglas, who defeated Abraham Lincoln in Illinois’ 1858 U.S. Senate election. Lincoln opposed Douglas’ repugnant “popular sovereignty” plan for allowing territories to vote for or against accepting slavery. Today, Douglas County has an admirable plan for popular sovereignty in education — school choice.

But the plan has been disrupted by a judge who says, among other things, that providing parents with scholarship money that can be spent at religious or secular schools violates Colorado’s Constitution. That document says “no person shall be required to attend or support any ministry or place of worship, religious sect or denomination against his consent.”

Such “compelled support” clauses in state constitutions were written to prevent establishment of official state religions.

But Douglas County’s scholarship program is religiously neutral, enabling families to choose whatever school best suits their children.

Prudently, opponents of the program do not claim that it violates the U.S. Constitution’s proscription of “establishment” of religion. In 2002, the Supreme Court, considering an Ohio program legally indistinguishable from Douglas County’s, said the Constitution is not violated by a scholarship plan that is “neutral with respect to religion” and involves parents directing government aid to schools by their “own genuine and independent private choice.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court, ruling on a similar school choice program in Milwaukee, cited the U.S. Supreme Court: “The crucial question is not whether some benefit accrues to a religious institution as a consequence of the legislative program, but whether its principal or primary effect advances religion.”

The judge ruled against Douglas County at the behest of the American Civil Liberties Union, which indiscriminately opposes any public money reaching any religious institution, along with others eager to protect public schools from competition.

School choice usually is sought by poor parents victimized by failing schools in inner cities. Douglas County is notable because the median household income is $99,522 and only 1.9 percent of families are below the poverty line. The county opted for choice because a few years ago conservatives were elected to the school board, and conservatives are pro-choice about most things other than killing pre-born babies. Liberals are pro-choice mostly about the latter.

In 1925, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutional right of parents “to direct the … education of children under their control.” This might seem to be a facet of the privacy right so dear to liberals (see above: abortion). Be that as it may, Douglas County’s 500 scholarships empower parents to exercise the right the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed. And the right Colorado’s Supreme Court affirmed two years later: In 1927, it upheld the “right of parents to have their children taught where, when, how, what and by whom they may judge best.”

This is not an abstract legal question for Diana and Mark Oakley, whose son Nate, 13, has socialization problems associated with Asperger’s syndrome. He is, thanks to his scholarship, flourishing at a small private school.

The Oakleys have taken a line of credit to cover the $11,325 of tuition not covered by the $4,575 scholarship and other aid they have received. Such scholarships cost the county less than the more than $8,000 it spends per public school pupil.

The judge did not enjoin the scholarship program until Aug. 12, when many scholarship recipients were already enrolled in their schools. Happily, many of these schools are trying to keep their scholarship students, pending the predictable decision by a higher court that the disrupting judge has ignored settled law.

George Will writes for the Washington Post.

Gov. Rick Snyder aims to provide students with more learning opportunities by increasing the number of charter schools, expanding the “schools-of-choice” program and providing more access to online courses. While many parents and students will benefit from these reforms, the governor and Legislature shouldn’t settle for just these improvements. They should also empower more parents to take advantage of the opportunities provided by Michigan’s diverse array of private and independent schools.

The Wall Street Journal recently declared 2011 to be “The Year of School Choice,” citing the fact that 13 states have created or expanded their school choice initiatives so far this year. Most of these programs provide publicly financed assistance to parents who enroll their kids in private schools. In fact, three of these states border Michigan: Indiana created the country’s largest school voucher program; Ohio tripled the size of its voucher program; and Wisconsin expanded the Milwaukee voucher program and created a new one as well.

To view the full interview visit http://wkar.org/offtherecord/program/4105/.  Brian is interviewed at 15:07 in the show.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s appearance before a joint House and Senate Education Committee hearing today should offer a stark contrast between a state that has embraced parental choice in education and one still grappling with a discriminatory constitutional provision.

Florida empowers families to have the financial freedom to choose the best school for their children. Florida has the broadest array of public, private and virtual school options in the nation.  Last school year, nearly 29,000 low-income students received scholarships funded by the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program. This program allows businesses to receive dollar-for-dollar tax credits for contributions made to non-profit organizations that provide tuition scholarships to low-income children.

There has been a noticeable lack of consideration of the non-public/private school community in education reform efforts thus far by the Snyder administration.  From the Education Round Table Committee report to current legislation centered on teacher tenure, limiting step increases and health care premium contributions, education policy and funding discussions have a distinct lack of focus on children and their parents.  These adult-centric issues do not immediately help that fourth grader mired in a school that by any analysis is failing to educate him or her.

Article VIII, Section 2 of the Michigan Constitution specifically prohibits direct or indirect aid to any non-public, pre-elementary, elementary, or secondary school. It expressly mentions not just vouchers, but also tuition tax credits and deductions.  This prohibition is one of the most onerous of any state constitution. It denies the citizens of Michigan tuition assistance that for many years has been enjoyed in several states across the country, including Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Pennsylvania.

During recent budget discussions concerning education funding, there was no mention of the $700 million plus that non-public schools save the state annually.  Many non-public schools are finding it increasingly difficult to stay open which increases the burden on the school aid fund. 

The school aid fund must grow each time a non-public school closes its doors.

The current restrictions in the Michigan Constitution preclude the consideration of policies that have proved effective in other states.  MANS strongly believes it should not be a privilege to receive a first rate education based on your Zip code.  Without a quality education, there cannot be equal opportunity.

It is unfortunate that thousands of Michigan families do not have access to this state’s high quality non-public schools due to the Michigan Constitution’s onerous and discriminatory language.  This language must be eliminated.  Real competition for a more prosperous future demands such a change. 

Our state is blessed with a rich diversity of schools – some rooted in a particular religious perspective and some reflecting a particular pedagogy, philosophy, or approach to child development.  The Michigan Association of Non-public Schools (MANS) Board adheres to the belief that the right of Michigan parents to choose an education for their children consistent with their belief and values should never be compromised and in fact should be encouraged in all economic circumstances.

published in the Lansing State Journal – June 15, 2011 http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110615/OPINION02/106150309/Broderick-Parents-deserve-choice-education

Upon becoming a School of Distinction, St. Michael School made it one of their goals to integrate up-to-date technology into their curriculum.  They ensure that students have access to the latest technology by replacing their student computers every three years in the labs, and moving the computers that have already been there for three years into the classrooms.  While this may sound expensive, they have developed a simple and effective plan to purchase the new computers.  Each year, parents pay a $50 technology fee, which is saved to buy the new computers tri-annually.  Additionally, desk computers for teachers are replaced every four years.

Technology is also used in the school’s extracurricular activities and other student projects.  Sister Carolyn Ratkowski, Principal of St. Michael School, explained, “We place all of our classroom communication that we would like to share with the other classrooms under a file called:  ‘Shared Teacher Folder.’”  By doing this, teachers and  students can access and share student projects, such as puppet shows made by students that explore the miracles performed by Jesus, Green School Projects, pictures and videos from student field trips, and Saint projects.  Additionally, school clubs, such as the Student Council, use this file to upload campaign commercials each year and the Drama Club creates commercials to advertise their productions.  The school news, the Gaels News, is created using iMovie and is put into the folder, as well, giving teachers the flexibility to show projects, news clips, or other important information whenever they have time available in their lesson plan.

St. Michael has not only successfully integrated technology into their curriculum, but they have also partnered with engineers at Johnson Control and General Motors to make science, technology, engineering, and mathematics projects, called A World in Motion, available for their Kindergarten, first, fourth, fifth, and sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students.  Starting in Kindergarten, students design a car out of paper and race it down a ramp with engineers.  This fun activity allows students to see the affects that ramp height and vehicle weight have on a toy car.  Students learn about gravity, potential and kinetic energy, friction, velocity, acceleration, and height and mass of an object as they work with a partner through ten lessons to come to their own scientific conclusions.  Then, in seventh and eighth grade, students are invited to participate in a zero-hour Science workshop, called SAE International, A World in Motion Fuel Cell Challenge, which teaches students about speed, distance, and accuracy while building a car to race at COBO Hall in Detroit for the Fuel Cell Olympics.  Sister Carolyn explained that through this program, kids learn in a hands-on way, “not just from a math textbook.”  Teacher Janet Salley further explains that this program is extremely effective, and she highly recommends it.  She said that SAE explains how to run the program and helps teachers to “make it work,” so there is not confusion when it comes to implementing the program.  She appreciates that “they provide everything from start to finish, including parent letters and assessments.” 

St. Michael piloted another program that teaches students about the water geography of the eastern United States.  In the past, fourth graders were required to learn Michigan History, and sixth graders were required to learn geography.  St. Michael took their goal of curriculum integration and used it to pair up 4^th and 6^th grade students in a program called, The Great Loop Trip.  This program teaches students about The Great Water Loop of the United States through an “interactive PowerPoint.”  At the end of the program, 4^th and 6^th grade students are paired up to create a travel brochure about their trip around “The Great Loop.”  Next year the program will continue for 4^th and 6^th graders.

St. Michael has certainly made itself a standout school.  Their progress in the areas of STEM and technology integration is commendable, and MANS looks forward to seeing their future achievements.

For more information about SAE International, A World in Motion Fuel Cell Challenge, visit http://www.awim.org/