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Gongwer News
Service, September 12, 2005
A still unresolved question of how to fund
developmental kindergarten programs for local school districts has many
districts across the state worried, as state lawmakers begin final
deliberations on the 2005-06 budget. Districts are worried that a Senate
proposal to fund children attending those programs as half a full-time
student instead of as a full-time student, as they are now, could cut
their funding now one month into the new school year.
If the change in funding is adopted, school officials hope it will at
least be delayed until the 2006-07 school year.
"It really, really troubles us" if the funding formula would be changed
for the 2005-06 fiscal year, said Tom White of the Michigan School
Business Officials, since schools have already hired personnel based on
the students in developmental kindergarten getting full-student funding.
The half-student funding passed the Senate version of the 2005-06 K-12
School Aid budget but not the House. A conference committee for the budget
has not yet been scheduled, but Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Midland) said he
was hoping to schedule one for Thursday.
Developmental kindergarten is held for young children not quite ready for
kindergarten. It teaches those children social schools and some basic
academic skills.
The programs are half-day and most kindergarten programs are half-day, but
students in each are financed as full-time students, said Sen. Ron Jelinek
(R-Three Oaks). "If you put kids in for two years at a half-day for each
program then they get one-year of school," he said.
If the funding is changed then the state could save some $6 million.
Mr. Moolenaar said he hoped to restore in the budget special funding for
middle school mathematics programs. The House Appropriations Committee had
funded those programs at an additional $65 per student, which would total
$25 million, but that figure was knocked down by the full House.
Mr. Moolenaar said he hoped an agreement could be reached that would
finance the program at a level closer to what the House committee
supported.
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