MEA urges ISD to spend money on students, not banks
Money under the mattress doesn’t help a single child—that was the theme Monday night as more than a hundred MEA members, leaders and staff called on the Oakland Intermediate School district to send millions in its fund equity accounts to struggling districts.
“I am here for a simple reason,” said MEA Secretary-Treasurer Peggy McLellan, “to urge you to use the resources you have to ensure that our students across Oakland ISD don’t suffer unnecessary cuts to the programs and classrooms they desperately need.”
McLellan’s remarks came during a “Truth in Budgeting Hearing” the ISD held in Waterford, in which district officials laid out a gloomy financial picture for the next five years. But the crowd that had gathered wanted to know why the ISD wasn’t spending the nearly $63 million it had built up in various funds to help ease the burden.
MEA researcher Arch Lewis pointed out that Oakland ISD had put more money in savings last year than it spent on direct instruction, saying, “Banks got 325% more benefit from tax dollars than the kids in Oakland County.”
Royal Oak Education Association President Sid Kardon, who organized the members attending the meeting, said putting millions into “rainy day funds” was rampant in both the ISD and in local districts in Oakland County, and that was money that should have been spent on student programs and saving jobs.
ISD officials did not address the many different funds, choosing only to talk about the general education fund, which they said they would reduce by $5 million to aid ailing local districts. That small amount is indicative of the ISD’s priorities, said MEA Vice President Steve Cook, and it follows what the board has done with its money in the past.
“In the five years beginning in 2003-04 through 2007-08 you have received almost $153 million for general fund use – yet over that same period you have managed to spend only $611,000 on direct K-12 instruction from the ISD general fund,” Cook said. “You did though spend $84 million over the same period in ‘Other’ and found $16.6 million to support ‘Administration’ out of your general fund.
Are ‘Other’ and ‘Administration’ truly what Oakland ISD considers to be priorities for the students of Oakland County? I don’t know of a single student anywhere who said they could have done better on the MEAP but their district just didn’t have enough administrators.”
Kardon says he was pleased with the show of support at the ISD meeting and that he hopes the dialogue about large fund balances has only begun.
Updated: June 16, 2009 2:09 PM
