MEA President: 'State Policy Puts Business Tax Cuts Ahead Of Our Kids'

The head of Michigan's largest teachers' union blasts the governor in a published commentary for "massive cuts to school funding."

"These reckless decisions hurt kids," Steve Cook of the Michigan Education Association writes in the Detroit Free Press.

Steve Cook, president of the Michigan Education Association

It’s time to put an end to the culture in Lansing of putting corporate special interests before our kids.

We’ve had two years of business tax cuts and cuts to our schools. The economy hasn’t fully recovered, and our schools are in crisis.

Pointing to school budget crises in Pontiac and the Buena Vista district near Saginaw, the labor leader asserts: 

The true culprit in these scenarios is state policy that puts business tax cuts ahead of our kids and leads to massive underfunding of public education in Michigan.

While bureaucrats in Lansing toy with “what if” scenarios to fund Buena Vista and Pontiac schools through the end of the year, the students wait. The students suffer.

Snyder has rejected an idea to use the state’s rainy day fund to shore up the finances of these schools and give students the education they deserve.

The rainy day fund ended last year with $365 million in the bank, according to the state. To keep Buena Vista and Pontiac schools running for the rest of the year requires just a fraction of that.

It’s raining. It’s time to act.