Grand Rapids Pundit

Detroit Schools: 75% Dropout Rate

Posted by: GRPundit on Tuesday, 12th Jun, 2007

The Detroit News has a short article today on the dropout rate of Detroit Public Schools students. The article states that a report from Education Week, a weekly education newspaper, has done a study showing that Detroit’s dropout rate is 75%. You can view the report’s web page by clicking here.

However, the bureaucrats at Detroit Public Schools are going ape because they say the numbers are “totally erroneous.” They say that they report a graduation rate of 67% to the state. So who is telling the truth? They both are. The difference is that Michigan school districts are only required to report the graduation rate of current seniors. In other words, they calculate it by taking the number of students who start the 12th grade and dividing it by the number of students who graduate that year. The Education Week report takes the more realistic approach of taking the number of students to start the 9th grade and dividing that into the number who actually graduate in the 12th grade. You see, many of the students who drop out do so before the 12th grade. Detroit Public Schools is misleading the public, as is the state of Michigan, by only reporting graduation rates of 12th graders.

So, we see that Detroit Public Schools is a failure by every definition of the word, yet they are still in business. Does anyone wonder why the enrollment at charter schools in Detroit is skyrocketing? Tens of thousands of students are stuck in a utter dismal failure of a school district because the cap on charter schools has been reached. Our governor continues to pander to the teachers unions and refuse to support lifting the cap. Meanwhile, another generation of kids is being denied an education, and consequently is comdemned to continue the cycle of poverty, crime, drugs, etc.

How about Grand Rapids Public Schools? The dropout rate at GRPS is slightly better - 52.8% of GRPS students actually graduate. Even more interestingly, the graduation rate of Godfrey Lee Public Schools (Wyoming) is only 37.8% and 49.1% in Kelloggsville Public Schools.The highest graduation rates in the area are at East Grand Rapids Public Schools (98.1%) and Forest Hills (97.9%). Unfortunately, charter schools are not listed in this report, but we do know that Black River Public School, a charter K-12 school in Holland, is ranked as the #2 school in the entire state by Newsweek.

Grand Rapids Area Tax Hikes - Vote on Tuesday, May 8th!

Posted by: GRPundit on Monday, 7th May, 2007

Don’t forget to vote tomorrow (Tuesday, May 8th). There are three tax issues on the ballot in Grand Rapids, and everyone in Kent County gets to vote on the Grand Rapids Community College tax hike.

If you live in Grand Rapids, East Grand Rapids, Kentwood, Walker, Wyoming, or Grandville, you get the pleasure of voting on the bloated and wasteful Interurban Transit Partnership (The Rapid) tax hike of 18%. Some interesting fact on The Rapid:

• Rapid buses carry an average of only six people at any given time
• Even as the numbers of passengers has increased, the cost of The Rapid on a per-passenger basis is also going up, meaning the Rapid is getting less efficient with time
• The Rapid’s web site misleads the public by under-reporting revenue by $18 million this year alone. Why do they hide the real cost of The Rapid?
• The average transit bus gets only 3.65 miles to the gallon and spews 50 times more pollution than a car. Rapid buses add pollution to the environment, they don’t reduce it!

You can read more information on the waste at The Rapid by checking out the Rapid No web site at www.RapidNo.org.

All Kent County residents get to vote on the GRCC millage increase of 31%. The interesting part is that this property tax increase is permanent! It never expires.

Grand Rapids Residents Also get to vote on the Grand Rapids Public Schools operating millage. This tax is on non-homestead property only, but effects renters.

So, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, no matter where you live in Kent County.

Tax Attack 2007 - May 8th!

Posted by: GRPundit on Wednesday, 4th Apr, 2007

Grand Rapids residents need to be aware of tax attack 2007! There are three tax increase proposals on the ballot May 8th - did you know that? This is the problem with May elections - who pays attention?

Tax issues include the following:

• Grand Rapids Public Schools - GRPS is asking for a renewal of their 18 mill non-homestead operating millage. Basically what this means is that GRPS depends on an 18 mill tax on properties that are not claimed as primary residences. The 18 mill amount has actually decreased to 17.8258 mills due to Headlee amendment reductions. This is generally a non-controversial issue since homeowners do not pay it, only businesses and rental property owners (thus renters).
• Grand Rapids Community College - This one is a true tax increase. GRCC is asking for a an additional .56 mills, in addition to the current 1.7856 mills they already tax us for. That’s a whopping 31% increase. The increase will bring an additional $11 million to the college each year in revenues. It will cost the average homeowner an additional $28 a year, or about $140 over the next five years.
• Interurban Transit Partnership (The Rapid) - We’re no friends of the Rapid, as our readers should know. They are asking for a .17 mill increase to the .95 mills they already get in tax revenue. That’s an 18% increase. The new tax will raise about $2 million a year for the Rapid. This will cost the average GR homeowner about $8 a year or $40 over five years.

All told, the two homestead tax increases will cost the average homeowner about $37 a year extra, for a total annual cost of $173 a year for both GRCC and The Rapid.

Oh, and Grand Rapids Public Schools board elections are on the ballot too - but does anyone even care any more?

State Budget Gnashing

Posted by: GRPundit on Thursday, 16th Nov, 2006

The stage is already being set for a possible state (and probably local) tax increase. Today’s Detroit News reports that state revenues for the just-completed fiscal year 2005-2006 are down by $170 million. That’s about 0.85% less than they anticipated, yet we are already hearing that the world is going to end for schools and no more police will be on the streets.

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s take a quick look at the budget. We compiled the graph at left from data published by the Senate Fiscal Agency. It is a summary of the total state revenue and expenditures since the 1990-1991 fiscal year. The only year when the expenditures actually went down was 2002-2003, when they declined by 0.28%, or about $118 million. However, every single year, revenue has increased.

A couple of quotes will show you how bureaucrats and politicians are so good at making situations sound much worse than they are in order to scare us into being more accepting of tax increases. From the article above:

The governor and lawmakers have erased more than $3 billion in cumulative deficits over the past four years by making budget cuts, increasing cigarette taxes and fees, and shifting money from other accounts.

You’ll see, that even though one reduction in the budget from 2002 to 2003 occurred, a grand total of $118 million, bureaucrats seem to be able to conjure up at least $3 billion in “cuts” over the last several years. How do they do this? Here’s how:

If a government budget is $100 million this year and it is budgeted to increase to $110 million next year, but the actual increase is to $102 million, it is called an $8 million cut, even though more real money is being spent. Our Grand Rapids city politicians are very good at making this sort of obfuscationary budget argument. You see, the “cut” isn’t a real reduction in spending, it’s a reduction in the anticipated increase in spending.

Now, of course, the bureaucrats’ special interest groups are crying foul. Justin King, executive director of the Michigan Association of Schools Boards, the lobbyist organization for school districts, claims that any cut in school funding this year would be “devastating.” He says that 50 school districts are approaching bankruptcy, even though schools have received a 35% increase in funding, after adjusting for inflation, over the last ten years. One presumes that he is including our own Grand Rapids Public Schools when he says that districts are on the verge of bankruptcy, even though GRPS spends $10,770 per student. You see, a reduction in the state budget of 0.85% is billed as devastating to schools.

But the sky doesn’t stop falling there. Dan Gilmartin, executive director of the Michigan Municipal League (the lobbyist organization for Michigan cities), says, “Any additional cuts would be suicidal for communities,” and, We’re laying off cops, not paving roads and not attracting new jobs.”

This is all attributed to a state payment to cities called revenue sharing. Basically it’s a redistribution of state-collected taxes to city governments. Our city bureaucrats and politicians are fond of stating that the city government has “lost” $30 million in revenue sharing. However, we again look at the real numbers. Annual city revenue from revenue sharing has declined from a high of about $27 million a year to about $23 million this year. Yes, that’s a real reduction of $4 million, but instead of saying that they have had to cut $4 million out of the budget (that doesn’t sound too sexy), they add up what they would have gotten each year if the state continued to boost revenue sharing. Presto - they’ve “cut” $30 million out of the city budget!

The cry from cities is now that they will have to cut police and fire to make up the difference of any additional “cuts.”

Never underestimate a bureaucrat whose job is on the line. They will obfuscate the budget numbers as much as possible to scare us. Instead of cities and schools engaging in simple and small (0.85%) wage cuts to preserve jobs, they will lay off teachers, policemen, and firemen, all the while still maintaining extremely generous benefits packages for those who remain.

While the rest of us have had to tighten our belts and deal with the still-stagnant and even declining economy in Michigan, government will continue to expand. Government never will have “enough” - don’t forget that.

Grand Rapids Public Schools - Holy Cow

Posted by: GRPundit on Friday, 4th Nov, 2005

In the spirit of yesterday’s post on the Grand Rapids school board’s inability to make a decision on selling a building, we give you today’s installment, “Bleke admits mix-ups on Huff.” There’s not much that can be said about this one, so we’ll just ask you to read the article from the Grand Rapids Press. It speaks for itself:

Bleke admits mix-ups on Huff

Grand Rapids Public Schools Paralysis

Posted by: GRPundit on Thursday, 3rd Nov, 2005

It’s funny to watch the Grand Rapids school board completely bungle everything they do. One has a hard time understanding exactly how they can bat 1000 when it comes to messing up the simplest task.

The GRPS board is considering selling the now-unused Huff elementary school on the city’s north side. They got two bids - first from a charter school company offering $1.3 million. The second bid is from a non-profit organization run by Dave Allen, one of the board members (and a former president of the board), offering about $800k.

The board had an “emergency” meeting last night to consider the charter school company’s bid. The board realized that it doesn’t look so good to sell a school to a board member (can anyone say conflict of interest?). Allen’s organization proposed selling off a portion of the land as “brownfield” sites so that the school district could capture additional tax dollars. One hitch - no one ran the idea by the city first.

To top it off, Allen’s organization wouldn’t even be able to raise the money for months. There was such an outcry at the unusual Wednesday evening meeting, that the board decided to table to decision.

They can’t even handle the sale of an unused building - how can we expect them to handle the education of 20,000+ kids?

Adopt-a-Bathroom? How About Adopt an Everything?

Posted by: GRPundit on Thursday, 22nd Sep, 2005

An interesting idea was posited by an offer by a citizen to pay to keep the bathrooms open at Aberdeen Park so the Creston High School Girls tennis team wouldn’t have to go to Burger King to use the bathroom. The City refused the offer.

This brings up a good idea. How about all parks, pools, and the zoo go private and not for profit? Each park could be adopted by a company or neighborhood and the cost would suddenly be off the rolls for the taxpayers of the city. There are examples of private parks all over the world. Some are free to users, some charge a small fee, but most are better run than government-owned and operated parks.

Why would the city refuse the offer to pay for some park operations? Because bureaucrats have no incentive to do well. Let private groups run the parks and they’ll do what it takes to keep people coming back.

GRPS Loses More Students

Posted by: GRPundit on Monday, 19th Sep, 2005

The Grand Rapids Press reported today that the Grand Rapids Public Schools lost 1,100 students over last school year. They say this is the largest single-year student loss in a decade. The article (which is not available online) quotes a school board member who’s completely baffled by the loss.

Well, gee, who knows, maybe it’s the total lack of fiscal discipline? After asking for and getting $160 million to build buildings, they increasingly hint that they will be declaring bankruptcy. Now please tell us, board members, who in their right mind would send their child to a school district that will be bankrupt in a year? The only students that will be left are those with parents who can’t afford to send their children someplace else.

So, while tens of thousands of children get completely short changed with a disaster of a school system, the politicians in Lansing, in collusion with the teacher’s unions, do everything they can to prevent the expansion of charter schools, which serve a much higher proportion of at risk and poor children than traditional public schools. And when’s the last time you heard a charter school whining about money?

It’s a tragedy that an entire generation of children, whose biggest hope in life is to get a good education, will be left behind by bureaucrats, labor unions, and selfish politicians.

Area Teachers Best Paid in the Nation

Posted by: GRPundit on Friday, 19th Aug, 2005

In an interesting article from the Grand Rapids Press, it seems as though area teachers are the best paid in the nation, when cost of living is taken into account.

The average teacher in the GR area makes $55,568 in adjusted salary. Bert Bleke, superintendent of Grand Rapids Public Schools, says that this number looks “about right.”

Of course, the teacher’s union is going crazy now that the secret is out. “We’re befuddled,” according to the GREA’s president.

We here at GR Pundit are befuddled too. The GR area has the highest paid teachers in the nation (with Grand Rapids Schools teachers not being very far behind), and the GR School district is hinting at bankruptcy. Befuddling doesn’t begin to describe the situation.

Grand Rapids Schools Collapsing

Posted by: GRPundit on Monday, 15th Aug, 2005

There was a good article in today’s Grand Rapids Press regarding much of the top leadership of the Grand Rapids Public Schools district leaving. Bert Bleke, the superintendent, is leaving only four years into his five year contract, the Deupty Superintendent has left, the Chief Academic Officer is leaving in a few months, the Chief Operations Officer is leaving, as well as two of the five high school principals (one of them leaving for a charter school), as well as a number of elementary school principals.

Hmm… maybe they see the writing on the wall?

The school district, which spends over $10,000 per student, claims that it is near bankruptcy. At this point, that’s about the best thing that could happen. If a federal trustee takes over, he could rip up the contracts and start over. All the union contracts should be tossed, along with most of the administration. They maybe, just maybe, some reform could be implemented. But we’re not holding our breath.

With folks like Mayor Heartwell in the likely position to influence what happens to the district, there really is no hope. He’ll probably propose a group hug to make things all better.