Whitmer, Brown Encourage Support of School Aid Fund Protection

Lansing – Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer and State Representative Lisa Brown (D – West Bloomfield) welcomed comments from former Senate Majority Leader Dan DeGrow yesterday who criticized Governor Rick Snyder and legislative Republicans for raiding the state's School Aid Fund to balance the budget, a move DeGrow said runs counter to the intent of Proposal A.

"Senator DeGrow and I haven't always seen eye to eye, but we both understand the importance of properly funding our public schools, not raiding those funds to pay for corporate tax breaks," said Whitmer.  "I appreciate the former Majority Leader's willingness to join the ever growing number of voices speaking out against the Governor's terribly misguided plan that leaves countless schools across Michigan teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and jeopardizes the future of Michigan's children."

Senator Whitmer and Representative Brown introduced SJR I and HRJ U respectively, resolutions that would constitutionally protect Michigan's School Aid Fund to prevent future raids and ensure that money can only be spent on K-12 education as voters intended when they passed Proposal A.

"I am stunned by legislators in Lansing who continue to willfully ignore their constituents' pleas to fund our children's education," Brown said.  "School aid funding is for our kids, period.  The manufactured crisis created to justify the raid of the School Aid Fund is now a full-blown catastrophe.  It is already threatening our children's future."

Whitmer and Brown pointed out that the School Aid Fund actually had a surplus this year, making the Governor's cuts to K-12 education that much more upsetting to parents across Michigan.

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