By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-904357.mp3
LANSING, MI –
A slightly improved economy and an uptick in consumer spending improved sales tax revenues and appears to have spared schools another round of budget cuts this year. The state House has also adopted a K-12 budget that restores some of the money that was cut to schools. The House school aid budget would return $65 per-student to schools in their summer and fall state aid payments.
Democratic Representative Terry Brown chairs the House school aid budget subcommittee.
"This does a primary need that people have been speaking loud and clear about," he says. "Let's make sure we have the funding to provide a good education. The greatest stimulus for our economy right now is putting the money in our kids."
Brown says schools would first see the money in their summer state payments. Brown says the House version of the budget would also bank $50 million to cover schools in case of another downturn in the economy. But some state Senate Republicans say that's not enough to ensure schools won't face a new round of cuts in the future.