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GRANHOLM SIGNS EDUCATION BUDGETS All levels of public education now have their state funding for the coming years as Governor Jennifer Granholm signed the budgets for K-12, community colleges and higher education Tuesday. At a signing ceremony at Sexton High School in Lansing, Ms. Granholm said the budgets show continued emphasis on education, but called on the Legislature to pass her proposed changes to the Michigan Merit Award to further that emphasis. The school aid budget (SB 1095, PA 342), which funds K-12 education, totals $13.1 billion, a $336.6 million increase from the current year. Among other changes, the spending increase brings the foundation grant up $210 per student to $7,085. The bill also provides $20 million for a middle school math and science program. "Because we've increased the expectations for high school math and science, we want to make sure middle schoolers are able to jump over the bar when they get there," Ms. Granholm said. "We're on the path to economic recovery," Ms. Granholm said as she signed the budget. She said improving education was essential to improving the state's economy. "The way we're going to transform our economy is to invest in the brains of our future workforce," she said. And she argued that was why the changes she had proposed to the Merit Award were essential. "All students: we want to encourage them to go beyond," she said. "The new definition of merit is you got to have a 2.5 grade point average and you've got to stay in school." So far the Legislature has balked at the change, which would use tobacco settlement dollars to provide $4,000 scholarships to every student attending a two-year post-high school program. Asked whether she was concerned over reports that much of the foundation grant increase would be eaten up by health care and pension cost increases, Ms. Granholm said health care particularly was a part of the local bargaining agreement and could be adjusted at that level. "They have the freedom to do that now," she said. But she said she was also willing to look at legislated plans to address health care costs. "If there is a consensus about how we can go forward, I'm eager to have that discussion," she said. Before the press conference, Ms. Granholm also signed the community colleges budget (SB 1082, PA 341) providing $289.9 million, a 2.9 percent increase. Actual increases for individual schools ranged from 2.4 percent to 7.2 percent based on a funding formula in the bill. The budget also provides $3.3 million for at-risk students. The higher education budget (SB 1088, PA 340), also signed before the press conference, provides universities in the state $1.8 billion. Most of the funding, $1.5 billion, is for operations of state universities with each school receiving at least a 2.5 percent increase. The budget also includes $258 million for grants and scholarships, $33.8 million for the Agriculture Experiment Station and $29.2 million for the Cooperative Extension Service. The latter two programs are located at Michigan State University. K-16 PROPOSAL: While Ms. Granholm praised the three budgets for increasing funding for education, she continued her opposition to the proposal by the K-16 Coalition for Michigan's Future that would tie those increases to inflation. "I don't want to hamstring the budget," she said. But she declined to say what, if any, role she might play in campaigns to oppose the initiative now on the ballot.