When an $8 Million Increase Equals a 'Cut'

Lisa O’Connell, a teaching assistant at Calhoun Intermediate School District, wrote a letter to the editor in the Battle Creek Enquirer repeating the disproven political claim that Gov. Rick Snyder cut $1 billion from public school funding. She writes, “We cannot afford four more years of these policies.”

ForTheRecord says: O’Connell should have checked with accounting before picking up her pen. According to the Michigan Department of Education, the Calhoun ISD that employs her is projected to receive $8.3 million more in 2014-15 than in 2011-12, despite the school districts it serves having 600 fewer students compared to four years ago.

Around $6 million of the ISD’s increase went to a pre-school program expansion Gov. Snyder championed. In just the past year the Calhoun ISD got $2 million extra for that program.