One need not look very hard these days to discover an accusation that Republicans have not been shoveling enough loot to public education.
Following Gov. Snyder’s State of the State speech last month, Michigan Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D - East Lansing, stated the current state budget surplus was “nothing more than the money the Governor and the Republican-led Legislature have embezzled from our public schools, our working families and our retired seniors living on fixed incomes.”
“Embezzled” is strong word, implying even a felony.
But the most obvious thieving from taxpayers, the state budget, public schools and much else was Michigan’s chronically awful economy that began in 2001 and continued through Gov. Snyder’s arrival in office.
How did public school funding survive through all that?
From 2001 to 2010, gross spending per capita on K-12 schools increased 20.3 percent.
This increase was slightly less than price inflation.
Jennifer Granholm - a Democrat - was governor for eight of those years, and Sen. Whitmer was a member of the Michigan Legislature throughout the whole period.
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