A teachers union leader's claim that the Warren Consolidated Schools were so hurting for money that students didn't have desks and had to sit on the floor is being disputed by district officials.

Jennifer Miller, Warren Education Association executive director, said the district had "kids on the floor without any desks" at a Michigan Education Association rally at Sterling Heights' Dodge Park on May 24, according to CandGNews.com.

Brian Walmsley, the district's chief economic officer, said he wasn't aware of any instances where students sat on the floor without a desk.

"I work directly with the principals," Walmsley said. "They would be the ones bringing it to my attention."

Walmsley said enrollment fluctuates, but even if there was a classroom short of a desk or two, there was furniture available in the district that could be moved around to meet any shortage.

"That is not acceptable," Walmsley said.

Miller didn't respond to an e-mail and a phone message left at her office.

Michael Van Beek, the director of education policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said Miller's statements ignored the options the district had to find money for classrooms.

For instance, the district's website states that it isn't considering privatization.

It states: "At this time, there ARE no plans to privatize or outsource any union JOBS in WCS. This current Board of Education remains committed to the employees who work in the district and THE BOARD RECOGNIZES the value the EMPLOYEES bring to the organization and the larger community." [Emphasis in original].

By way of contrast, the Troy Public School District, adjoining Warren to the west, saved $4 million by privatizing transportation, custodial and food services, Van Beek said.

The state pension system for public school employees requires that retirees pay about 10 percent of their health care premiums. But the Warren Consolidated Schools' union agreement requires the district to make that payment for the retirees.

There are 661 teachers who don't pay anything toward the cost of their health insurance, according to the school's 2008-09 data. If the district required them to pay the 10 percent, that would save $838,000, Van Beek said. That could buy 10,000 14-gauge welded steel desk-chair combinations with solid plastic tops.

The average salary of a Warren school teacher is $73,421.

"Portraying the schools' fiscal situation in this way ignores that there are plenty of proven ways the district can save money without impacting student learning," Van Beek said.

Van Beek did an analysis of school spending in March that showed only $8.8 million of a $554 million tax increase that has been proposed to help Michigan schools would go to teaching, testing supplies and textbooks.

The analysis found $434 million would go to school employee salaries and benefits.

Van Beek based his analysis on spending patterns of Michigan schools released in a 2008 spending data report provided by the Center for Educational Progress and Information. He projected those spending habits onto Gov. Jennifer Granholm's service tax proposal that would generate $554 million for schools.

Leon Drolet, director of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, said unions are stealing money from students.

"These union teachers would sell those desks to add to their own pension if they could, and essentially they have," Drolet said. "The teachers union has essentially traded desks, books and pencils for jackpot pensions and platinum benefits. By making demands for extraordinarily rich benefits, they have essentially stolen those desks from their children in collusion with the school boards and a state Legislature unwilling to block this theft."

The state's flagship job creation agency made a plea to the media and legislators to stop "unwarranted criticism" against it and said attacks on the Michigan Economic Development Corporation will undermine the state's efforts to attract businesses.

The MEDC's open letter comes after some recent embarrassing disclosures, including a tax credit approved for a convicted embezzler and a state audit that found the MEDC awarded tax credits to companies for jobs that weren't created.

Last week, Michigan Capitol Confidential revealed that a $38 million MEDC tax credit program in Ann Arbor for Google had produced just 224 direct jobs during its first two years. This is well off the pace of 1,000 projected for the first five years when the credit was awarded.

"They are just not used to a spotlight being shone on them," said State Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills. "Now that it is, they are running underneath the rocks."

McMillin estimates that the MEDC gave out $150 million in tax credits erroneously after a report by the Auditor General stated that there was no follow up on company job projections that often fell short of required triggers to get tax credits. That report found that some companies that received tax credits didn't qualify for them.

Although the MEDC open letter doesn't point out any specific critics, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has been one of the most vocal critics of the MEDC's Michigan Economic Growth Authority tax program.

State Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, held a hearing Thursday on the effectiveness of the tax credits. Mackinac Center analysts were invited to testify. Michael Hicks, a Ball State University economist, testified for the Mackinac Center and noted that rather than giving out selective tax favors for a few companies, the state would have been better off pursuing a policy of creating broad-based tax relief available to all employers.

An August 2009 Mackinac Center study by Michael LaFaive and James Hohman found that for every 1,000 jobs companies projected they would create in MEGA deals, only about 294 were created on average.

LaFaive said even that 29 percent job creation isn't factual, because the MEDC can't prove those companies wouldn't have come to the state without the tax incentive.

Then last month, the Auditor General report verified the Mackinac Center study when it found about 28 percent of projected jobs from MEGA deals came to fruition.

LaFaive said the MEDC didn't put any facts to support its claims in Tuesday's open letter. The letter stated that the MEDC has "gained ground" in establishing new industries and that it has played a part in making the state "the national leaders in high-tech, high-skilled, cutting edge, research and development driven job creation."

"Here's an idea," LaFaive wrote in an e-mail. "If the MEDC leadership feels that criticism of the agency is unfair or wrong, it should at least try to repudiate with evidence of its own the hard data brought forth by those of us who question the agency's work."

Mackinac Center President Joe Lehman said the think tank's research isn't jeopardizing businesses coming to the state.

"The only jobs our research might jeopardize are those at MEDC headquarters," Lehman wrote in an e-mail.

A study by the Kalamazoo-based Upjohn Institute presents what many — including LaFaive — consider the most positive view of the MEGA program's effectiveness. It found that the program provided a net gain of 18,000 jobs spread out over 11 years, or about 1,636 jobs for each year.

By comparison, the state of Michigan had a net loss of 203,240 jobs in 2008 alone, the last complete year of data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.