Utica Community Schools Superintendent Christine M. Johns wrote on her district’s website that the district has gone through “eight years of continued reductions” to “address school funding shortfalls.”
“Since 2002, we have made more than $65 million in budget reductions,” Johns wrote in her column that appears on the district’s website.
Yet Johns is one of a number of public school officials whose claims of cuts don’t match their own district’s budgets.
According to the Michigan Department of Education, Utica had $211.4 million in general fund expenditure in 2002. According to the board-approved budget, the general fund expenditures jumped to $265 million in 2011. That’s about a $53.5 million increase.
The Utica general fund expenditures peaked at $267.3 million in 2009 and then dropped to $263.7 million in 2010 before jumping back up to $265 million in 2011.
Johns spoke before a state House Appropriations School Aid Subcommittee on Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget cuts earlier this week. She told the legislators that her district was “not in a position to absorb cuts this severe,” according to Gongwer News Service.
Johns didn’t respond to an email and phone call sent to her office seeking comment.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.