At a time when the Highland Park School District's budget was drastically in the red, its teachers didn’t make any contributions to health care costs and saw their average salaries increase.

Despite losing 44 percent of its students over four years, the district only cut its full-time work force by 21 percent and didn’t touch its administration staffing levels. It has the highest debt-to-revenue ratio of any school district in the state.

Gov. Rick Snyder recently declared Highland Park is in a state of financial emergency, which could lead to the appointment of an emergency manager.

Despite media reports of broken water fountains and boarded up windows at pre-schools, Highland Park’s per-pupil funding has increased from $9,670 in 2005-2006 to $11,055 in 2009-2010. Its per-pupil funding in 2009-2010 was the 62nd highest in the state among 783 districts and charter public schools. The district is still spending more than $2,000 per student than it was taking in for 2009-2010.

 “It does not appear to be a revenue issue,” said Michael Van Beek, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “It appears to be a spending problem.”

At least one Highland Park official believes the district needs more money.

Robert Davis, secretary of the Highland Park Board of Education, told The Detroit News:  "When you look at the state of public education in the state of Michigan, there is a dire need for the governor and the Legislature to provide resources to fund public education rather than coming up with systemic ways to destroy it."

Neither Davis nor Superintendent Edith Hightower returned emails seeking comment.

But according to MLive.com, Hightower told a group of Highland Park parents, "You think you don't have anything now? Wait until you really don't have anything.”

Van Beek points out that Highland Park has overspent its revenues four consecutive years. In 2010-2011, Highland Park was $11.2 million in the red while only having $18.8 million in general fund revenues.

“They’ve had a financial problem for many years,” Van Beek said. “The bottom line is they’ve been spending more money than they’ve been taking in for a long time. To put this at the feet of the governor or the Legislature is not fair.”

Highland Park teachers weren’t making contributions to their own health care costs as of 2009 – the last year information was made available by the school district. And the teachers saw their average salaries increase from $47,650 in 2005-2006 to $50,783 in 2009-2010, the last year the state has information available.

The district has seen an alarming exit of students. Highland Park had 1,896 students in 2009-2010, down from 3,377 students in 2005-2006. But the school hasn’t been able to downsize as quickly.

The district went from 376 full-time employees in 2005-2006 to 297 full-timers in 2009-10, a 21 percent drop – but only half as much as the student decline.

Also, the school’s administrative staff remained at 40 full-time jobs from 2005-2006 to 2009-2010. Administrative staffing consists of the superintendent, principals and support staff, such as secretaries.

INDIANAPOLIS — Efforts by Indiana Republicans to pass right-to-work legislation remained stalled Thursday.

There weren't enough Democrats on the floor of the Indiana House at 9 a.m. Thursday to provide a quorum. Once again the House could not convene session and once again action on the measure (House Bill 1001) was prevented. A second attempt to convene took place later in the day but failed due to the lack of a quorum.

Republicans have started imposing $1,000-a-day fines on the Democrats for not showing up. Meanwhile, the Democrats are fighting in court to prevent the fines from being extracted from their paychecks.

Gov. Mitch Daniels has the authority to force all legislative members to come (or be brought) to a legislative session. It was the threat of him using this authority over the right-to-work issue last year that resulted in the boycotting Democrats fleeing into Illinois.

The official word from the office of Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, is that he's hoping the Democrats come to their senses. He also told reporters that he has not been in contact with the Democrats.

Democratic leaders say their lawyers need time to draft a revised proposal for a statewide referendum on House Bill 1001. They've said the wording could possibly be ready by Friday. One thing they don't seem to be saying, however, is whether they'd walk out again if the Republicans vote against the referendum amendment.

Under the House Bill 1001, companies and unions would be prohibited from negotiating contracts requiring employees to join unions. Also, any requirements that non-union employees pay union dues or agency fees would be banned.

Two weeks ago, the Democrats boycotted House sessions for three days to keep the right-to-work legislation from moving. Last week, the Democrats cut a deal with the Republicans. Under the agreement, the Democrats would have been allowed to debate the bill in session on Tuesday of this week and then allow a vote to be taken on it by the end of the week.

On Tuesday afternoon the House session started with the Democrats in attendance, but they reneged on the deal and bolted before the debate started, claiming they needed more time to work on the referendum amendment.