The debt load of the Detroit public school district increases by $1 million every school day, according to the co-chair of a coalition trying to help the financially troubled school district.

John Rakolta, the co-chair of the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren, offered this figure on the same day that Gov. Rick Snyder released a new proposal to fix Detroit’s school system.

“As far as the size of the total debt, it’s big, really big and very complex,” Rakolta said in an email. “It has many facets. The debt is increasing by an estimated $1 million per school day. If this isn’t fixed now, it will just grow and create a larger hole to dig out of. There is no magic here. Only heavy lifting can get this done.”

Snyder pitched a plan Monday that would require Michigan taxpayers to ante up $715 million for Detroit schools. Of this, $515 million would go to pay off the school district’s short-term debt, and another $200 million would go to create a new administrative entity to run the city’s schools.

Snyder said the state’s School Aid Fund, the primary funding source for Michigan public schools, would contribute around $70 million a year for 10 years. When the current school district’s debt is retired, the district would be closed and the new entity would assume control of schools.

Rakolta said the state was bailing out itself, not Detroit’s schools.

“This is not a Detroit bailout,” Rakolta wrote. “This is a state bailout of the state. The state managed the expenditures of the money as emergency managers of the district. The state issued the state aid notes and bonds to cover the debt using the full faith and credit of the state. The state decided not to pay MPSERS (state pension system for school employees). The state decided not to pay the vendors. The state continues to manage the district.”

The governor’s proposal requires approval by the state Legislature.

State Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, said it would be tough to get support for a bailout of Detroit Public Schools.

“It’s going to be tough unless we can be shown exactly what it is going to cost if we don’t do it and if it is going to get worse,” Jones said. “Are we on the hook for bailing out a school district that has had bad supervision for decades? We are bailing out a system that is failed. We are going to use money that could go to all the other districts. I’m very disappointed that it would be suggested that Detroit get bailed out at the cost of all the other districts.”

Jones said he held the local school district responsible for its bad financial condition, not the state.

“The superintendent and school board have gotten themselves into this and the state has tried to help,” Jones said.

In regular reports to the state, DPS shows a $238.2 million deficit in its operations budget. (Covering this particular gap between revenues and expenses is how the district is adding the $1 million per day in new debt.) In addition, the Michigan Department of Treasury reports that the district owes $572 million to a state loan authority for money borrowed to cover previous year's overspending.

Both those figures refer to money borrowed to cover routine operating expenses, such as salaries and heating bills — expenses that are supposed to be covered by regular operating revenue the district receives from local, state and federal taxpayers.

But the red ink does not stop there. DPS also owes around $2 billion to bondholders for long-term debt incurred to pay for long-lived assets such as land, buildings and major school infrastructure improvement projects.

Many newspaper stories, including a recent one in the Detroit Free Press, have repeated a tale about demoralized Michigan teachers who are blamed for everything. The demoralized state of Michigan's teaching workforce, it is said, could lead to a teacher shortage because young people don’t want to enter the field.

Yet the number of people already certified to teach in this state tells a different story, as does the fact that the number increases every year, thanks to a continued influx of new teachers.

According to the Michigan Department of Education, around 129,682 individuals have obtained the state teaching certificate that makes them eligible to work in public school classrooms. That’s some 17,000 more than are currently teaching in Michigan. Another 7,000 to 10,000 people get new certificates every year, adding to the ranks of potential teachers.

There are 112,144 certified teachers working in the public K-12 schools in Michigan. The state doesn’t track how many certified teachers are employed in private schools.

While there seems to be an ample supply of certified teachers, employment opportunities in public schools have been in decline for 12 years, in part because school enrollment has fallen.

In the 2007-2008 school year, there were 1,645,742 students in Michigan public schools and the equivalent of 107,537 full-time teachers. That came to 15.3 students for every teacher.

In the 2014-15 school year, the number of students had fallen to 1,550,802, for whom there were 97,288 teachers, or 10,249 fewer than seven years ago. But student-teacher ratio had risen to 15.9. Even though there were around 5 percent fewer students, there were 10 percent fewer full-time teachers.

“There’s not evidence to claim Michigan has a widespread teacher shortage,” said Michael Van Beek, research director for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “People who make this claim typically use it as an argument for paying teachers more across the board. But the data suggest that there are more than enough people who think the compensation package districts offer new teachers is a pretty good deal.”

Evidence from around the state suggests no shortage of applicants for full-time teaching positions. Michigan Capitol Confidential checked with five school districts that have posted a “teacher wanted” notice. The five openings drew 99 applicants, as follows:

Potterville Public Schools in Eaton County had two applicants for a middle school/high school art teacher and filled the slot within two and a half weeks. Charlotte Public Schools in Eaton County had nine applicants for a special-education teacher position within eight days of its posting. Novi Community School District in Oakland County filled a preschool teacher opening that had 20 applicants. Ann Arbor Public Schools saw 23 apply for a physics position in its high school international education program and filled the opening. Athens Area Schools in Calhoun County saw 45 apply for a now-filled secondary school social studies teacher position.

Some openings may be easier than others to fill. Athens Area Schools Superintendent Joe Huepenbecker said it’s hard to find qualified applicants for secondary math and science teaching positions.

But union-negotiated pay scales that base compensation levels strictly on a teacher’s seniority and academic credentials inhibit schools’ ability to use higher salaries to attract candidates for in-demand positions. One result is that across the state there are elementary school gym teachers getting higher pay than advanced placement high school science teachers.