On the Ballot: ISD and Engadine Millages, City Council
Upping Special Education Tax Would Relieve General Fund Budgets
By Amy Polk

Eastern Upper Peninsula taxpayers will pay an additional 75¢ for every $1,000 of their property's state equalized value if a special education millage on the November 6 ballot passes. The new tax would cost a homeowner with $100,000 in property ($50,000 SEV) $37.50 more per year. This is the second time in a year voters will see the millage request on the ballot. They rejected it, 3,309 to 2,924, May 8.

In light of the 385-vote loss in May, administrators and school boards felt the margin of failure was slim enough to again ask voters to pass the millage again. The Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District (EUPISD), which is sponsoring the election and would administer the special education funds, elected to ask voters a second time in August. EUPISD Superintendent Pete Everson

noted there was a low, 16.5% voter turnout in the May 8 election.

"We felt it was worth it to encourage more voters to turn out and vote in this election," Mr. Everson

said. The $1.4 million in new funding generated every year for three years by a 0.75-mill levy on all properties would be distributed to the local schools that provide special education. Distribution to districts would range from $3,700 to as much as $445,000, depending on the level of special education services each school provides and the number of students needing care. Districts spend the most money to educate students with cognitive impairments (formerly called mental retardation) and severe multiple impairments. Less money is spent to administer special education services to students with mild disabilities, like reading and emotional disabilities.

Mildly impaired students, however, comprise the highest percentage of Eastern Upper Peninsula students needing special education services, said Sue Kabat, assistant superintendent for special education at the ISD, and they represent a steadily growing cost to the district. Eastern Upper Peninsula schools spend about $166 per pupil in addition to each district's foundation allowance for special education. The ISD now levies 0.77 mill against all local properties for special education, which provides about $166 per pupil. Mr. Everson said the state average is $668 per pupil, and some districts collect as much as $1,300 per pupil for special education. Eastern Upper Peninsula ISD-wide spending on special education averages $3.8 million to $4.2 million annually.

If the millage passes in November, the ISD will levy a total 1.52 mills for special education. The money collected can only be spent on special education needs, which include specialized transportation, special education teachers, classroom aides, individualized aides, prescribed supplies and materials, and ancillary services such as speech and physical therapy and occupational and vision therapy.

The additional money raised by the special education tax will be less money districts have to spend from their general funds. In that sense, the millage will give school districts more money to spend on other general fund expenditures.

Mr. Everson said he recognizes that some schools will receive more money than others, but said the money is being distributed on an asneeded basis, rather than by how much each district raises. Les Cheneaux Community Schools, which will raise the third highest amount in the ISD at approximately $135,000, will receive about $59,000 in disbursement. Tahquamenon Area Schools, which will raise the second highest amount at $180,000, will receive $329,244 in the disbursement. St. Ignace Area Schools will get a little more than the $97,500 it raises. Sault Ste. Marie Area Schools will raise $335,180 and receive $445,799.

"Every district is going to receive some money, and we need to look at this as a regional solution," Mr. Everson said, addressing some voter concerns that the district they live in will raise more than it gets back.

A special education millage is one of only three ways the ISD can levy new taxes for schools, Mr. Everson said. The three types of millages an ISD can request include special education, vocational education, and regional enhancement. All three types of millage must be passed on a regional basis. Individual school districts cannot increase their own millage rates, except for a sinking fund millage for facility improvements or buses. The ISD asked voters to approve a regional enhancement millage in 2004, but the request was defeated 7.083 to 2,262.

Mr. Everson said administrators in the ISD continue to lobby Michigan legislators to change the way Michigan schools are funded so that some are not spending $12,000 per pupil and others only $7,085. Eighty-nine percent of Eastern Upper Peninsula Schools get the base per-pupil allowance of $7,085.

"There's a huge disparity in how schools are funded, not only in Michigan, but within our ISD," Mr. Everson said.