School’s Out: Rural Michigan System Is Broke

Students and teachers bade tearful goodbys Wednesday as the Kalkaska Public School system declared itself broke and closed 10 weeks early.

“It’s ruining our education,” said ninth-grader Brook Knoertzer, 15, who wept as she embraced friends after the final bell rang. “We’ll be behind everybody in the state. It’s just not fair.”

The small, rural district in Michigan’s northwestern Lower Peninsula sent its 2,300 students home for the year rather than slash programs to close a $1.5-million deficit in an $8.8-million budget.

Three times in seven months, voters rejected a property tax increase to cover the shortfall. State officials, including some who accused Kalkaska of grandstanding, offered no bailout.

Teachers are looking for part-time jobs and parents are scrambling to arrange day care or home schooling. Some students are taking jobs, while others are enrolling in neighboring school systems.

Despite the shortened school year, seniors will graduate and receive their diplomas Saturday.

In Lansing, the state Senate approved legislation that would reopen the schools within weeks and put a state-appointed manager in charge of the district’s finances.

A team appointed by Gov. John Engler to investigate the district’s books was expected in Kalkaska today.

“They’re playing a game of chicken here and they can’t be allowed to hold a gun to the children’s head,” said state Sen. Michael Bouchard, a Republican.

But Democratic state Sen. Jim Berryman said the Legislature was in no position to criticize Kalkaska. Lawmakers have failed for decades to change Michigan’s reliance on property taxes to fund schools, which creates wide disparities between districts, he said.

Kalkaska officials were unrepentant. At a rally following adjournment, Supt. Doyle Disbrow said to thunderous applause that if state officials run his schools the way they handle their own affairs, “we’ll go on like this for the next 20 years.”