Michigan Ends Property Tax Use for Schools

At a ceremony outside a historic one-room schoolhouse, the state of Michigan embarked Thursday on a potential revolution in public education.

Republican Gov. John Engler signed legislation that next year will eliminate local property taxes as a source of funds for public schools, a radical and unprecedented step that many here hope will lead to a fundamental restructuring of the school system.

How to replace some or all of the $6 billion a year in lost revenues--two-thirds of the money spent for elementary and secondary education here--is the most immediate and pressing task facing legislators in Lansing in coming months.

As part of that debate, Engler and his allies hope to push through a far-reaching overhaul of the education system and adopt a version of school “choice” plans long advocated by Republicans.

Calling for a system that would “empower our families with (a) choice” of schools that would compete among themselves to attract students, Engler declared: “We can no longer accept in this state a monopoly of mediocrity.”

The battle lines have been drawn for a bruising legislative battle, with the strongest opposition to Engler’s plans expected to come from the Michigan Education Assn. and the Michigan Federation of Teachers, the unions that represent teachers and other school employees. Minutes after Engler signed the bill, the teachers federation filed suit in Wayne County Circuit Court seeking to force the Legislature to adopt a new funding mechanism immediately.

“We are appalled. We think this is a big joke,” said Delores Smith, a coordinator with the Detroit public schools, at the signing ceremony outside the red brick Scotch Settlement School that was built in 1861. Like other critics, Smith assailed Engler for agreeing to eliminate the main source of school funding without proposing a way to replace it.

Local property taxes are the financial bulwark of the public schools in most states.