LANSING — Today, the House of Representatives approved the state budget for fiscal year 2018-19. State Rep. Ronnie Peterson (D-Ypsilanti) voted against the School Omnibus budget. In response, Rep. Peterson issued the following statement:
“The School Omnibus budget we passed today is an absolute failure when it comes to providing our state’s schools the support they need to help our young people learn and be successful. This budget continues sending public dollars to private schools, despite being unconstitutional. It continues to fund cyber schools at the same foundation level as traditional brick-and-mortar schools, despite them having dramatically lower costs. This budget also adds a punitive measure that if the schools in our state that are struggling the most do not meet certain benchmarks, they will either be shut down or have at least a quarter of their staff fired — regardless of whether the faculty or staff have anything to do with the problems facing the school in the first place. Today’s School Omnibus budget is disgraceful and fails to do right by our young people and the professionals in their classrooms, and I could not support it.”