There’s a plan in the state Senate to keep more Michigan schools from falling into financial emergencies. Supporters say it would create an early warning system for cash-strapped districts.
Senate Bills 950-957 would free up more money in state loans and bonds for schools that show signs of falling into deficit. At the same time, they would also make it easier for the state to assign an emergency manager to a district if it doesn’t follow through on promises to get its books in order.
“Knowing that that emergency manager is at the end hopefully is, I guess, a little motivation for all the school districts – and for the state, too – not to be involved in an emergency manager situation,” said state Sen. Howard Walker, R-Traverse City, who is sponsoring a number of the bills.
But Walker says, “the focus is on not getting to that point.”
The state dissolved the Buena Vista and Inkster school districts last year after they ran out of money and were no longer able to operate.