2002 House Bill 5881 ↩

Senate Roll Call 807: Passed

To appropriate to the School Aid Fund the proceeds from a 20-cents portion of a 50-cent per pack cigarette tax increase (see House Bill 5248). The bill would establish that in the 2003-2004 school year the basic school foundation allowance would be $6,700 per-pupil, and all so called “categorical” line items would remain the same as those proposed for 2002-2003. The bill also grants an additional $15 million to the Detroit school district, which was first granted this amount in the context of the 1999 replacement of the Detroit school board with a reform board, contingent on the district remaining under the reform board. Upper Peninsula schools with declining enrollment would get an additional $3.5 million. The bill also has elements related to its original purpose, but would remove a provision in the original that, beginning in 2005, would replace the social studies assessment test with a civics test, including American and Michigan history and government. Finally, it eliminates the monetary award of $1000 for each full-time elementary school employee that accompanies the “Golden Apple Award” designation, and would use the money that now goes to the awards for school accreditation purposes.