The Michigan Senate has passed a bill that would eliminate funding for a state-sponsored college scholarship program but keep debate about the program alive.
The Republican-led chamber's version of the higher education bill passed 19-17 Tuesday eliminates money for the Michigan Promise scholarship for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
After promising all year that they would fight for education and the Promise Scholarship (amongst other things), two weeks before the budget was due the House Democrats rolled over for Mike Bishop and voted for the cuts to education (amongst other things), thinking they could get the Republicans to restore funding later. Some of us could see what was coming the second this idea was suggested...
That's easy. They won't. And then they will turn around and use all the cuts against the Democrats in the election next year. Count on it.
Governor Granholm asks for compromise on the Promise Scholarship and the other budget cuts. The answer was "no".
Granholm said after the meeting that Bishop is unwilling to compromise on new revenues to restore the Michigan Promise scholarship program lawmakers eliminated, and to better fund revenue sharing to cities, Medicaid and aid to K-12 public schools.
Matter of fact, Mike Bishop vowed to fight to keep Governor Granholm from restoring the Promise Scholarship. He vowed to make even more cuts if the governor tried to restore funding to critical areas such as education and public safety. He held six budget bills hostage for days after they were passed in an attempt to keep her from mitigating the damage of these cuts.
The Republican leader of the state Senate says Governor Granholm will open herself to a constitutional challenge if she tries to use line-item vetoes to fund her budget priorities.
Republicans then trumpeted to the press their pride in passing an all-cuts budget. Here is just one example:
"We were able to cut $1.2 billion out of the budget," said Rep. Paul Opsommer, Republican from DeWitt. "And she simply doesn't like that and wants to raise more revenue."
Bottom line on education cuts: Republicans insisted on cutting K-12 and the Promise Scholarship last year, would not compromise on any ideas about restoring funding, actually fought to keep those things from happening - and then they bragged about it later.
Fast forward to the Spring of 2010. As predicted, Republican candidates for governor are now criticizing the cuts to education, including the Michigan Promise Scholarship.
Many of the candidates have said education will be key in getting Michigan out of its economic doldrums. Some criticized decisions that have cut education funding in the state, including last year's decision to not fund the state's main college scholarship, the Promise grant.
"The state couldn't have made a worse decision," Hoekstra said of the decision to cancel the program that thousands of students were expecting to help them pay tuition.
Twitter Pete and the others want you to forget that the Republicans are the ones who forced the cuts to happen. The press so far seems happy to oblige. The only question now is: Have the House Democrats learned their lesson? The Republicans are calling for another all-cuts budget this year - including more cuts to education.
Stay tuned. We are going to find out. If the Democrats were smart, there would be press releases this morning pointing out the blatant hypocrisy about Republicans and education funding...