Millage Fight

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The source of his anxiety: the vote on a proposed tax that would pump an additional $30 million a year into Washtenaw County school districts, including $11 million to the AAPS. Roberts says the district has already cut $16 million in spending over the last four years, but, with state revenue continuing to fall, it could lose another $15 million next year. If the "enhancement" millage doesn't pass, he says, "everything is on the table" to balance the budget, possibly including the first teacher layoffs since the 1960s.

Despite its name, the money will only "maintain existing programs, not approve new ones," points out former school board president Karen Cross, a coleader of the Ann Arbor Citizens Millage Committee (a2cmc.org). The five-year, 2-mill tax would cost the owner of a $200,000 home an extra $200 a year. The money would be collected by the Washtenaw Intermediate School District and divided up among the county's ten school districts based on enrollment.

Nine of the ten school boards voted unanimously to ask WISD to put the millage on the ballot. The tenth, Manchester, recorded just one dissenting vote. Ann Arbor PTSO council cochair Donna Lasinski says parent volunteers are organizing at every school in the city to canvass their neighborhoods and make phone calls. A leader of the pro-millage group, Lasinski predicts that if it doesn't pass, "it will lead to a devastation of the programs Ann Arbor is going to offer."