Today, in response to Governor Granholm’s decision to restore the $127 per-pupil cuts to the school aid fund, Rick Snyder issued the following statement:

“I welcome Governor Granholm’s decision to restore the funds to education that she previously had cut, but threatening these funds in the first place was shameful. This administration chose to use our students as a political football in an effort to hike taxes. These tricks are worse than watching Charlie Brown get the football pulled out from under him over and over again – this is having a very real impact. Our students, parents, teachers and the entire education community should not be victimized by the fiscal irresponsibility and broken political culture in Lansing,” said Snyder. “The Governor and Legislature need to work together over the next few weeks to enact the ‘Race to the Top’ reforms that will improve the quality of education our students are getting. They also need to begin to tackle the money saving reforms that have been put off for too long. Lansing needs to clearly tie state funding to real results, like I’ve proposed with my ‘Value For Money’ budgeting plan. It’s time to put aside short-term political gamesmanship and work on long-term solutions that will strengthen Michigan’s ability to recover from this economic disaster and transform our state.”

(photo of Rick at Mackinac earlier in the year with two young supporters)