"Lansing -- While lawmakers enacted sweeping education reforms last week in an effort to win up to $400 million in federal Race to the Top cash, they left in place a finance system that some say is failing public schools.
Funding is heavily reliant on retail sales in a down economy that is increasingly shifting toward services. That has left school budgets lean and getting leaner at a time when the state needs to retool to prepare students for a knowledge-based marketplace.
'We have to fix the way education is funded in Michigan,' Gov. Jennifer Granholm said. 'Our funding structure was adopted at a time when the economy was different.'"