Testimony on House Bill 5609 — Teacher Fingerprint / School Safety Bills
14 March 2006
House Bill 5609
House Appropriations Subcommittee on K-12 School Aid
I am Paul Stankewitz of the Michigan Catholic Conference, and I am here to speak in support of HB 5609.
The MCC was in full support of the student safety legislation from the time it was introduced last summer. Our support stems from the belief that school children in Michigan, all school children, must be protected in the place where they should feel the safest after their own home, namely their school. This is why the MCC did not seek exemption for Catholic schools from the mandate that background checks be conducted and dangerous individuals be removed from all school buildings in the state.
As you know, there is a great expense to conducting background checks on employees who were already employed prior to the effective date of the school safety legislation. Non-public schools, like their public counterparts, are doing their best to provide quality education within ever-tighter budgets. It would be most unfair then, if only the public schools were to be reimbursed for compliance with the same law, which non-public schools must also follow.
The goal of the student safety laws is to protect all school children in Michigan. A child is a child, a school employee is a school employee, and reimbursement should mean reimbursement for all. I understand that SB 1010 will address the non-public schools. If that is the case, we respectfully ask that the House and Senate versions of that measure be tie-barred.
We further suggest that for whatever funding level is agreed upon for the public schools of Michigan, a ratio of approximately 15% be funded for the non-public schools. We believe this is in keeping with percentage of non-public school students in this state.
For these reasons, we support House Bill 5609.
Thank you.
