An Oakland County enhancement millage that would have increased property taxes by 1.5 mills was voted down Aug. 4.<\/p>\n
About 173,494 voters, or 51%, voted against the proposal that would have raised property taxes by $1.50 on each $1,000 of taxable value. The measure, one of the few<\/a> that did not pass statewide, was supported by 166,189 voters, or 49%, according to Click on Detroit<\/a> election results.<\/p>\n The Oakland Schools Board of Education<\/a>, which represents 28 school districts<\/a> in the county, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Opponents of the tax hike argue that residents have thrown enough money at education.<\/p>\n Bob Hoffman, an Oakland County commissioner, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an interview that he is fed up with property tax increases and stagnating student achievement.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, we\u2019re 44th in the nation at fourth grade reading, and the attitude is: If we give them more money it will get better,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cIf school districts were run like corporate America, they would be out of business.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoffman wants to see districts add performance evaluations for educators, among other changes. But he also said administrators should stand up to misbehavior by parents.<\/p>\n \u201cI also fault the quality of some of the parents too,\u201d the commissioner said, \u201cbut the district kowtows to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoffman said he has watched education go downhill over the last 30 years, with no accountability.<\/p>\n \u201cBut you want more money because it is for the kids,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n A website<\/a> created by the Oakland County Republican Party noted that the new tax money would have been unrestricted, with no requirements that funding go to classrooms, teachers or students.<\/p>\n The proposal would also have divided money among districts in a way that would leave some districts collecting more property taxes than their schools would get back, the site argued, because the revenue would be siphoned off to neighboring districts.<\/p>\n Oakland County sees a wide range of outcomes in its school districts.<\/p>\n Pontiac is the lowest-income school district in Oakland County and received $18,405<\/a> per pupil from all sources in 2018-19.<\/p>\n The funding substantially increased to $31,850<\/a> per pupil in 2024-25, a $13,445 increase. But that spending has not purchased higher literacy achievement.<\/p>\n Of 276 fourth graders tested on the M-STEP in English Language Arts, 241 students, or 87% of students, were either partially or not proficient in 2024-25. The percentage is the same as it was in 2018-19, when 280 of 323 fourth graders, 87%, were partially or not proficient.<\/p>\n Waterford School District is considered a solid median income district and was given $18,845<\/a> per pupil in 2024-25, an increase from $11,698<\/a> in 2018-19.<\/p>\n Of 465 fourth graders tested in 2024-25, 257 students, or 55%, were considered partially or not proficient in ELA.<\/p>\n This is a decrease in literacy from 2018-19, when 260 out of 529, or 49% were partially or not proficient in ELA on the M-STEP.<\/p>\n Some schools in the county have seen improvements.<\/p>\n Bloomfield Hills, considered the most affluent district in Oakland County, received $22,119<\/a> in 2024-25 per pupil and $16,748<\/a> in 2018-19.<\/p>\n Out of 347 fourth graders tested in 2024-25, 102 students, or 29%, were partially or not proficient in ELA.<\/p>\n That is an improvement from 2018-19, when 118 out of 368 students, or 32%, were partially or not proficient.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Oakland County enhancement millage that would have increased property taxes by 1.5 mills was voted down Aug.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7167,15,795,143,904,145,144,49857],"class_list":["post-435231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-ballot","tag-education","tag-michigan","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-county","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-tax-increase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}