House Dems: Don't tie charters to school funding LANSING (AP) - Gov. John Engler is playing politics with education by tying an increase in school funding to passage of his proposal for more charter schools, House Democrats said yesterday. "It's either bribery or it's blackmail," said Rep. Rose Bogardus (D-Davison). "And it's ridiculous that he will hold our children hostage to private management companies who want to make a profit off our children," she added. The Democrats said they support the governor's plan - announced last week in his State of the State address - to bring all public schools up to a funding level of at least $6,500 per pupil. In the speech, the governor also called for lifting the cap that limits the number of university-chartered schools in the state to 150 and suggested that the two initiatives might be tied together. "We won't do one without the other," Engler spokesperson John Truscott said. "Charters are actually crucial to improving school quality because if you inject competition, schools across the state are going to say, 'What should we do to keep up with that?" he asked. Democrats and some Republicans refused to support the charter school increase last year. Many say they want to see the taxpayer-funded charter schools open their books and be more accountable before allowing more to open. "I don't know of any other public school that would dare use attorney-client privilege to hide their records," said Rep. Ed LaForge (D-Kalamazoo). "The cap needs to stay until we get further accountability." Truscott said the governor is confident the charter school bill will pass the House soon. But he is not sure if the two issues will be together in one appropriations bill or just connected in a deal made between the governor and other legislators. Several Republicans who would not support the charter school bill in December said they would have to see specifics before deciding whether to comply with the governor's plan. "We'll probably go to the local educators and see what they say," said Rep. Gary Woronchak (D-Dearborn). "Maybe they will view that as a compromise." Originally on page 3A in the 1-26-2000 issue of the Daily.