DEAREST READER...
Remember approximately five minutes ago when I announced I was calling it a day?
Well.
This is why Lady Budgetdown is perpetually behind.
Allow me to demonstrate how a perfectly innocent evening turns into an entirely new research project.
Tonight, I was doing something remarkably ordinary:
TRYING TO ANSWER COMMENTS.
There are hundreds of them.
One of those comments came from someone in North Carolina.
That was unusual.
Then I realized he wasn't simply a reader from North Carolina.
He is a SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER from Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, a very large public-school system, and he was asking whether I could look at financial issues in HIS district.
Well...
There's breadcrumb number one. 🍞
I wasn't going to investigate North Carolina tonight.
I simply wanted to know:
CAN I EVEN GET THE SAME KIND OF PUBLIC FINANCIAL INFORMATION THERE THAT I CAN GET IN MICHIGAN?
So I took a quick look.
And discovered that North Carolina has centralized financial reporting through its Department of Public Instruction, including standardized financial reporting requirements and annual district expenditure reports.
Which naturally made me ask:
WAIT.
WHY THE HELL DOESN'T MICHIGAN MAKE THIS EASIER?
Because Michigan certainly collects enormous amounts of financial information from its school districts.
But anyone who has followed this page knows what happens when I research a Michigan district.
MiSchoolData.
MDE.
Treasury.
District transparency page.
Budget PDF.
Audit PDF.
Check register.
Board packet.
Another spreadsheet.
Another website.
And occasionally a PDF apparently uploaded during the George W. Bush administration. 😂
Then I remembered something else.
MUNETRIX.
Many Michigan districts use a private company's platform to organize and publish financial and transparency information.
So I started looking at Munetrix.
And THAT rabbit hole opened another door.
Munetrix announced that after combining with Eidex, its products powered approximately:
65% OF MICHIGAN LOCAL EDUCATION AGENCIES.
More than 850,000 students.
Okay.
Spectacles lowered slightly.
Then I discovered something I didn't know.
In 2021, Munetrix received an investment from ESSEX BAY CAPITAL, a private-equity firm.
Essex Bay described Munetrix as its first "platform investment" and said its strategy included helping companies grow both organically AND through acquisitions.
And Munetrix subsequently expanded through acquisitions and combinations involving other education/data companies.
Now let me put the brakes on before Facebook does what Facebook does:
I AM NOT ALLEGING ANYTHING IMPROPER.
Private equity is legal.
Private companies selling software to public schools is legal.
Districts purchasing services from private vendors is normal.
That's not what caught my attention.
What caught my attention was the SCALE.
And then my brain did the thing that causes all of my problems:
WAIT...
HOW MANY OTHER PRIVATE COMPANIES HAVE HUGE FOOTPRINTS INSIDE MICHIGAN PUBLIC EDUCATION?
🤦�♀️
So instead of going to bed, I started looking.
And suddenly Munetrix wasn't the story anymore.
THE ECOSYSTEM WAS.
Law firms.
Bond counsel.
Financial advisers.
Bond underwriters.
Architects.
Construction managers.
Accounting firms.
Technology companies.
Software companies.
Security companies.
Communications firms.
Consultants.
Owner's representatives.
HR companies.
Election and bond consultants.
And I started recognizing names.
Names I have seen in check registers.
Names I have seen in bond documents.
Names I have seen in board packets.
Names I have seen while researching completely different districts hundreds of miles apart.
So I dug a little farther.
And that's when this became something much bigger.
Thrun Law Firm says it serves as bond or note counsel on MORE THAN 85% of Michigan school bonds and state-aid notes issued each year.
In one 2024 dataset covering negotiated Michigan K-12 bonds, Stifel handled 34 of 50 issues, approximately 68%, representing about $961 MILLION of roughly $1.294 BILLION in bond volume.
Munetrix/Eidex reported serving approximately 65% of Michigan LEAs.
Then there are the architects.
Construction managers.
Accounting firms.
Financial advisers.
Technology vendors.
And suddenly I wasn't looking at individual school districts anymore.
I was looking at something taxpayers rarely see assembled in one place:
THE PRIVATE ECONOMY SURROUNDING PUBLIC EDUCATION.
And THAT is going to become a Lady Budgetdown series.
THE BUSINESS OF PUBLIC EDUCATION.
Let me be very clear about the title:
PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE NOT BUSINESSES.
They are public institutions.
But surrounding those institutions is an enormous private marketplace funded with public dollars.
And I want to understand it.
How much money flows through Michigan school districts and ultimately into private companies?
Who are the largest players?
How many districts do they serve?
Are certain sectors dominated by only a handful of companies?
Which companies repeatedly work together?
Who helps districts structure bonds?
Who underwrites and sells those bonds?
Who designs the projects?
Who manages the construction?
Who provides the software?
Who hosts the transparency information?
Who audits the books?
Who advises districts before they return to taxpayers asking for more money?
And how much does all of it cost?
I DON'T KNOW.
That's important.
I have a pattern.
I have some fascinating preliminary numbers.
I do NOT have a conclusion.
So we're going to build the receipts first.
Contracts.
Check registers.
Bond documents.
Financial statements.
Vendor payments.
Corporate records.
District records.
And then we'll see what the picture actually looks like.
Maybe everything will make perfect sense.
Maybe taxpayers will look at it and decide they're getting tremendous value.
Maybe we'll find areas worth asking harder questions about.
I don't know yet.
But taxpayers deserve to SEE the ecosystem they're financing.
And THAT, dearest reader, is how Lady Budgetdown gets so far behind.
I started tonight ANSWERING FACEBOOK COMMENTS.
A North Carolina school-board member commented.
That made me check North Carolina financial reporting.
That made me wonder why Michigan doesn't provide the same kind of centralized access.
That led me to Munetrix.
Munetrix led me to private equity.
Private equity led me to acquisitions.
That made me wonder about other school vendors.
School vendors led me to bond counsel.
Bond counsel led me to financial advisers.
Financial advisers led me to underwriters.
Underwriters led me to architects.
Architects led me to construction managers.
And approximately two hours later...
I appear to have accidentally begun mapping the private industry surrounding Michigan public education.
THIS.
THIS IS HOW THE RABBIT HOLES HAPPEN. 🐇😂
So when your district request has been sitting in my inbox and you're wondering:
"Did Lady Budgetdown forget about me?"
No, dearest reader.
Lady Budgetdown probably went looking for ONE number and accidentally discovered an entire industry. 👓📜
Coming soon:
👑 THE BUSINESS OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
A multi-part Lady Budgetdown series following public dollars beyond the district ledger and into the private companies surrounding Michigan's public-school system.
No assumptions.
No accusations.
Just follow the money.
And bring the receipts.
Now I really AM going to bed.
Probably.
With receipts and respect. 👑
#LadyBudgetdown #WithReceiptsAndRespect #TheBusinessOfPublicEducation #FollowTheMoney #PublicMoneyPublicQuestions #MichiganSchools #MichiganEducation #SchoolFinance #SchoolBonds #TaxpayerTransparency #Munetrix #PublicEducation #TheReceipts #RabbitHole