On average, health insurance coverage and pension programs in the Clarkston, Huron Valley, Lake Orion, Rochester and Waterford school districts add up to between $19,511 and $20,640 per employee.

Public education finance experts say these figures are typical of costs seen in districts across the state and illustrate the need for dramatic reform.

"My guess is that the mood of the public would be to support changes in these public school provisions," said Brian Whiston, director of legislative affairs for Oakland Schools.

School employee advocates argue, however, that benefit packages were established through collective bargaining processes that saw educators agree to limited or no pay increases and other sacrifices made to protect their benefits.

Michigan Education Association spokeswoman Karen Schultz added that high insurance costs are attributable to trends in the health-care industry, not to school employees simply looking to keep themselves and their families healthy.

"We haven't seen anyone really looking at what the real problem is," she argued. "It seems like people out there are looking to fix a bigger problem on the backs of employees."

Whether school workers would suffer as result of proposed reforms remains an issue of debate, but there is little question that changes to school health care and retirement benefits are central to legislative discussions focused on resolving a $1.8 billion state budget shortfall in the 2007-08 fiscal year.

"It is absolutely a must for the Senate Republicans that we see this reform, because anything else we do will be of no value without them," said Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester.

Senate bills 418-421 call for three primary changes in the way public school districts obtain health insurance coverage.

Schools and other public entities would be encouraged to form large enrollment pools that could bargain for lower insurance rates. To further boost pool bargain power, all insurance providers operating in Michigan would be required to release claims data to individual member groups. Finally, all public entities would be required to seek competitive bids for their insurance plans.

"These are the same kind of practices that are in place for most of the private sector and much of the public sector," said Tom White, executive director of the Michigan School Business Officials. "This is just a pure improvement."

But Gary Fralick, spokesman for the Michigan Education Special Services Association -- which coordinates insurance plans for roughly half of the state's school employees -- said requiring insurance organizations to release claims data would actually work against the goal of building pools.

This, he suggested, is because groups with low-risk claims data would be courted by private insurance agencies offering promises of lower rates. This dynamic, referred to as cherry picking, would leave pools with higher-risk claims data and potential insurance rate hikes of as much as 30 percent to 40 percent.

"For-profit insurers are crying to get into the Michigan education market," Fralick argued. "This would provide every pool with a built-in leak."

Whiston countered that the legislation requires groups entering a pool to remain in that pool for at least three years. Additionally, those that left a pool would be prohibited from returning for two years.

"The whole reason for that is to stop the cherry-picking argument," he said.

Proponents of the legislation cite estimates of 8 to 12 percent savings as result of proposed changes. Statewide, this could amount to a $168 million or more per year.

Rep. Tim Melton, D-Pontiac, chairman of the House Education Committee, said there is no evidence to back such claims.

"There's pooling in the state of Michigan right now," he argued. "To date, I have heard no compelling argument as to why we should do this. No one has been able to pull out numbers showing the savings."

Many bill supporters suspect that the proposed changes will stall in the state's House, which is controlled by Democrats. Bishop said he remains hopeful that opponents will realize the merits, however.

"I haven't seen that yet, but we intend to convince them over the long haul," he said.

Also on the table are two Republican-backed changes in the public school employee retirement system.

The first would create a graduated retiree health care benefit that caps coverage of insurance premiums at 90 percent. It would also close loopholes that have allowed some short-term employees to receive full benefits.

"It's patently unfair in my mind ... that someone can receive full benefits for working in the schools for as little as five years," White said. Many Democrats agree. In fact, Melton said he introduced legislation months ago to usher in this and other reforms. In a press release issued early this month, Gov. Jennifer Granholm also expressed support.

"These and other pension and health care reforms will have little or no impact on our immediate problem, the 2008 budget," she said. "But they are critical to controlling our costs over time, and they must be part of a budget agreement this year."

The State Office of Retirement Services estimates that had a graduated benefit system been in place for the last 40 years, statewide savings last year would have been nearly $327 million.

The second proposed change in the retirement system would raise the pension contributions that new school employees make from 4.3 percent of salary to 6.4 percent. This is estimated to save state school districts a modest $7 million in the first year, but well into the hundreds of millions per year in future decades, Whiston said.

But drawing a larger deduction from school employee paychecks may welcome a fierce fight.

Schultz said the Michigan Education Association is open to a comprehensive review of the state's retirement system, but will not support changes until such a review is performed.

"Our impression is that that has not been done," she said. "Our impression is that (legislators) are looking for quick fixes. We need long-term solutions."

The Oakland Press sampling of northern Oakland County school district health care expenditures revealed that none of those surveyed ask teachers to contribute to health insurance premiums. Just two of five have them cover annual deductibles, but all five ask them to handle $5 to $25 prescription co-pays.

Once again typical of benefit plans in districts across the state, these provisions compare favorably to the contributions average workers are asked to make toward health care.

McGraw Wentworth, a Troy-based group benefit consulting firm, surveyed 368 public and private organizations in southeastern Michigan for a report it released last month. Researchers estimated that the average out-of-pocket health care cost for workers -- including premium contributions, co-pays and deductibles -- was $2,065 last year.

Whiston said early discussions about school health care system reforms included talk of mandating school employee contributions to health care premiums, deductibles and co-pays. He noted that legislators elected to leave that challenge to local school district contract negotiators, however.

Mike Reno, a Rochester Board of Education trustee and health care and retirement reform advocate, argues that as a result, current legislative efforts fail to adequately deal with rapidly rising costs.

"I think those are really nothing more than baby steps," he said. "They're headed in the right direction, but I have a hard time seeing where they're going to achieve the kinds of savings we need."

Karl Bell, Michigan Education Association UniServ director for the Clarkston and Holly school districts, reiterated that teachers have made considerable sacrifices to protect their benefits. He added that looking to employees to solve the state's budget crunch is unfair.

"I think there are other options than to continue cutting (school spending)," he argued. "Someone has got to stand up and say, TThis is not a spending problem, it's a revenue problem.' "

The South Lyon school district is among few in the state that have seen administrators and employees agree on a plan that includes not only health insurance premium contributions, but a limit on district-provided pension contributions and employee salary increases tied to annual increases in state funding.

Board of Education Trustee George Ehlert said that with these contract provisions, the district can count on stable and predictable increases in budget expenditures. This, in turn, means administrators are better able to manage budget constraints and avoid having to layoff employees.

"I wish we were a trend-setter, but nobody's following us," Ehlert said. He noted that the district was fortunate to establish the contract provisions in the early 1990s, when state economic conditions made them more attractive to employees.

Arguing that it would be almost impossible for district administrators to achieve such an agreement in today's economic climate, Ehlert said, "I think a lot of districts don't look to make these kinds of decisions until times are tough, and then it becomes very adversarial."