“Right now road funding is at the top our list,” said Lupher during Tuesday’s Rotary meeting. “But right on the heels of that continues to be a topic that won’t go away – school funding.”

 Lupher joined CRC more than 25 years ago and has researched issues ranging from state taxes to economic development incentives.

 “You always hear more about our group during an election year,” he said with a smile. “But our goal has always been to inform you – not to influence you. If we help give you enough factual information, you can make your own decision.”

Lupher said there are many school districts in Michigan “on life support” because of funding inequities.

“The process of how we look at school funding is broken,” he said. “We need to come up with a better plan. We’re losing students across the state, including Traverse City. This is a problem that affects the entire state of Michigan.”

The CRC research on the problem points to studying teacher pensions and putting a freeze on new charter schools, he said.

“There are emotional attachments tied to these issues,” he said. “So it’s not easy to deal with them. But we have to if we’re going to try and improve the process.”