If, as Edwardsburg Public Schools Superintendent Sherman Ostrander somewhat suspects, Gov. Rick Snyder was hoping to illicit shock with his unveiling of his state budget proposal for 2012-2013 — one could say he was successful.

School officials are still in shock after hearing they would have to absorb $300 in additional cuts in state funding per student — bringing the total for this year to $470. And the same is expected next year.

Factor in increases in retirement and insurance costs for teachers and districts are looking at even more money lost.

Even school districts that seemed safe from any significant worry are deeply concerned.

“If the proposal were to come to fruition or if it were to stand as recommended by the governor, I’m prepared to tell my board tonight that would factor in all our salaries and fixed expenses and that would formulate my budget and would mean that Edwardsburg Public Schools would present a deficit budget of $1.7 million,” Ostrander said.

“We have saved in Edwardsburg,” he continued. “And we remain one of the more fiscally healthy districts in this part of the state … Even our district could not sustain that for a period of two years and not reevaluate our entire structural delivery.”

The governor also has recommended a blend of the general fund and School Aid Fund. The School Aid Fund has traditionally provided funds for K-12 education.

According to the proposed budget, “the governor’s budget recommends the creation of a new State Education Funding Act that utilizes School Aid Fund revenue as well as available general fund dollars to support the state’s education system at all levels from early childhood to higher education.”

Ostrander said he’s hoping Snyder is simply trying to create a “shock effect” to citizens in the state so as to create a sense of relief should adjustments be made before the budget passes that are not as bad as the proposal.

“I anticipated there would be some reduction,” he said. “I certainly did not anticipate it to be this dramatic.”

Ostrander’s own disappointment in the move to open the School Aid Fund to community colleges and four-year universities is echoed by neighboring school officials including Superintendent John Jarpe of Brandywine Community Schools in Niles.

“Now they are allocating the School Aid Fund … to community colleges and universities,” Jarpe said. “So that’s the part that concerns us. We had been hoping against hope that wouldn’t happen. But there it is.”

Jarpe said he understands the state’s challenge of over coming serious financial problems but the proposed cuts and reforms to education spending will no doubt create an ominous challenge to school districts.

“It’s going to be very difficult,” Jarpe said. “Everybody’s got to look at how we can operate everything within our means.”

Ostrander said the vitality of those post-secondary schools is important to the K-12 school districts who prepare their students to go to college.

But, he pointed out, the two types of institutions are significantly different.

“I don’t’ have the capacity to charge registration fees,” Ostrander said. “I don’t have the ability to raise tuition, I don’t have the ability to charge lab fees or textbooks or any of those things that post secondary institutions are allowed to do.

“This sets a very dangerous precedent to move all of those entities into the School Aid Fund,” he said.

In preparation for cuts which were expected, Ostrander said he developed three different budgets for the district prior to the release of Snyder’s proposal.

The plans budgeted for $300, $400 and $500 reductions. A reduction of $700 in all — which is what school districts will face through the two-year proposal — was something he wasn’t counting on.

Districts are limited when it comes to finding other sources of funding than state dollars.

Ostrander couldn’t say just what might fall victim to a loss in state funding and local districts are only in the beginning stage of grappling with what could be a very difficult two years to say the least.

One thing many area officials can agree on is when it comes to sacrifices to be made — everything is at stake and nothing is off the table.

“This supersedes suffering,” Ostrander said. “I hope at the end of the day, that common sense prevails.”