GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Forest Hills Public Schools Superintendent Dan Behm Friday, March 6, began the first of a three-part sobering conversation with district families about the impact of how schools are being funded on students families and the state.

"I am deeply concerned and distressed by lawmakers' actions taken in our state capitol over the past several days that transfer $250 million out of the School Aid Fund and places this money into the state's General Fund to be used to cover a budget deficit related to business taxes," Behm wrote in the first of the three letters to those in the 10,000-student district.

"These unprecedented actions represent a dangerous trend where the School Aid Fund - the fund voters established in the Michigan Constitution in 1994 (Proposal A) to support K-12 education - continues to be used as an ATM to siphon money away from the education of our kids."

Related: Plan to fill budget hole, shift School Aid money, headed to Gov. Rick Snyder after Senate OK

Behm told MLive he is hoping to explain in a straightforward way the intricacies of a "ridiculously complex" system and the choices that state leaders have made about funding schools. He shares with families the number to Gov. Rick Snyder's office, which is where the bills that will help fill Michigan's $325 million deficit for the coming fiscal year are headed.

Meadow Brook Elementary students Andrew Gawrych and Ava Hamilton watching a Chinese New Year celebration during an assembly.

Looking to the upcoming fiscal year, he said revenues in the School Aid Fund are up 3.1 percent compared to the previous year.

However, he said Snyder is recommending only a 0.18 percent increase in unrestricted funding for Forest Hills Public Schools and similar fractions of less than a half percentage point for the vast majority of Michigan's public school systems.

"If School Aid Fund revenues are up 3.1 percent, what is happening to the rest of the money," he asks.

"The answer is that this money is being transferred out of the School Aid Fund and into the state's General Fund to be used to cover growing costs related to business tax credits."

For the upcoming budget year, these credits are estimated to push the General Fund budget deficit to $550 million. The remaining potential fiscal exposure of still unclaimed business tax credits exceeds $9 billion and the exposure lasts until 2032.

"In many ways Michigan's School Aid Fund is similar to a family's education fund for their own kids," said Behm, who said families work hard and sacrifice to put money into these accounts without the intention of raiding the savings.

"It (the School Aid Fund) is our state's investment in our children and in our future. We need our state leaders to treat the School Aid Fund the same way that you would treat a fund where you set aside hard-earned dollars for your child's college education."

Behm said if the state's general fund is in deficit, lawmakers should tighten state spending. He said reducing costs is exactly what Forest Hills and other districts have been forced to do for years.

"Sadly, these recent actions in Lansing represent a dangerous and all-too lazy trend of raiding resources intended for our state's future to pay for unrelated costs related to our state's past," he said. "If Michigan must honor these previous obligations, let's do so. But let's not deprive our state's future and the future of our children in the process. We can do better."

Behm copied his letter to four Republican West Michigan state lawmakers: Sens. Dave Hildenbrand, R-Lowell Township and Pete MacGregor, R-Cannon Township; and Reps. Lisa Posthumous Lyon, R-Alto, and Chris Afendoulis, R-Grand Rapids Township.

"I want to make sure that all of our state lawmakers are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to meeting our obligations as a state and making sure that we are investing appropriately in our biggest economic engine for our future - education," he said.

Behm lets his families know that the Snyder's proposed $75 increase in per-pupil spending simultaneously would reduce $60 per student in other best practices and performance categories for the district, resulting in a net increase of only $15.

Related: West Michigan school leaders react to Gov. Rick Snyder's proposed budget

"Unfortunately, even modest inflationary pressures will consume these new dollars and our school district will once again be faced with making difficult decisions to reduce expenditures that support programs and staffing," he told his families.

"If the revenues that are currently in the School Aid Fund are left undisturbed, enough resources exist to provide K-12 education with an increase that matches inflation and perhaps allows schools to begin to restore services cut over previous years."

On May 5, voters across Michigan will head to the polls to vote on raising the state's sales tax from 6 to 7 percent to help fund road repairs.

In a couple weeks, Behm said his next letter will be on how the May 5th statewide ballot proposal to raise the state sales tax form 6 to 7 percent to fix Michigan's roads will have a significant impact on school funding, pass or fail.

He told MLive he remains concerned that if the proposal goes down lawmakers would return to House Speaker Jase Bolger's, R-Marshall, proposal.

Bolger's plan would phase out the sales tax on gasoline and phase in an increase in fuel taxes, which would go toward road repairs and keep gas prices about the same. The School Aid Fund would miss out on $800 million in potential revenue by 2020, according to Mitch Bean, an economist with Great Lakes Economic Consulting and former director of the Michigan House Fiscal Agency.

School leaders say they've seen estimates they could lose $400 to $500 per student.

Related: West Michigan superintendents say Bolger's road plan jeopardize student achievement

Behm said the House and Senate budget proposals, yet to be unveiled, would be the subject of his third letter. He said he will seek to put into how all three proposals would impact their school district, others and the state.

Monica Scott is the Grand Rapids K-12 education writer. Email her at mscott2@mlive.com and follow her on Twitter @MScottGR or Facebook