Steve Minn wrote:
>
> The Governors' proposal to dramatically change k-12 school funding is
> an enormous boon to Minneapolis schools. If you understand how the
> fiscal disparities law works, you can immediately see the shift of a
> progressive sales tax base to a uniform school funding mechanism,
> rather than a constant trade-off of property tax revenue with our
> suburban neighbors.
>
I respectfully disagree with Steve on this one. While Minneapolis used
to "pay in" much more than it received under the fiscal disparities law,
that has not been true in recent years; the discrepancy now is minor. I
actually reviewed some research on that point last fall prepared by
House Research.
The Governor, while an advocate for additional federal funding of
special education needs, will NOT spend state money on special education
needs, in spite of our billion dollar state surplus. And yet, state law,
as well as federal law, mandates that children with special needs get
served by the public schools. Just what is the state's responsibility,
then? It limits the amount of money that school districts can spend
"per pupil," and then school districts are forced to dip into that
general education "per pupil" money in order to fund the additional
special education mandate. To me, that doesn't make sense, particularly
when local school districts in our state have a combined $320 million
special education bill that they are dipping into their general funds to
cover ($27 million in Minneapolis alone). This is what is known as the
special education "cross subsidy."
You might argue that school districts could raise additional money
through local referenda, and in fact, they do. I heard at the Minnesota
School Board's Association Meeting last month that over 90% of the local
school referenda on the ballot statewide this fall passed. I have 2
concerns about this. One: if the state is supposed to be paying for
education, why do so many districts need to have additional referenda,
and how does that affect educational equity from district to district;
and Two: the Governor's proposal includes a provision that EXCLUDES
businesses from the obligation of contributing to local school
referenda. In the case of Minneapolis, that means that our $40 million
small class size referendum, which is currently funded approximately 50%
by businesses and 50% by homeowners, will be shifted 100% to HOMEOWNERS.
Again, that doesn't make sense to me.
I think the Governor's education budget is problematic at best.
Catherine Shreves
Minneapolis School Board
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