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By Patrick Tepoorten
 Rep.
Mindy Greiling (DFL - Roseville) opened Thursday’s (Jan. 24)
legislative forum on education by noting some of the challenges the
state faces in the upcoming bonding season. They include a potential
$373 million overall deficit, the need for another $60 million in
special education funding, and another $100 million need in the
education formula to keep up with inflationary increases.
Pictured: Rep. Mindy Greiling
Looking
out a bit farther, Greiling warned that the state could face a $1.2
billion deficit in the next biennium. She said increases to education
funding would be to some degree dependent on spending packages for
transportation and other non-education related spending. And, although
she expressed hope the House of Representatives could find “five
moderate Republicans instead of four,” she added that she was “guarded”
in her optimism.
For many who attended the forum, held at Grand
Casino, Hinckley, the most daunting issue faced by education is the
need to equalize per-pupil funding for rural districts. For instance,
the North Branch School District, lowest in per pupil funding in the
state, receives $5,155 in per pupil funding when the state’s portion,
equalization funds, and levies are factored. The state average is
$5,862, and the highest is $8,361.
The disparity can be attributed primarily to the district’s inability
to pass a local operating levy to add extra dollars to the formula.
According to Pine City School District Superintendent Darwin Bostic,
the current formula that leaves an increasing burden on local taxpayers
is fundamentally unfair.
“Referendums are unequalized and not fair to taxpayers,” he said.
“Like it or not, all of us need a referendum to survive,” he also said,
and added that in Pine City, the district would have to pass a $45
million referendum to qualify for state aid. “We couldn’t pass half of
that,” he said.
 Bostik
showed patterns demonstrating a dramatically reduced state match for
levy dollars over the last 13 years. On average in 1995, regional
district levies needed only cover from 20 - 25 percent of total need.
The state would cover the rest in levy aid funds. By 2008, that formula
has flipped, requiring local districts to raise up to 80 percent or
higher locally, with the state only adding 20 percent or less.
Pictured: Darwin Bostik
The state average for referendum aid is now 12 percent, and aid for
debt service and health and safety has fallen to essentially zero.
All of this has created great disparities between wealthy districts and
those that are not. “It is unfair of the legislature to pass
legislation that does not equalize the formula. We do not have the
wealth to pass on to taxpayers. It is unfair that our students don’t
have the same opportunities as those of other districts,” Bostik
concluded.
But those in the audience, primarily educators, who were hoping the
legislative panel of Sen. Rick Olseen (DFL - Harris), Rep. Tim Faust
(DFL - Mora), Sen. Tony Lourey (DFL - Kerrick), and Rep. Bill Hilty
(DFL - Finlayson), would provide concrete answers to how disparities
would be addressed in the next year or two might have been disappointed.
Lourey talked at length about the potential of “P.S. Minnesota,” a
group of educators supporting research that would completely rebuild
the funding formula for public education. He noted that the formula is
“broken,” but added, “If we’re going to do our job we need educators to
come to us and explain what the needs are.”
On the political front, Lourey noted that, for there to be progress,
the need would have to be understood by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and, “If
this governor doesn’t understand we’ll have to find a new governor that
does understand.”
That sentiment was echoed by Faust, who said, “A new governor is probably the right answer to fixing education spending.”
He agreed with Bostik that quality of education should not be dependent
on property value or “how well a board and superintendent sell a
referendum.” In closing, Faust summarized economic challenges faced by
the state, rising unemployment, cut backs in education, and a slowing
economy, and called them a “direct result” of the last five years’
leadership under Pawlenty.
That prompted one educator, later in the meeting, to ask Faust if he
could support his assertion with facts. Faust responded that it is what he "believes.”
Hilty talked at length about shrinking energy supplies, climate change,
and the need to revamp the entire state revenue system based strongly
on carbon taxation. He talked of doing away with taxing people’s homes
and beginning to tax pollution and added, “If we don’t start facing
this directly, we’re going to be caught with an awful surprise. There
is a Hurricane Katrina of energy on the horizon.”
But talk of raising taxes, the inability to work with the governor, and
the “hands tied” tone of legislators had at least one school board
member frustrated.
North Branch School Board member Donna Hubbard reminded
legislators that her district is the lowest funded in the state, and
said, “Not one of you four sitting up there has told us how you’re
going to fix it. We’ve heard we need more taxes and a new governor.
Well, he’s in there.” She also expressed frustration with the idea
that, if anything is to be done, it is going to have to be pushed by
educators and the population as a whole. “I don’t make choices at
capitol hill, you do. That’s why you're elected. It’s your
responsibility to get those changes made.”
 Faust
took issue with Hubbard, referring back to the P.S. Minnesota study and
stating that it looks directly at that formula. He also said the
formula is based on things like poverty, special needs, and non-english
speaking students. “You need more kids that don’t speak english,” he
said to Hubbard, if she wanted to see more equity funding from the
state.
Pictured: Sen. Rick Olseen
Olseen also responded to the query by noting that the legislature
wanted to fund many programs in 2007, but were unable to override
governor vetoes. “We’re stuck,” he said and noted that North Branch’s
problem is exacerbated by declining enrollment. The bottom line for
Olseen was, “I don’t see any really good news coming from this session.”
On Friday morning, Greiling said the Education Finance Reform Task
Force, which she co-chairs, expected to have a first draft of a more
equitable and simpler funding formula by February, and believes the
bill will be heard this year. Although it is not likely to be funded in
this off-year, she hopes it will provide a plan to work toward. “We
can’t just wait for the economy to give us the money. We have to go
after it with leadership from the governor,” she said.
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