|
Student funding decline reported
Staff Writer Eighty percent of Minnesota school districts have seen a decline in per pupil funding between 2003-2008.
That includes many area districts, according to research released last week by Minnesota 2020, a progressive, non-partisan think tank founded by Matt Entenza.
According to the study, revenue for Minnesota public schools has dropped 4.4 percent since 2003. While property tax levies for education rose an average of $649 per student since 2003, the state has cut school aid an average of $1,071 per student.
While this information is nothing new for school officials such as Steve Dickinson, director of business services for the Brainerd School District, he said the information shows how revenue increases for the past five years for public education compare to today's dollars, taking inflation into account.
"It compares the real value of the dollar over the last five years," Dickinson said of the study. "Inflation is probably about 3 percent a year and revenue increases have not been 3 percent a year. We're behind inflation."
Rep. John Ward, DFL-Brainerd, said he hadn't seen the report but cited the recent findings of a Schools for Equity in Education study that found that Minnesota schools were underfunded by $1 billion.
"I firmly believe that funding for education has fallen behind," said Ward. "The (state) constitution guarantees our kids an equitable and fair education and the system that has been created over the change in funding over the last decade has created a system of haves and have nots and I believe part of that reason is because of a lack of investment in education."
In 2003, the state began a plan to reduce property taxes and increase state aid to schools. While taxes were cut, state aid failed to keep pace with inflation which meant school districts needed to ask taxpayers for voter-approved operating levy referendums. In some cases, including most recently in Brainerd and Crosby-Ironton, taxpayers said no to these increases, which is causing increases in class sizes, program reductions and teacher and staff layoffs.
"It's the same story. In the last five years levies have gone up and state aid has gone down," Scott Croonquist, executive director of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, said in a news release. "The difference has not been equal and that's where districts are hurting."
Minnesota 2020's revenue calculations use data from the Department of Education. The figures were adjusted for inflation using the implicit price deflator rather than the consumer price index. According to Minnesota 2020, the implicit price deflator is a better judge of government spending inflation than the CPI. Other organizations have used different figures and methods of determining inflation as it relates to changes in school finance.
The Fiscal Analysis Department of the House of Representatives showed per pupil aid from state, local and federal sources grew 1.4 percent each year between 1984 to 2004. The Office of the State Auditor reported that overall school revenue grew by 22.3 percent between 2000 and 2004 while the inflation rate was 14 percent, according to Minnesota 2020.
The Association of Metropolitan School Districts determined that state aid must increase $770 per student to equal state aid in 1991-1992.
This research excluded revenue totals from charter schools.
JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
|
