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State Representative Jim Davnie
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-0173
For more information contact: Charlene Briner 651-296-5809
HOUSE BRIEFS
State Rep. Jim Davnie On the Issues - K - 12 Education
Even in times of economic downturn and budget challenges, kids come to school to learn. We can't afford to compromise the quality of their education if we're serious about retaining our status as a national leader in education.
Despite this year's significant budget deficit, the House Supplemental Budget Bill (H.F. 1812) provided an additional $49 million in state aid to schools. This represents a funding increase of $51 per pupil, or one percent, for fiscal year 2009. For Minneapolis this means an additional $1.9 million in funding. Combined with the money from the 2007 Education Budget Bill, the school districts will receive a 2% increase for 2009, instead of just 1%. While the Governor said he preferred to "stand pat" on education and others talked of holding education harmless, the House proposal to provide supplemental funding quickly gained support across our state.
In addition, beginning in FY 2010, we repeal the annual general education offset of approximately $30 per pupil in Permanent School Fund (PSF) income. That means that effective FY 2010, that money is available to school districts to meet their needs at their discretion. As a result of the PSF offset repeal, Minneapolis schools will see an additional $1,560,000 in revenue in FY 2010 and $1,581,000 in FY 2011.
The Legislature also provided aid increases to cover certain specific expenses. Developmental screening aid is increased from $50 to $75 for a child screened at age three, from $40 to $50 for a child screened at age four, and from $30 to $40 for a child screened at age five or six prior to kindergarten. Kindergarten school milk funding is increased from 14 to 20 cents per half-pint of milk served.
When it comes to Adult Basic Education (ABE), we provided for up to a 3% growth factor. Since the ABE formula was adopted in 2000, inflation has increased costs even as the contact hourly reimbursement rate has declined. The change will help increase the reimbursement rate without increasing current ABE appropriations by increasing funding by the lesser of 3% or the average growth in contact hours over the past 10 years (about 9.7%).
In 2007, we gave schools an 8% increase in overall funding – or $800 million in new money, a large portion of which was dedicated to pay for increasing special educations costs. While the funding was praised as one of the best education bills in years, it still didn't undue years of damage caused by persistent state funding shortfalls, so I'm pleased we were able to build on that progress with additional resources for schools this year, despite the state budget deficit. The funding also lays the groundwork to begin work on significant education funding reform next session.
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- K-12 Finance and Policy - (Posted: 2011-07-28 00:00:00)
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