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State Representative Bob Dettmer
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4124
For more information contact: Austin Bleess 651-296-5529
NEWS COLUMN
INCREASING FUNDING FOR OUR STUDENTS, BUT IT COULD BE BETTER
By State Rep. Bob Dettmer,
District 52A
This past week the House took action on all of our major spending bills for the session. The result was an unprecedented series of all-nighter sessions in the middle of April, one month before the constitutional deadline for the end of session. One particular bill of interest to me and to District 52A is the K-12 Education Finance bill. This bill does do some positive things with regards to our area schools, but it also has some major areas of concern.
Here is a brief outline of the bills impacts on our area districts: For Forest Lake District #831, per pupil funding will increase by $255 in 2008 and $654 in 2009. Centennial District #12 will receive a bump of $269 for ’08 and $754 in ’09. White Bear Lake #624 will increase by $281 in ’08 and $734 in ’09, and Stillwater District #384 funding will be increased by $244 in ’08 and $677 in ’09.
These funding increases should be a benefit to our area schools, and as such I did support this bill. However this bill does have some troubling policy provisions and it does nothing to address equitable school funding across the state. This funding gap between Minneapolis and St. Paul schools and other areas of the state is an area of serious concern to me.
In fact, I introduced a bill this year and offered the language as an amendment to the K-12 bill that would specifically address this funding gap. My amendment would take all new money going into K-12 funding and divide the funds equally per pupil across the state. This money would then be given to school district on top of their current funding levels. Districts would then have the discretion to spend the money as they see fit. I believe that this would offer a common sense solution that would begin to fund our schools more equitably. For our area my bill would result in $136 more funding per student over the House K-12 bill for the Forest Lake Schools. This would also result in funding increases for the Centennial, White Bear Lake, and Stillwater Districts as well.
By comparison, under this K-12 bill Minneapolis schools would see funding increases of $460 in 2008 and $1,051 in 2009. St Paul schools would receive an increase of $411 and $958 in ’08 and ’09 respectively. I am aware that these city schools do face some issues and challenges in educating in the urban core, but I believe that this funding gap needs to narrow. Under this bill in 2009 Minneapolis Schools will receive $13,931 in per pupil funding, Forest Lake would receive $8,718. This is a difference of $5,213 dollars. Special issues and challenges aside, this is not reasonable and this funding disparity is repeated throughout the state.
$5,213 gap between Minneapolis and Forest Lake is not equitable, and the formulas that produce this gap need to change. My bill to divide all new K-12 money equally across the state is a dramatic change in how we fund our schools and not surprisingly was not accepted. I do believe that this is a commons sense idea and that we need to look more closely at closing this funding gap. This will take some very hard work and I will be committed to doing so in years to come. For this year the K-12 Finance bill will be need to be reconciled with the Senate version in a conference committee and ultimately with Governor Pawlenty. I am hopeful that this process addresses some of the troubling provisions and brings back a better bill for our schools.
News Items
- LIMITED SPENDING AND COMPETITVE TAXES GROW OUR ECONOMY - (Posted: Jan 11 2013 3:29PM)
- BOB DETTMER SWORN IN TO FOURTH TERM AS STATE REPRESENTATIVE - (Posted: Jan 11 2013 3:28PM)
- April 5 Legislative Update - (Posted: 2012-04-05 00:00:00)
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