An informal Jan. 7 gathering of the House K-12 Education Finance Division was turned into an ad hoc classroom where new members, committee veterans and observers crammed for the new legislative session.
The topic was the complexities of education finance in Minnesota. Topics covered by House Fiscal Analyst Greg Crowe and Tim Strom from House Research included mandates, enrollment projections and funding formulas, which are a difficult and complex equations involving local property tax, general state aid and a variety of variable funding categories addressing particular needs.
Of particular importance to the committee, said Strom, is to unravel the difficult relationship between property tax revenue and education funding. “Changes to how property tax is assessed has a big impact on funding for K-12 education,” he said.
The division will also have to wrestle with the ongoing impact of changes made in the 2001 session when the state took on $1 billion in state aid funding in order to relieve property taxpayers, but didn’t pass sales tax increases that might have provided a revenue source to accommodate that change.
Rep. Mindy Greiling (DFL-Roseville), the division chairwoman, also promised at future hearings to address members’ concerns about ensuring equity in the state aid formula and educational resources, the fast-growing special education budget and assessing Minnesota’s ranking in per pupil funding, which has declined in recent years.
There are 340 school districts and 155 charter schools funded by the general education budget, which totals nearly $7 billion. K-12 education spending comprises 39 percent of the state’s budget. Together with health and human services spending, the categories total more than two-thirds of the budget.
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