ST. PAUL – Another unfunded mandate will soon be forced upon school districts across Minnesota, as the Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) office has discovered that Obamacare compliance will cost Minnesota school districts at least $207 million over the next three years.
“It’s just totally unnecessary that our schools are going to lose money that should be heading to the classroom in order to meet the guidelines of Obamacare,” said State Representative Bob Gunther (R-Fairmont). “Area schools need to begin preparing for this financial hit.”
Specifically, the unfunded Obamacare mandates on schools will total $54.8 million in Fiscal Year 2015, $75.8 million in Fiscal Year 2016 and $77.4 million in Fiscal Year 2017 according to data provided by MMB. School districts must be fully compliant with Obamacare by either 2015 or 2016, depending on its student population.
Gunther said the news is even more disappointing when you consider MNsure, which is Minnesota’s version of Obamacare, has been a disaster.
“We threw $160 million at a MNsure website that didn’t work, we handed out tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses to program executives during its failed launch, and we still are seeing poor service because some of my constituents are still waiting for coverage,” Gunther said. “It’s bad enough that Minnesota’s taxpayers will be forced to spend hundreds of millions in the future on this nonsense, and now our schools are being forced to waste their money as well.”