School’s view of proposed budget souring

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Increases the Albert Lea School District thought they would get under Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s budget plan are actually tied to matching funds for the levy passed by voters last year, leaving officials less enthusiastic about an otherwise flat funding proposal.

Others, however, point out that even with no increase, the state’s K-12 schools will be better off than most other programs, which will likely see cuts outright.

Albert Lea School District officials have gone through a cycle of emotion trying to decipher what last week’s budget announcement means to them.

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School board chairman Ken Petersen said last week he was surprised by what appeared to be an increase in funding for schools, but wasn’t sure how the actual increase would pan out.

This week, after looking into the numbers, District 241 Superintendent Dave Prescott, isn’t as positive.

&uot;The money we’ll be getting (if the governor’s proposal is passed), we already thought we’d be getting,&uot; he said.

The state kicks in 40 percent of a district’s funding for a levy that passes a referendum. Counting this funding, Gov. Tim Pawlenty is saying that his proposal raises the amount of school funding by 2.2 percent.

But this is where Prescott said the governor’s proposal leads people astray. The funding increase of 2.2 percent is really due to the referenda passed throughout the state, but isn’t an across the board increase for all districts. If no districts had passed a referendum, the overall increase in state aid would be zero, Prescott said.

Prescott explained that the state funding for referenda, also known as equalization aid, is 40 percent. He said that that funding was expected throughout last year’s referendum and that it has been a given if a district passes a referendum.

District 241 will get 40 percent of the levy passed last fall from the state, but officials said they had hoped for a small increase in general education funding.

The governor also proposed to limit the time a student could take and amount of funding that would go into courses on English as a second language.

Prescott also said the governor’s proposal would shrink the amount of opportunities or programs for children who come from lower income backgrounds or who need special education programs.

&uot;The dark side of this trend will be kids dropping out of school at a higher rate,&uot; he said.

While the district is unhappy with the proposed changes, Rep. Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, said that school funding has been protected in a way most other state beneficiaries haven’t.

&uot;There was pretty much an agreement with the governor and our caucus that if we could shield anything it would be K-12 education,&uot; he said.

Dorman said that unlike many other states in the country going through their budget plans, Minnesota would be lucky not to have a reduction in education, which he said both Wisconsin and California, for exampe, have had.

&uot;The reality is that if you hold K-12 harmless, which is about 45 percent of the budget, all others have to take a hit,&uot; he said.