School officials make case for equitable funding
Published 3:50 pm Saturday, January 24, 2009
Now that the legislative session has started, I have had an opportunity to meet with many local groups that visit the Capitol to talk about their specific causes. This week, I met with Albert Lea Schools Superintendent Dave Prescott, Albert Lea School Board Member Bill Leland, and Albert Lea Director of Finances Larry Kellogg at an education meeting in St. Paul.
They were attending the Schools for Equity in Education Legislative Kickoff, which is a coalition of Minnesota schools working together for equity in education funding. I was very happy to sit in on this presentation — although I often hear about this issue in committee or from educators back home, it’s interesting to hear perspectives from a variety of school districts who are facing much the same challenges as our local schools.
As Greater Minnesota school districts, it’s extremely hard to compete for funding dollars with the larger, metropolitan schools in our state. No one is denying that Minneapolis schools have many needs to meet — their student populations alone demand quite a bit of money. However, Albert Lea, Austin and other schools in the area have many of their own, unique needs and the state education funding formula doesn’t always recognize this difference.
The state has something called an equalizing factor, which was established in 1993 to ensure all residential taxpayers paid the same cost for a levy dollar per dollar of assessed home value regardless of where they lived in Minnesota. Since 1993, however, the state equalizing factor has remained the same while property values statewide have skyrocketed. Since the amount of state aid-per-levy-dollar a district receives is based on property values, taxpayers in lower property wealth districts now pay three or four times as much as taxpayers in property-rich districts to generate the same amount of referendum revenue for their schools.
For instance, if a district had $1,557 of levy authority, the property tax impact on a $100,000 home in Hopkins would be $134. In Roseau, a rural district, the impact would be $464. That’s a shocking disparity and a heavy burden on our property taxpayers. In addition, that equation makes it difficult to pass necessary referenda in Greater Minnesota — what taxpayer wants to assume such a high burden?
That brings up another point that this group talked to us about: the ever-increasing reliance on local operating referenda to keep our schools operational. The state has tried in years’ past to take over much of the education funding responsibilities, but inevitably, we always end up back at the point where property taxpayers are footing too much of the bill. Education is the key to creating a prepared workforce, which will, in turn, create new jobs and attract new business to Minnesota. In this economy, Minnesota should be embracing it’s educational institutions and provide them the support they need to help our children succeed. It seems we’ve been going in the opposite direction.
This is a complicated system, and one that is very difficult to solve in a year when the state is facing a $4.8 billion budget deficit. But as I’ve said before, this economic situation presents the Legislature with a lot of opportunity to reform the way we do business. Perhaps this is the year to take a close look at this education funding structure and make sure our dollars are being spent wisely, fairly and effectively throughout the state.
I appreciate the chance to meet with the school officials, and I invite anyone to contact me whenever they are going to be in the Capitol area during session. I am available at 651-296-9248; sen.dan.sparks@senate.mn; or 317 State Capitol, St. Paul, MN 55155.
Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, is the state senator for District 27.