This is a report to the members of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA) by Charlie Kyte, Executive Director.
The video and audio podcast above are each 7-8 minutes long. Just click on either to view or hear.
IF WE USED A FOOTBALL ANALOGY, WE ARE STILL EARLY IN THE 4TH QUARTER:
We are entering the final 8 days of the regular legislative session. There is much speculation about if the Governor and Legislature will be able to finish on time. I am hopeful that partisan politics will subside a bit and we will see statesmen work to a compromise. In football, we would say we are in the 4th quarter, but we are still in the early part of that quarter with much action still to come.
FATAL FLAW IN GOVERNORS POSITION:
The Governor's original budget gave better consideration to K-12 Education than we saw from the legislative bodies. However he depended on about $1billion coming from issuing a bond that would be paid over many years with the proceeds of the tobacco lawsuit settlement money. This is like taking out a long term home equity loan to pay for current expenses. Fiscal conservatives would see this as a very poor solution. The legislature really doesn't want to raise revenues in this manor and thus there is a $1 billion hole in the Governors solution.
BLENDING THE TAX AND EXPENDITURE BILLS INTO ONE BILL:
Late last week the legislature tried to find another way to produce the $1 billion referenced above. To do so, they blended funding for K-12 Education, Hospitals and Nursing Homes with the Tax Bill. The new revenue would have come from increased taxes on cigarettes and liquor as well as a higher income tax rate on people earning over $250,000 a year. This blended Bill passed, but was promptly vetoed by the Governor
THERE NEEDS TO BE AGREEMENT ON SOME NEW REVENUE, OR THE OUTLOOK FOR SCHOOLS WILL BE VERY BAD:
Without at least $1 billion in new revenue, schools will see the funding set at significantly less than 0% and 0% for the next 2 years. Without the revenue, the state budgets must be cut somewhere. Health and Human Services and K-12 Education each make up 40% of the state budget. Thus K-12 Education will take a big share of the hit without new revenue. You can expect about 3% less in funding each year without a solution.
Let's hope the Governor and the Legislature can come up with some compromise that will allow $1 billion in revenue to be part of closing a budget gap of over $4.5 billion.
THE CASE FOR FUNDING EDUCATION:
Last week, I was led to believe that Health and Human Service (HHS) advocates were going to testify that there should be more cuts in K-12 Education in order to fund HHS. This did not happen (yet), but I prepared a brief testimony as counterpoint. Here is a synopsis of what I was going to say:
** It is a sad day when education leaders and HHS leaders have to argue publicly in an effort to get the money needed to survive.
** My job, however, is to make the case for education.
** Minnesota is in a nation wide and world wide economic contest.
** The winners will be those societies that best educate the next generations.
** Minnesota will not be among the winners if we don't invest in education. And we must invest wisely.
** Look forward 10-15 years...... w/o investment in education society will not have the economic strength to support our needy, sick and frail citizens.
** Invest in K-12 education first and hold us to high and rigorous standards.
** Excellent education programs are very complex. At 0% and 0% changes in education funding, we will destroy many of these programs.
** It is crazy to even be considering 0% and 0%. It will be a disaster if we actually make state level funding cuts!
** Kids only get one chance. We need to get the funding of schools right.
OUTSTANDING EDUCATION POLICY ISSUES:
The K-12 Education Conference Committee is still exchanging proposals on several policy issues. Special Education Rules, Testing, Charter Schools and other issues at still being negotiated. In addition, the Pension Bill and the Statewide Health Insurance Bill are still slowly moving forward. The biggest challenge for the Pension Bill is how to find employer funding of higher contributions in the future. The need to restore fiscal health to TRA and to solve the problem of not having an appropriate retirement option for those hired after 1989 are both acknowledged. The issue of how to pay is the key sticking point.
TYPE III LAW:
THe revised Type III law no longer requires special training, physicals and background checks for school employees unless they are specifically hired to drive the Type III vans. Below is the actual language of this correcting legislation:
https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/laws/?id=24&year=2009&type=0
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