Email: A Tour Through School Budget Disasters

A Tour Through School Budget DisastersA tour through newspapers across the state offers us another look at how the miserable funding situation in Minnesota is harming students and schools.

To recap, Minnesota 2020 reported one month ago about the many school districts that can't make ends meet and the steps they will take to balance their budgets. Because the state share of aid to schools has dropped 13 percent since 2003, schools are forced to plead with local taxpayers to raise their own taxes to meet general school needs - a tough sell in today's economy. The result is a school system that is breaking under the weight of state underfunding. Teachers are being laid off leading to skyrocketing class sizes while effective programs are being cut so students get a worse education. In the last week alone, the following newspapers offered these reports:

The Cloquet school board voted to eliminate five elementary teachers and cut by half the time of three high school science, math and history teachers.The Pine Journal reported that the school is facing an estimated $1.6 million budget deficit. They plan to use district reserves and will make more cuts if the current cuts aren't enough. Other reductions presented to the board included: four-day school weeks, eliminating busing within two miles for middle and high school students and eliminating middle school sports.

The Perham Enterprise Bulletin put names to the cuts in the New York Mills school district. The district, which last Monday cut about $433,000 from the 2009-10 budget, will not fill positions opened by the retirements of elementary teachers Marlene Boedigheimer and Dick Wegscheid. In the high school, science teacher Amy Drake and English teacher Kerrie Speer will not return, while social studies teacher Carrie Jorgenson and Spanish teacher Jennifer Brunsberg are taking unrequested leaves of absence.

The Pine River Journal reports that the Pine River-Backus School Board is making $407,130 in adjustments which includes one full-time equivalent elementary teacher, one FTE elementary special education instructor, .6 FTE high school science teacher, one FTE high school industrial tech teacher, .8 FTE high school English teacher, .34 FTE art instruction, .3 FTE media specialist, .4 FTE high school Family and Consumer Science teacher, and $83,738 in savings due to unfilled retirements and leaves of absence.

In St. James, The Mankato Free Press reports that the previous call for $800,000 in cuts won't be enough and school officials must find another $300,000 to take out of the district. The $800,000 reduction will include more than a dozen staff losses and a 50 percent reduction to the gifted and talented program. The extra $300,000 will depend on budget outcomes at the state Capitol. And the district is planning on at least another $400,000 reduction next spring.

The New Ulm Journal reported that the New Ulm school district is going to cut 2.05 full-time high school teachers in an attempt to conquer a $300,000 deficit. The cuts will be spread among several departments: agriculture, English, music, art, business/computers/keyboarding, family and consumer science, physical education, and science. The district will also cut the budget through an early retirement incentive, a transfer from a trust account, reducing supplies by 10 percent, restructuring technology coordination duties, and transferring communications expenses to another fund.

Teachers are losing jobs and students are getting a worse education for the simple reason that the state won't properly fund education. As lawmakers look to craft a budget for the next two years, now is not the time for more excuses or political gamesmanship. Now is the time for Minnesotans to demand an education system that is getting better instead of falling behind.

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