Thoughts on Gov. Pawlenty's budget proposal

Governor Tim Pawlenty released his initial budget proposal yesterday and we are very relieved K-12 education was such a high priority in his proposal.

The district is expected to receive $230,000 more in 2009-10 than it would have under the current law, and $375,000 more in 2010-11 than it would have under current law. The increases represent a 1.3 percent improvement over the next two years.

However, due to the $460,000 in one-time funds North Branch received this fiscal year, which will no longer be available, and projected enrollment declines, the total amount of funding the district will receive over the next two years will be less than this year's funding level.

Other areas of the state budget are looking at deep cuts. Higher education is looking at an 8 percent cut, local government aid will be cut over 5 percent, and health and human services will be reduced by $996 million. With K-12 not only escaping cuts but actually realizing even the small increases in the formula that it did, it shows that the Governor views K-12 education as a high budgeting priority.

We should definitely be relieved our district has already gone through the Q-Comp process as it looks now like all non-Q-Comp districts will be scrambling to go through the process by 2010. In order to qualify for those funds we won't have to do anything but continue the practices our hard-working teachers voted to put in place before this school year.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions, but the overall situation tends to highlight some of the general problems with education funding. As I noted above, declining enrollment will insure our funding will decrease over the next two years; the federal government inadequately funds special education; and it is possible that the Governor's funding for performance plan could create further inequities within the state's school districts.

The new Minnesota Miracle is still the answer to the inequities we face. You can read more about that here, and listen to a speech I gave on the subject here.