Minnesota Must Balance its Fiscal Year 2010-2011 Budget
Minnesota Must Balance its Fiscal Year 2010-2011 Budget

A weaker economy than previously predicted has meant less revenue than predicted resulting in a state revenue short fall. Minnesota faces a considerable budget deficit of between $6 and $8 billion for the fiscal year 2010-2011 bienniums, or about 15-20% of the state's general fund balance.

The Legislature and Governor will have to make tough decisions in order to achieve a balanced budget.

Article VIII, Section I, of the Minnesota Constitution states that "it is the duty of the legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public schools. The legislature shall make such provision by taxation or otherwise will secure a thorough and efficient system of public schools throughout the state.

The current system of funding public schools in Minnesota is neither uniform nor efficient. Years of inadequate state funding have forced increased reliance on voter-approved property tax referendums just to maintain basic programming. This growing need for increased local funding has created larger gaps in opportunity for children living in different parts of our state. Those in high property-wealth districts are much more likely to have expanded educational opportunities than children living in low property-wealth districts. Currently, 95% of the school districts in our state rely on the local referendums to support schools.

A study initiated by the Governor's Office in 2003 and continued by a nationally-recognized education funding specialist concluded that base-level spending for Minnesota's K-12 system is at least $1 billion less than needed to ensure all students can meet state and federally mandated achievement standards.

It's a number that should make Minnesotans cringe: four out of five Minnesota school districts have dropped in real per-pupil revenue since 2003. That means 80% of our schools are trying to do more with less but it's not working.

It should come as no surprise that nearly every school district has seen a decline in real per pupil state aid at the same time. Among the hardest hit districts, real state aid has declined by seventeen percent since 2003.

Now as we head into the 2010 legislative session in early February, Minnesota school officials say they are worried a delay of more than $1 billion in state education funding could become a permanent cut.

Even with all of this challenging information it is still our responsibility to ensure that every child within our school district is provided with the best possible education. Our students only have one opportunity to be in first grade, sixth grade, or a senior in high school.

Currently we have been having conversations about how we can do our business differently and yet still deliver an outstanding education. Our current system, as we know it, is going to be difficult to sustain. Innovation and creativity along with the utilization of technology are the way of the future since we will not be getting more resources. This will be our challenge: to still offer a worldly class education which is not just dependent on available resources.

Yet, no increase in state revenues means our school district must make reductions to offset increasing costs for transportation, text books, utilities, employee health care and more. For the next two years, we anticipate budget reductions of about $1.3 million and over the next four years we will have to reduce about $2.4 million.

As your leader, I will continue to focus on what we can do to improve student achievement in our district and pulling our staff together in a cooperative spirit to do our very best to provide learning opportunities for our children.