Area school districts draft legislative platform

Area school

districts seeking more in education finance formula

By GUY PRIEL

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- When members of the Legislature return to work on Jan. 3 they will be armed with a variety of proposals, agendas, and goals from various groups throughout the state.

One of those platforms has been prepared by seven area school districts, who are hoping their proposals will bring an increase in funding.

"This is only a draft at this point," District 88 Superintendent Harold Remme said. "We will look at this one more time before drafting a final copy. This will give us something concrete to present to the legislators."

The districts involved were Sleepy Eye, New Ulm, Mankato, Maple River, Madelia, St. James, and Nicollet.

"If the final platform is enacted, we could possibly receive an additional $316 per pupil unit, which would mean an 8 percent increase on the funding formula," Remme said. "These are projections only at this point, because there are still unknowns, such as enrollment."

The six-item proposal is a good effort to reduce costs at the district level, but it does not negate the need for an excess levy referendum, District 88 Board Member David Leuthe said.

Item one of the proposal calls for additional funding for districts experiencing declining enrollment by using a three-year average of pupil units to determine general education revenue.

Fixed costs related to operation of facilities make it difficult to reduce budgets by the amount of loss caused by declining enrollments, the proposal states.

Item two of the proposal calls for implementation of full-day kindergarten at the state level, because of changing demographics. Some of the advantages to full-day kindergarten programs are: a more relaxed and unhurried school day; additional time to screen and assess ability levels; and quality interaction time between adults and students.

The proposal states that all-day kindergarten doesn't have to be required state-wide, but funding should be available to those districts who choose to offer it, so it doesn't affect overall operating expenses.

Item three of the proposal calls for funding of special education and English as a second language costs on a current-year basis.

Because of inadequate funding of special education costs districts are forced to fund costs using general education funds. Changes should be enacted before more money is funneled into the special education excess cost formula, the proposal states.

Item four of the proposal calls for technology revenue. The 2000 Education bill provided $5 per pupil unit and some one-time funding for access to telecommunications technology. Establishing on-going funding for technology that is flexible and accessible to all districts needs to be a focus.

Item five of the proposal calls for raising the referendum equalization cap to $515 per pupil unit. This would help overcome some of the disparity between property rich and property poor districts under the current $415 per pupil unit cap.

Item six of the proposal addresses the education portion of Gov. Ventura's Big Plan for Minnesota.

The seven districts support many of the items included in the plan, but have a few concerns with site-based allocation of resources; county-wide school districts; uniform health plans; performance funding; and 100 percent state funding.