Published:
SHOREVIEW — Disappointment in how state education
issues fared in the last legislative session was the overriding theme of
the June 8 Mounds View School Board meeting.
A panel of seven area
legislators gave explanations as to why few proposals regarding education
were even addressed in session, while School Board members expressed their
frustration over that lack of action.
“I feel that every single
year we’re fighting for public education … so it’s really frustrating and
disappointing to hear you say education didn’t get cut, because honestly
it’s been cut every year for 10 years,” said Board Member Lisa Sjobeck.
“There’s no way we’ve been keeping up with inflation. We are elected by
the people of this district to represent them, and they trust us that
we’re going to do our job. I’ve given up fighting. I’m tired of the
underhanded deals … I’m tired of the posturing. I don’t like it, I don’t
appreciate it and I don’t want to be a part of it. You guys don’t even
have a bill we can comment on … every time I checked, there was nothing
out there.”
Rep. Mindy Greiling, DFL-54A, started the discussion by
explaining that education issues were among the last to be discussed on
the floor, partly because the outcome was so dependent on the Supreme
Court decision as to whether Gov. Pawlenty’s previous budget unalottments
would be upheld.
“I probably speak for everyone up here that I’m
very disappointed in how the session ended, and I don’t have any good
excuses for it either,” she said. “I’ll start by saying it was the
least-rewarding or most useless session I’ve ever been part of … because
of my perspective as K-12 chair.
“(The House proposal) just never
got out on the floor until very late, then it did pass but it didn’t match
up with anything the Senate was doing. Lots of fingers could be pointed,
but I think the lesson to be learned is that we cannot leave the very
important education bill until the last dog is hung and all the other
bills come first. I’m sorry, and we will try harder next year, and you
will just have to discuss this with anyone who’s running (for election) …
because this cannot be repeated again.”
Other
selected legislator comments were as follows:
•Rep. Bev Scalze,
DFL-54B: “I think we really did do a disservice to public schools … but I
think also the ones we’ve done a real disservice to are some charter
schools… that now have to borrow at a much higher rate than other schools,
so it’s going to be a real hardship for them. There are certain
efficiencies to be found in state government, and I would say there are a
lot in human services ...but on the whole I think we cut a lot this year.
The economic downturn began in 2006 … and until that has dissipated
somewhat we’re just going to have a lot of problems in years to come. I
tell people honestly that it’s not going to be better very
soon.”
•Sen. Kate Knuth, DFL-50: “I don’t think the (state) budget
is going to turn around with the change in economy. In a decade we’ll have
more people over 65 than in school, which has huge implications for both
the revenue and expenditure side. It’s going to be hard in the next
session … another $5 billion with what we’ve already cut is going to be
really hard. We can’t cut enough … we could cut out all state agencies and
it still wouldn’t solve the problem. I know you (Mounds View Schools) have
really been making it work here on the ground level … and people are not
necessarily feeling the impact because of your good management. That can’t
continue forever.” •Rep. Carol McFarlane, R-53B: “I saw an opportunity,
with Race to the Top, to go after some money that would help us do reforms
in the future … but we weren’t able to get any of those policy changes
done. That was very frustrating to me, because we’d worked very hard (on
proposals). I will say I think there’s probably more of a different
between the House and Senate than between Republicans and Democrats … we
don’t really work together. I would like to see both bodies working
together more.”
•Rep. Carol McFarlane, R-53B: “I saw an
opportunity, with Race to the Top, to go after some money that would help
us do reforms in the future … but we weren’t able to get any of those
policy changes done. That was very frustrating to me, because we’d worked
very hard (on proposals). I will say I think there’s probably more of a
different between the House and Senate than between Republicans and
Democrats … we don’t really work together. I would like to see both bodies
working together more.”
•Rep. Paul Gardner, DFL-53A: “We not only cut $3 billion for
10 percent of the budget change, but the other 10 percent (in state
funding for schools) did shift … and we’ve got to figure out how to pay
that down. Everyone keeps saying it’s OK, it’s been done before, but never
of this size. I think it will take multiple processes to extricate
ourselves from where we are now, making next year all the more daunting …
and I think it’s going to be as bad or worse.”
•Sen. Satveer
Chaudhary, DFL-50: “I just ask people to take a little consideration of
the big picture we were forced into by the Supreme Court decision. Two
weeks before session adjourned, that added $1.8 billion to the deficit,
not an easy task to deal with. It is really, really hard to avoid
devastating cuts when it’s that large a piece of our budget, and we did
that for the most part … keeping cuts out of classrooms. I think what we
ended with was the least worst … the worst could have been a billion cut
to education.”
•Sen. Sandy Rummel, DFL-53: Rummel said she was
especially unhappy that the significant work done by Senate committees
studying math testing and new legislation for charter schools was never
addressed. “We were all waiting to find out what we could reasonably bring
forward, and at the end we had very little time to do it. There was an
aborted attempt to try to redo Race to the Top … multiple players tried to
do too much all at once. It’s unfortunate that it’s an election year
because we don’t all have time to work on the things we should be moving
forward next year.” Rummel said she needs more input from constituents as
to what their priorities are in education.
•Sen. Don Betzold,
DFL-51: “Most of us thought the Supreme Court was going to come up with an
opinion (sooner) … this took seven weeks. All of a sudden we got a $3
billion budget problem we didn’t have last year. It was all the governor’s
way, there was no negotation — it was my way or the highway.” Betzold did
say research already put in on education issues won’t go to
waste.
“We will get a K-12 bill next year, of course there will
be,” he said. “All the bills that went down are going to have to be
reintroduced all over again. And some people who were up to speed on them
won’t have to spend as much time thinking about them.”
School Board
Member Barb Bollum told the panel their explanations weren’t good enough.
She questioned why legislators didn’t have a contingency plan either way
regarding the Supreme Court’s decision.
“You’re not accountable for
your jobs,” she said. “I was astounded to hear that from you guys. You
missed for our district and for every other district. The Race to the Top
dollars everybody could have used … and to not compromise on the licensure
issue because Education Minnesota was sitting in the same seat as you guys
and funding your campaigns … it’s inexcusable. (Editor’s note: Here
several legislators tried to interject comments, but Bollum said she had
the floor).
“If you’re coming to me telling me the cuts could have
been worse … sure, but the cuts could have been a heck of a lot better. I
just feel it was a huge opportunity missed … I just throw up my arms and
go ‘Why’?”
In regards to the Education Minnesota comment, Betzold
responded later that a motion to take alternative licensure out of the
bill had failed.
“So if you’re saying we’re beholden to any union,
the votes don’t stand for that,” he said.
Superintendent Dan
Hoverman said the School Board was especially frustrated because Mounds
View was one of only 12 or 14 districts in the state in which both the
union and the board has signed off on a Race to the Top
proposal.
“Obviously what you’re hearing from us is a deep level of
frustration,” said Board Chairman Jon Tynjala. “It’s going to take massive
cuts before parents start yelling. Parents need to speak up, and they just
haven’t — but they will.”
Greiling said it’s obvious the education
bill has to be addressed earlier in the next session. She also said
legislators need more support from outspoken parents and lobbyists at the
capitol, and those not working on education commitees need to hear
opinions the most.
“We hear you, we agree with you and we need help
fighting this battle,” she said. “With all the other budgets getting
dedicated funding, education is losing its place and its not 40 percent
(of the overall state budget) anymore. I think it’s to the point where the
Capitol needs to be stormed on behalf of our students.
That being
said, the huge deficit problem likely can’t be solved without raising
taxes, she said.
“We have some parents, even some Parents United
parents ... who will be just as passionate about education but also don’t
want to raise any taxes. I’m here to say that doesn’t work anymore when we
have a $6 to $8 billion deficit for next year. We will have to fight
really hard not to cut the formula ... when you have reforms and have no
money, (reforms are) very hard to pass.”