'Shared sacrifice' for budget woes should start on level turf.
Counterpoint
As the governor and legislators struggle to solve Minnesota's budget challenges, the Star Tribune Editorial Board on April 24 shared its own plan to close the gap ("A budget plan for Minnesota").
With a nice graphic and a pleasant theme of "shared sacrifices," the newspaper detailed what to some may seem a reasonable approach.
While sharing sacrifices is a worthy goal, it makes sense only if there is an accurate set of facts as a starting point. The Star Tribune plan looks forward without taking into account the burdens that have already been shared.
The Star Tribune plan implies that public schools have not experienced budget-cutting pain over the past several years. A plan that tries to avoid unfairness should not ignore schools and others that have already carried a significant portion of Minnesota's economic burden and have sustained enduring damage.
The member districts of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts (AMSD) have made more than $260 million in budget reductions over the past two years alone. These cuts have meant more than 1,700 staff layoffs.
These same districts are making plans to cut another $150 million, including laying off more than 800 staff members for the 2011-12 school year -- and that assumes state funding remains flat.
Gov. Mark Dayton and lawmakers have a number of options and tools at their disposal to balance the state budget. They can choose to raise revenue, slow the growth in specific programs or eliminate programs entirely.
But education funding is different.
Minnesota has a constitutional mandate to provide a general and uniform system of public education, and it is already failing to meet this obligation. Instead, the state has shifted the burden of funding schools to local voters.
Currently, 90 percent of school districts rely on voter-approved referenda, and some districts depend on this funding for as much as 20 percent of their operating revenue.
Unlike other levels of government, school boards do not have discretionary levy authority and must instead rely on the state and on referenda. Schools also must comply with an incredible maze of federal and state mandates.
They can't simply stop providing services to students or choose which students they will serve. In fact, expectations for our public schools are accelerating dramatically at the same time resources are declining.
Minnesota needs a solution to the current challenge, as well as a long-term answer that gets us off of the deficit-and-surplus roller coaster. Generating ideas is helpful, and we encourage the media and anyone else to share their thoughts with the governor and the Legislature.
Our hope is that in doing so, people do not lose sight of the impact of previous budget decisions or the importance of investments that will position Minnesota to prosper in the future.
So, yes, "sharing the burden of hard times comes naturally in Minnesota." Unfortunately, it has already been shared too often and too heavily by Minnesota's school districts and the students they serve.
Patsy Green is the chair of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts and is a member of the Robbinsdale Area Schools Board.
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