3.2 percent cut in Minnesota school funding advances

A plan that would cut funding for preschools through high schools by 3.2 percent over two years made its way through the Minnesota Senate on Tuesday.

The $13.4 billion education package received preliminary approval on a 37-29 vote.

Funding to schools would be reduced $452.8 million, or about $273 a pupil.

"There's no way to sugarcoat it," said Sen. LeRoy Stumpf, DFL-Plummer, chairman of the Senate education committee. "There are reductions to our education system. We tried our best to mitigate those reductions."

Democratic Senate leaders said it's the first step in their plan to balance the state's $4.6 billion budget deficit. That includes across-the-board cuts, including education, of 7 percent. But $519.2 million in federal stabilization dollars cuts the education-funding decline by more than half.

Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, called it a "draconian" plan that would give school districts no alternative but to cut staff.

Hann tried, but failed, to amend the bill to require a salary freeze for all school district employees. He argued a freeze would help districts drive down their biggest cost — salaries and benefits — while saving jobs.

"People will have to be laid off. Class sizes will go up. And programs will be cut," he said.

The plan does not include stimulus money districts will receive directly from the federal government for low-income and special-needs students. It also does not call for any accounting shifts, such as delaying aid payments, which have been used in past years.

The bill also would:

• Allow students in the next five years to get their high school diplomas without passing the math graduation test. Students who fail the tests would graduate only if they got remediation, retook a failed test at least twice and met other graduation requirements.

  A version in the House would let students graduate for the next three years without passing graduation exams in math, reading and writing.

• Tighten rules for charter schools, including requiring sponsors to better monitor their schools' financial and academic performance and reducing board members' conflicts of interest.
• Cap lease aid to charter schools and place a three-year moratorium on the opening of charter schools within one mile of a recently closed school or a boundary of a newly dissolved or consolidated school district.
• Reduce mandates for schools, giving districts greater flexibility on how they spend about $370 per pupil.
• Cap integration aid, which is used for voluntary desegregation efforts.
• Keep Minnesota's alternative pay plan for teachers in place but not expand it to every school district and charter school as Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty has proposed.

  After the House passes its education bill, a conference committee will negotiate differences between the House and Senate bills and send a compromise plan to Pawlenty.

  House leaders have proposed flat funding for education, and Pawlenty said he wants to boost education funding by 2.2 percent.

  Senate Republicans said it is more important than ever to make education a high priority.

  "Now is not the time to give up on education," said Senate Minority Leader David Senjem, R-Rochester, who complained that the Senate's budget plan cuts spending by 7 percent while raising taxes by $2 billion.

  Senate Democratic leaders responded to the criticism, arguing it is imperative to build a budget set on realistic expectations.

  "It's still unclear whether Minnesotans realize how big this (deficit) is," said Assistant Senate Majority Leader Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud.

  Megan Boldt can be reached at 651-228-5495.