[Speed Gibson,
Sunday February 27, 2005 at 10:01pm]
Shortchanging Schools
That's the title of today's Minneapolis Star Tribune (MST) OpEx headline and the thrust of three articles. Minnesota Commissioner of Education Alice Seagren provided a counterpoint. An oversize picture of a crumbling, neglected tennis court is offered as a metaphor for the general condition of our public schools.
Even with Seagren's article, the spread was clearly lacking for one thing: facts. There were anecdotal "factoids" here and there, many unattributed, some vague, but no tables or graphs showing, say funding and spending since 1990. The attempt to once again claim that the sky is falling fell short once again.
I don't dispute that cash flow is a problem in most school districts. What I do dispute is that there is a lack of funding. There is more than enough money available, but as the MST reported a couple of years ago, over 50% is spent outside the classroom. Much of this is no doubt due to Federal and State mandates. If they must be met before the needs of the classroom, then mandates are your problem, not funding. If the classroom comes first, then your policy of trying to live up to these secondary mandates is problem. The raw cash needed to run the classroom is there regardless, especially in the most troubled districts like Minneapolis and St. Paul.
At a recent town hall meeting with my Legislators, both DFL, I listened to many in the audience claiming that we need more "investment" in education. I then spoke and said that if and when these schools give us an understandable accounting of where the money is currently going, and it shows they need more money, then I'll be more than happy to lobby the Governor et al to get it. But to claim as St. Paul's Dr. Pat Harvey does that her 386 page budget is an open book is at best obfuscation, not clarification.
I do agree that the instability of the funding is a problem, one that consumes far too much time and effort yet producing no educational output. But as writers Cecconi and Seagren both note, even when additional money is provided, the schools still cut programs or ask for still more money. Until that problem is solved, there is no funding change that will significantly reduce that instability.
Even with Seagren's article, the spread was clearly lacking for one thing: facts. There were anecdotal "factoids" here and there, many unattributed, some vague, but no tables or graphs showing, say funding and spending since 1990. The attempt to once again claim that the sky is falling fell short once again.
I don't dispute that cash flow is a problem in most school districts. What I do dispute is that there is a lack of funding. There is more than enough money available, but as the MST reported a couple of years ago, over 50% is spent outside the classroom. Much of this is no doubt due to Federal and State mandates. If they must be met before the needs of the classroom, then mandates are your problem, not funding. If the classroom comes first, then your policy of trying to live up to these secondary mandates is problem. The raw cash needed to run the classroom is there regardless, especially in the most troubled districts like Minneapolis and St. Paul.
At a recent town hall meeting with my Legislators, both DFL, I listened to many in the audience claiming that we need more "investment" in education. I then spoke and said that if and when these schools give us an understandable accounting of where the money is currently going, and it shows they need more money, then I'll be more than happy to lobby the Governor et al to get it. But to claim as St. Paul's Dr. Pat Harvey does that her 386 page budget is an open book is at best obfuscation, not clarification.
I do agree that the instability of the funding is a problem, one that consumes far too much time and effort yet producing no educational output. But as writers Cecconi and Seagren both note, even when additional money is provided, the schools still cut programs or ask for still more money. Until that problem is solved, there is no funding change that will significantly reduce that instability.