Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune contains an interesting commentary from a superintendent of one of the suburban SW Metro school districts. He makes some informative and cogent points about the state's school funding shift.
Headlined "Why Minnesota's school funding shift is helpful: Schools are better off than they would have been without the maneuver," the piece offers some useful insights into the subject, such as "School districts have not had less money during these years than they would have had without the shift; they just received it somewhat later."
The author acknowledges some of the politics around the issue, writing,
"I am aware that the use of a payment shift is widely misunderstood and demagogued as an 'accounting gimmick' or 'trick.' That is very sad, because it has been one of the most important tools used by legislators and governors of both parties to avoid deep cuts in school funding."
He adds later,
"The payment shift is not 'balancing the state’s budget on the backs of schoolchildren.' Schools are receiving their earned funding; it is just delayed by a few months. The amount owed to school districts is not 'owed to our children.' It will be paid in due time under any scenario."
Good points all. Unfortunately, they come at least four months too late.
In my previous post on this topic, I documented how one of our newly-elected state Senators campaigned on the school shift as her top issue. She now represents part of the superintendent's district. It is no exaggeration to say that the state's Democrats owe their legislative majorities, in large part, to a successful demagoguing of the school shift issue. With the election over and now safely in office, the Democrats' current proposal would not repay the shift until 2017.
My next comments are directed at the newly-elected DFL majority. You ran and won on demagoguing the school shift issue. Now you say, "nevermind" and seek to govern in the cold light of day, based on facts and logic.
Sorry. As the saying goes, "you dance with the one that brung you." In this context, to not pay back the shift before the end of the next budget would be so breathtakingly dishonest that I am unable to come up with a suitable historical precedent.
So I expect that our new majority will defy the Governor and pay back the shift as quickly as possible.
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