Schools First - Minneapolis schools first anyway...

There were a couple of discussions (from Monday's final night of the Minnesota Legislature) that stood out when I heard them the first time and again when I heard them the second time yesterday as I was writing my summation of the final nights activities. The more I think about these discussions the more I think that they need to be given more exposure than cable access or what the local media would have given them (in other words nothing).

The first (Session 4 starting at the 43 minute 52 second mark) was the discussion of the E-12 education bill. After Rep. Buesgen's motion to refuse to concur, Rep. Pat Garafolo (Farmington) started off talking about the Schools First ad campaign "Mediocrity". You've seen the ad - a balding, paunchy white politician (some say Karl Rove-esque?) who wants to reduce school funding and bring "mediocrity" back into the game. Well Rep. Garafolo had the numbers to show just who is putting mediocrity back into the game. The Minneapolis and St Paul school districts would get anywhere from 50% to 80% more funding than the rural and suburban districts. Oh for sure, the rural and suburban districts would get an approximate 4.5% increase in spending in the first year, but they would only get 1.3% to 1.8% (depending on where you get your data - Rep. Garafolo or Rep. Abler). According Rep. Abler's (Anoka) figures, the Minneapolis School district would get $1300+ per pupil more in year 2 of this bill and the rural/suburban districts would only get $600 to $800 per pupil more. Rep. Sviggum, in his remarks, mentioned that it is reasonable for struggling districts to get more per pupil, but that this bill was not reasonable.

Rep. Sondra Erickson (Princeton) noted that there were provisions in the E-12 bill that allowed for putting students in special education without any parental consent or notification. That to me is frightening! Teachers and administrators are supposed to partner with parents on the education of their children. They are never supposed to supplant parents.

Rep. Lynn Wardlow (Eagan) mentioned that if the Republicans had brought up legislation like this two years ago (when they held the majority) they would have been crucified in the local media (hello Star Tribune editorial board?????).

Rep. Gottwalt (St. Cloud) echoed the remarks of Reps. Garafolo, Wardlow, Abler and Buesgens that the school district superintendents in their districts were against this bill because it did not fix the funding problems that their school districts were facing! He said that his superintendent said "well I guess we have to put up with whatever you send us..." He talked about priorities. How education spending (special education and dollars to the funding formula) was the "priority" of both caucuses. He said he could see the reaction to this was going to play out. That the funding formulas (as presented) would pass and the rural/suburban districts would complain and that the Legislature would "blame Governor Pawlenty...he was too hard , he squeezed the dollars and he asked us to live within our means and so we simply can't do it." and "When this caucus (the Republican caucus) had less money they put more on the formula...priorities!" When asked (by Rep. Gottwalt) what the reason for the disparity was, Rep. Greiling (Roseville) answered that there was a lot of mis-information out there and that since time was so short it was hard to know where to begin. She then accused the commentors from the "that side of the aisle are protesting too much." She went back to Rep. Sviggum's remarks about the necessity for disparity, but she neglected to address Rep. Sviggum saying that the disparity was still not fair or reasonable to rural and suburban districts! She then went on to say (and this is a direct quote starting at the 1 hour 21 minute mark) "If you ask any one of us - even you Rep. Gottwalt, you would acknowledge that studuents like that, who have special needs, need more money. Yet when you add up the formula that you get when you give them more money, you carp and pick about it. You can't have it both ways...to be good, kind Christian people who like to meet needs of people who have them and then complain when you add up the bill." She then went on to say that the Representatives questioning her bill "didn't understand" the calculations. She then went on to say that the increases that came from the Republican caucus two years ago came about because of property tax increases and that she challenged any of the gathered Reps to go through her bill to find a single property tax increase. HELLO - EARTH TO REP. GREILING!!!!! THE STATE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PROPERTY TAXES - THAT IS A LOCAL FUNCTION!!!!!

Sorry about that.....The esteemed Representative went on to continue to attack anyone who was against this bill for another full three minutes...all the while blaming the Republicans for lack of money "in the pool".

Now I think I will take the "good, kind Christian" route and save the rest of my comments on this...for now anyway. Suffice it to say I can understand now why the animosity of the Republican caucus at the end of the night! The only thing I will say is that Rep. Greiling never DID answer Rep. Gottwalt's question...