Minnesota Mess
"Opinion"07/08/2008
Paul Munnis
The public school system in Minnesota is a mess. Here are a few things to ponder:
First, the cost of gasoline and energy is going through the roof. This is impacting everything from sports to school transportation bussing, to field trips, to the temperature of classrooms.
Second, some schools are having to cut back to a four day school week This is not good for the amount of material that students must learn is not declining, its on the rise. It will also provide a huge income loss for State school workers who are the victims of this mess.
Third, funding for schools from the State in Minnesota is declining at a time when costs of operation and labor are rising Pawlenty has stubbornly refused to include inflation rates in his budgets and now they are catching up with him.
Fourth, the experiment of the State taking over funding responsibility for the public schools and away from the communities is a total disaster.
Fifth, the cost of attending a Minnesota higher school of education is out of control when compared to adjacent states. This is proof of State mismanagement.
“No New Taxes” is translating into deferred taxes and what’s more had we been spending as we went along instead of having to play catch-up ball then we’d have made those needed purchases at non-inflated prices.
Pawlenty and his spending gurus have screwed Minnesota up pretty good. About the only thing going a bit right is that the highway transportation mess is getting partially addressed thanks to a State Legislature wherein six Republicans voted their conscience instead of the Party line. We give thanks for those guys. Yet a ride on Minnesota roads is like a trip to the moon while bouncing over the moon craters and our bridges are creaky, shaky, and shoddy.
When our legislature reconvenes they are going to face a revenue short-fall during a time of inflation and recession. We have little to no funds left to rob to balance the budget and about $1 billion per year of short-fall is expected.
We know of some solutions to the problem but there is no free lunch. Tolls on certain heavily traveled roads and bridges are one solution. They may free up money from the general fund and be able to put it onto education. Perhaps cutting back to a four day school week with the fifth day spent in a form of home study plus forcing parents to pay a bus transportation fee are yet more solutions that we should not have to contemplate. Increasing local school tax levies is yet another possibility. Increasing local property taxes may be yet another one to permit cutting of LGA and channeling that money to our schools. The GOP has already borrowed up to the hilt and that is now a limited option.
In addition, anything done must be performed in a way that it creates more jobs in Minnesota. We are shedding them at an alarming rate.
Let’s see Brian McCLure maneuver Pawlenty and the GOP out of this mess. If he can’t then we are all up the creek.
Minnesota State infrastructure is starting to look a lot like Mississippi – shoddy and down at the heels.