Lori Sturdevant: State policy grew out of a spiritual journey

03/25/2007

Underfunding puts special ed at risk of disfavor in the state of its birth.


By Lori Sturdevant,
Star Tribune
Published: March 25, 2007


"There was spiritual growth on that commission. What we came to understand is, there is infinite worth in every individual."

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That understanding turned the eight commission members into zealots for educating in their own school districts all children deemed "educable" by the standards of the State Board of Education. Their spirit was infectious. It was rare that an interim commission's entire package of recommendations was enacted intact in one session, but that's what happened with special education in 1957.

Quie remembers no partisan fight over the program's cost (this was before the "no new taxes" era.) The package included a state promise to pay two-thirds of the salary of any professional special-education teacher hired to meet the new requirement, "not to exceed $3,600 per annum for each full-time person employed."

Amazing what 50 years of inflation does, isn't it? It's almost as amazing as what has happened to school district budgets since Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the Legislature removed inflation from the special-ed funding formula in 2003.

The state's share of special-education funding now averages about 40 percent, and it's dropping. The feds pay another 14 percent -- despite their long-ignored promise to pay 40 percent. That means that in virtually every Minnesota school district, funds intended to reduce class sizes, buy materials or pay for extracurricular programs are now being used for special ed.

Keep that trend going, and special education will be doomed to political trouble in the state of its birth. Already, said Senate E-12 funding chairman LeRoy Stumpf, school superintendents tell him they are reluctant to disclose how much they are spending on special ed, for fear of a citizen backlash.

Quie uses strong words to describe a government that mandates an effort to give disadvantaged children a chance at a full life and promises to pay for it, but then reneges. "That's duplicitous, and duplicity corrupts the soul." It's not good for the body politic, either.