Pawlenty backs plan for classroom funding

04/28/2005

Norman Draper, Star Tribune
April 28, 2005

How much money do schools funnel into the classroom, where the funds can pay for teachers and such instructional supplies as maps and books?

Gov. Tim Pawlenty figures it’s too little. He announced Wednesday that he is supporting bills in the House and Senate requiring school districts to dedicate at least 65 percent of their operating funds to direct classroom instruction. Not included would be operations such as administration, transportation and food services.

Rep. Karen Klinzing, R-Woodbury, a teacher and author of the House 65 percent bill, said such legislation could lower class sizes and furnish classrooms with teaching supplies.

The problem with the plan, critics say, is that the figures are screwy: Schools are already channeling as much as 85 percent of their operating funds into the classroom. Sen. Steve Kelley, DFL-Hopkins, chairman of the Senate Education Policy Committee, charged Pawlenty with creating “just another gimmick” to draw attention away from what he characterized as the underfunding of schools.

According to Pawlenty and state Education Department figures, 25 of Minnesota’s school districts—including several large Twin Cities districts—already allocate that much to the classroom. Another 317 range downward to 46 percent. Twin Cities districts above the 65 percent line include Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, Osseo, St. Paul, South Washington County, Anoka-Hennepin and Burnsville. Minneapolis is just below the line. Other districts below it include Minnetonka, Edina, Stillwater, Eden Prairie, Robbinsdale and Spring Lake Park.

“As you know, we are engaged in an important debate in Minnesota about how much more money we’re going to give to our schools,” Pawlenty said. “We should also be asking as part of that debate, how is it going to be spent?”

Bringing all those low districts up to the 65 percent level, Pawlenty said, would shift $214 million to the classroom. He wondered whether districts could cut more fat from main offices. Critics, however, suggest that the kind of shift Pawlenty is talking about could result in cuts to such areas as teacher training, transportation and school nursing. They also say differences in how districts report their expenses to the state can make it tricky to compare districts’ costs.

“Some districts that are at the 50 percent level aren’t counting special education costs,” Kelley noted. But the proposed law would include it as a direct classroom expense.