Education funding debates will have local effects

However, decisions are far from finished in this debate that, as one local administrator noted, is just in the preliminary stages and may not be decided until closer to the end of the legislative session.

The Minnesota House passed an education funding bill Wednesday that increases per-pupil payments to public schools while also making major changes to how schools operate, including ending the current teacher tenure system and banning teacher strikes.

The Republican-sponsored bill passed 68-59 after nearly six hours of sometimes contentious debate in which Democrats assured Republicans that Gov. Mark Dayton would veto the measure because it contains policy changes he doesn’t support.

State Rep. Tom Anzelc voted against the bill. “The Republicans agenda is anti-student and anti-education in general,” he said. “Their policies would grow classroom sizes, eliminate teachers and increase tuition. For the next generation of learners this is the wrong direction.”

Independent School District 361 Superintendent Jeff Peura said he has heard, when the state budget is finalized, that K-12 education funding will remain mostly stable from the previous budget cycle. He said they have factored in inflation into district expense budgets in order to create balanced budget scenarios depending on what happens in St. Paul.

Each district in the state receives a payment of $5,124 per year for each pupil unit.

“We’re hoping that number stays where it is,” Peura told The Journal.

Fred Seybert, superindentent for the Littlefork-Big Falls school district, agreed.

“I just want to ensure they’re not cutting K-12 education funding because it directly affects students,” he said.

Seybert said his school could benefit from an increase in per-pupil aid based on the sparcity aid formula, which includes student enrollment and transportation, he explained.

Peura said some of the things the Falls district will be watching most closely include the per-pupil funding formula, the district’s set-aside amount for staff development, contract negotiation stipulations and how education will be part of resolving a $5 billion state budget deficit.

The bill would scrap teacher tenure for the state’s K-12 schools in favor of an evaluation-based approach that makes student test scores a major factor. It contains multiple curbs on teacher bargaining rights, including a strike ban. It also creates a system for grading schools that would award additional state funds to those that perform well.

Peura explained that the teacher-evaluation policy would allow administrators to work more closely with teachers to ensure each instructor is “up to the level of a highly-effective educator.” The bill would stipulate a five-year continuing contract for each teacher.

Now, teachers without classroom experience have a three-year probationary period and are tenured if their contract is renewed for the fourth year. A teacher with previous teaching tenure undergoes a one-year probation in a new district before being granted tenure in their second year. Contracts are continuous after that probationary period.

“Losing continuing contract rights and changing it to a five-year continuing contract would truly hurt the profession as a whole,” said union member and Falls High instructor Kevin Grover. “My understanding in this bill is that there would be three options: give a teacher a five-year continuing contract, place the teacher at will (could be let go at any time), or let them go.

“I believe that teachers should be evaluated and if there are issues then the administration and teacher need to work to correct them. With that said, if the issues can’t be corrected, administration should move to dismiss the teacher. It can be done and the union feeling is that we want the best teachers. This new system would in essence take away the process of needing to work with a teacher to help them correct their deficiencies. With little security, I see it as tough to draw the best students into the teaching profession which in the end is horrible for kids.”

Seybert said he is not in favor of ending the tenure process for teachers.

“If there is an issue with a teacher or teachers, it is up to the administration to provide assistance to make teachers better at what they do to help students,” Seybert said. “That (ending tenure) is not the way to fix issues with education.”

Peura said he favored a repeal of the Jan. 15 teacher contract settlement deadline, a part of the House bill. Under current law, if the teachers union and the school board cannot settle a contract by that date, districts are charged $25 per pupil per day until a settlement is reached. Peura called this charge unevenly punitive to the districts and made for a more cooperative bargaining position.

“Losing the ability to strike would take away a right that has been around for many years,” Grover explained. “Striking is and should always be a last option used in the process of settling a contract in which sides can’t come to agreement. Without the ability to strike, a school board would have a large amount of power in terms of negotiations.”

The bill wades into another area of disagreement between Republicans and Democrats by granting vouchers to help low-income families at failing public schools pay for private educations. It also eliminates aid aimed at promoting racial integration in Twin Cities schools that have large minority populations, and freezes special education funds.

“There’s a lot of great reform in this bill, a lot of stuff we can be proud of,” said Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, the bill's sponsor. He said it “puts kids first — no excuses, no exceptions.”

House Democrats were uniform in their criticism, saying the bill’s cuts and policy changes would fall hardest on poorer districts. “There’s a lot of bad and ugly in it,” Rep. Mindy Greiling, DFL-Roseville, said of the bill.

Anzelc agreed with Greiling. He said the bill creates winners and losers by shifting money between school districts. Ultimately, he reports, the bill cuts K-12 education funding by $21 million.

In a letter to Garofalo, state Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius said she and Dayton don’t support the legislation. She said they hope to find common ground with Republicans but that the bill passed early Wednesday is “inherently harmful to at-risk students.”

Cassellius said she and Dayton take issue with the special education freeze, the elimination of racial integration funding and the voucher provision. She wrote that they were troubled by the strike prohibition and the elimination of tenure, and said efforts to promote better teacher performance should be undertaken in a separate bill.

Dayton has said he won’t sign any budget bills until he and Republican leaders come to an overall agreement on the level of state taxes and spending to erase a projected $5 billion state budget shortfall. While the Republican plans would avoid a state tax increase, Dayton wants to use an income tax hike on the state’s top earners to help cover the shortfall.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.