GOP-led Legislature takes education funding seriously

This column originally ran in the Owatonna People’s Press.

With school scheduled to start again in just a couple short weeks, I thought it would be a great time to talk about education.

Funding education is one of the duties specifically prescribed to the Legislature in our constitution, and Republicans took that responsibility seriously this year. We invested $18.7 billion into K-12 schools — an increase of $1.3 billion from the last budget. This represents more than 40 percent of our state’s entire biennial budget — the largest of any area.

The cornerstone of our education budget was a 2 percent annual increase to the per pupil General Education Formula in each of the next two years. This is the basic formula that is used to fund our schools, before factoring in things like the student population each district serves. Two percent increases were a top priority for education advocates, teachers, and parents.

You might be wondering what this means for our area. Here is a breakdown of per pupil funding for 2017 — the year that we just completed — as well as 2018 and 2019, with the increases we passed:

Faribault: 2017 = $10,066; 2018 = $10,268; 2019 = $10,503. Total increase = $437

Owatonna: 2017 = $9,135; 2018 = $9,295; 2019 = $9,483; 2019 = $348

Medford: 2017 = $8,484; 2018 = $8,574; 2019 = $8,787. Total increase = $303

Waseca: 2017 = $8,728; 2018 = $8,887; 2019 = $9,049. Total increase = $321

Waterville-Elysian-Morristown (W-E-M): 2017 = $9,615; 2018 = $9,705; 2019 = $9,863. Total increase = $248

NRHEG: 2017 = $8,445; 2018 = $8,640; 2019 = $8,850. Total increase = $405

Nerstrand: 2017 = $6,588; 2018 = $6,837; 2019 = $6,925. Total increase = $337

Parents with young children will be glad to know we appropriated new funding for early education. However instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, we created a new School Readiness Plus program, which gives school districts the freedom to invest in early learning that will best serve the families in their districts.

One of our school districts, Faribault, will receive funding for the new program. Faribault was already receiving ongoing pre-K funding, but they were also one of 59 districts — out of 223 that applied — to receive money for School Readiness Plus.

A city like Edina or Eden Prairie will have a much easier time paying for their facilities than many districts in Greater Minnesota. That’s why we fully phased in Long Term Facilities Maintenance Aid, so districts with smaller property tax bases will have an easier time funding upgrades and maintenance.

Finally, we emphasized choice, student performance, and reforms.

We bolstered Minnesota’s commitment to making sure every student can read by third grade — a crucial benchmark and predictor of future success in school. We increased funding for Reading Corps and Math Corps tutors. We funded grants to help low income students and the underserved take Advanced Placement courses.

We tackled Minnesota’s teacher shortage head on by adopting bipartisan recommendations to improve the way we license teachers. Now we’ll be able to get more experts into the classrooms so every kid can receive a great education.

Finally, we gave local school districts more leeway to determine how they handle teacher layoffs when budgets are tight, so young, talented, energetic teachers have an equal shot.

Republicans in the Legislature worked closely with Gov. Dayton to make education a priority this year. I’m proud of the work we were able to do to guarantee all Minnesota students can receive a top-notch education.