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My wife and I are parents in the Breckenridge School District #846 and have been very active in a local Grass Roots Committee that is trying to get an operational levy passed. We are desperately trying to keep high standards in our public school system. Over the last 5 years our district has cut over $1,000,000 from the budget. We are battling the same issues that many schools across the state are now facing: decreased enrollment and reduced state funding. We clearly understand that our only option at this point is to ask our local residents to step up and assist where the state is falling short. This method of school funding is borderline ridiculous. Districts with high property tax bases or large enrollments have a distinct advantage over the smaller rural schools like Breckenridge. A district with great community support can also fund their school systems easier by asking for and getting a much higher referendum amount passed. This is our second attempt to pass a referendum here in Breckenridge and we are only seeking $700 per pupil for 7 years. That is $250 less than any of our neighboring districts already have in place. How do you expect us to compete for the open enrollment students when we are starting that far behind? If our referendum does not pass, we will be funded at least $950 less than any neighboring district and will be competing for the same outlying open enrollment students. It is not hard to figure out where the parents of those students will want them enrolled if we are continuously cutting and neighboring districts are not. How can you expect equality in the public school system when the referendum amount can vary so greatly between similar districts? We would like to point out the current finances of the state as cited in the following: ‘Minnesota's financial health has improved significantly in three years. In 2003 lawmakers were facing a $4.5 billion deficit. They have plenty of budget breathing room heading into the 2007 legislative session thanks to higher-than-expected tax collections and lower-than-expected state spending. The projected surplus for the current two-year budget cycle weighs in at $1 billion, and grows to more than $2 billion by 2009.’ source: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/11/28/budget/ Given the projected state surplus, you chose to fund our public school system with a 2% increase for this school year and a 1% next – even though the average inflation rate is well over 3%. Even with energy costs sky rocketing you decided to again under-fund our school systems. Here are the state funding increases since 2003. The average increase to school funding has been 1.8% - inflation is roughly 3.5%. That is an annual reduction of 1.7% over the last six years. A 1.7% decrease does not really sound too bad until you apply it to our current operating budget revenue amount of $6,803,525. i.e. 6,803,525 x 1.7% = $115,660 Almost 3 teaching positions per year that we had to cut, regardless of enrollment changes, just to balance the budget due to state funding decreases alone. If we cannot offer our teachers at least a cost of living increase, how do you expect that we attract and retain the talented staff required for our district? The future of our state is in the hands of today’s children. We expect excellence in education. We are not comfortable with allowing our state to slip to barely average and that is exactly what will happen if you do not start funding education as necessary. Please do not continue to rob our children of the quality education they deserve and that which our existing tax dollars should already be funding. Respectfully, | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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