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Dear Governor Pawlenty, Representative Kelliher, Senator Pogemiller, Representative Morgan, and Senator Doll, The time and expense to run a school levy campaign pose significant barriers to providing necessary and basic funding in our community. I co-chaired a citizen levy campaign in 2006 that mobilized approximately 100 volunteers. I worked about 20 hours a week on the levy from February to November. We raised just under $10,000. We lost. Our students have fewer teachers, fewer class offerings, and larger class sizes as a result of insufficient funding that required budget cuts of $4 million in this school year. In districts that were successful in 2006, citizen levy campaigns spent between $40,000 and $70,000 on sophisticated marketing literature and professional voter contact companies. The disparity between wealthy and poor districts is growing. I am currently a member of the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage ISD 191 School Board. We are again asking our voters to approve a levy because without it, we project a $3.5 million deficit just to maintain this year's class sizes. Citizen volunteers have put aside work and family commitments to donate time and resources for the levy campaign. Our parent volunteers are burned out, disheartened, and tapped financially. Administration diverts a considerable amount of the time that they could be working on student achievement and other education matters, to provide required information about the levy to the whole community. When our district lost the 2006 levy, we cut over 50 teachers and over 30 aides that we could ill afford to lose. If we fail this year, similar cuts to staffing will be required to balance the budget. State policy that requires local levy campaigns to fund core teaching positions is a failing policy. Please visit our district, talk with our staff, meet with our business manager, and change state policy so that local school levies are not necessary to fund basic operations. Sincerely, Susan Martin Burnsville MN | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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