| | | School Funding Reform
The New Minnesota Miracle
A Public School Funding Plan for the 21st Century
As introduced in the 2008 Legislative Session
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Representative Mindy Greiling:
“For the first time, we’re actually providing enough money to fairly fund the needs of every student and every district, so they can meet the academic expectations we set for them.”
Senator Terri Bonoff:
“It is our responsibility to provide all Minnesota students – regardless of where they live – with the tools they need to succeed in our global economy. This task force recommendation is the first step toward meeting that goal.”
Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher:
“Making sure that every student is prepared to succeed in the 21st century marketplace – whether they go on to college or vocational school, or enter the workforce – is a value we can all stand behind. I look forward to making the vision of a New Minnesota Miracle a reality that works for every Minnesota school and student.”
The New Minnesota Miracle
- Simplifies and increases state public school funding
- Is fair, balanced and needs based
- Reduces property taxes
- Lays a foundation for every student to succeed when they graduate from high school
Highlights
- The proposal begins a phased increase to school funding of $1.7 billion beginning in 2010, while reducing property taxes by $600 million
- Increases the formula allowance from $5,175 to $7,500, indexed to the implicit price deflator
- Uses a scalable blueprint that can be phased in over several years
- Equalizes the pupil weighting system for students in kindergarten through high school to 1.0
- Enhances compensatory aid and funding for English language learners
- Fully funds voluntary all-day kindergarten
- Fully funds state special education costs by removing existing caps
- Provides flexibility for districts to fund early childhood programs
- Accounts for declining enrollment in every geographic region of the state
- Includes a levy referendum offset of $500 per pupil in districts with levies; provides $500 per pupil to districts without a levy in place
- Includes innovation and accountability measures including a requirement that a district use at least 1.5 percent of its basic revenue for innovation, research-based programs to improve academic performance
- Creates a new school bond agricultural credit equal to 20 percent of the property tax on agricultural properties attributable to school bond levies
Related Links
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September 25, 2008 - A new Minnesota Miracle?
St. Paul, Minn. — This year, state Democrats plan to push an education plan they're calling the "New Minnesota Miracle," which would increase school funding by $2.5 billion, MPR Midday. |
April 20, 2008 - Dems propose 1970s solution to 21st century K-12
At the height of a bitter budget debate in 1963, Republicans in the California State Assembly refused to vote on a budget bill without knowing the details of how it would fund California’s schools. The Assembly speaker, Democrat Jesse Unruh, responded by locking them all inside the assembly chamber until they agreed to vote. The standoff didn’t last long and it certainly didn’t represent the pinnacle of statesmanship. While I don’t think Minnesota’s debate over education reform will ever boil over to the point of legislative hostage taking, I do think there will be some very passionate discussions about the merits of the ideas the Legislature will consider, the most publicized of which came a week ago from House and Senate Democrats, Bemidji Pioneer. |
April 12, 2008 - DFL school funding plan requires a miracle
We’re not sure if the leaders of the “New Minnesota Miracle” are just wishful or delusional. Some have guessed that Minnesota’s deficit might swell to as much as $2 billion next year. So asking for an additional $1.7 billion seems unlikely to the point of being political Pollyannas, Winona Daily News Editorial. |
April 11, 2008 - The New Minnesota Miracle Bill—heard
HF 4178 is an elegantly crafted bill whose intent is to reform the existing education funding system. It is "scalable"—meaning as much money as the legislature is able to raise will pass through a system of funding that works to rationally account for the real costs of meeting the needs of individual students and individual districts, Parents United. |
March 6, 2008 - Group urges state to pay for education
ST. PAUL — School officials on Wednesday called Minnesota's method of funding public education a "nightmare" and "broken." The comments came a week before the unveiling of a proposal to overhaul the system, St. Cloud Times. |
March 6, 2008 - Superintendents: State must act on K-12 funding
Minnesotans have long taken pride in the quality of their public education system, but the state’s funding of the system in recent years has put quality — and, in some cases, existence — in jeopardy at many school districts, a new report says, Marshall Independent Editorial. |
March 5, 2008 - School heads criticize funding system
More than 99 percent of Minnesota school superintendents who responded to a survey said the state's education funding system is broken. And if that funding system isn't fixed, almost 90 percent said, the quality of education in the state will continue to decline, Pioneer Press. |
July 4, 2004 - Cracks begin to form in Minnesota's miracle
Personal income earned by Minnesotans outpaced the nation from the 1960s to the late 1990s. As state economist Tom Stinson put it recently, our rise in prosperity over the past 40 years "is an amazing success story." Minnesota ranked around 24th nationally in personal income in the 1960s, but more recently moved up to seventh in the rankings, he points out, Grand Forks Herald. |
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