| School Funding Reform
How do we know when enough is enough?
How Minnesota decides to answer that question and the measures we develop to monitor school performance in terms of tax dollars must be linked to our education reform efforts.
In Minnesota,
Parents United is part of P.S. Minnesota, a statewide coalition of 13 education organizations and parent groups working to carry forward the work of the Governor’s Funding Study in an effort to help Minnesota develop a school funding formula that is rationally linked to student learning (P.S. Minnesota Fact Sheet).
On November 30, 2006, P.S. Minnesota released A Framework for a New Minnesota Education Funding Formula along with additional Funding Framework Resources.
Through the efforts of P.S. Minnesota and many others, Minnesota should be able to answer the questions, "What do we mean by a sound, basic public education?" and "What funding is required for all students to achieve at that level?" In short, we should be able to know when enough is enough.
Resources Prepared by John Myers, Augenblick, Palaich and Associates, Inc.
November 2006 - Estimating the Cost of an Adequate Education in Minnesota (Phase 2) (Executive Summary).
December 2, 2005 - Determining the Cost of Education in Minnesota: Continuing the Work of the Governor's Education Funding Reform Task Force (Phase 1) (Press Release) (Executive Summary).
Additional Resources
March 2008 - A Chilling Call to St. Paul - School Superintendents Speak out about Minnesota's Failed Funding System - Pawlenty may have a 'no new taxes' pledge, but he simply put raising taxes onto the shoulders of school districts, Minnesota 2020 (Release).
March 2008 - When educational expectations and costs compete - Can quality instruction and funding find a balance in Minnesota?, Research Notes, AMSD Connections.
November 2007 - Costing Out the Resources Needed to Meet Pennsylvania’s Public Education Goals - Pennsylvania needs to increase education spending by $4.61 billion or 26.8 percent per year in order to meet performance standards, according to the study prepared by Augenblick, Palaich and Associates for the Pennsylvania State Board of Education and requested by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (National Access Network article).
December 2006 - Adequacy study offers new funding formula for education in Minnesota - Our students deserve a system that rationally links funding to student needs, Association of Metropolitan School Districts.
October 2006 - Minnesota’s Promise: World-Class Schools, World-Class State - A call to action From Twenty-seven Past and Present Superintendents to Transform Education in Minnesota for the global information age, Minnesota's Promise.
May 2006 - Fixing a Formula that’s Broken, Schools for Equity in Education.
April 4, 2006 - John Myers Provides Testimony to Senate on Findings of School Funding Study; Outlines Phase II (Video) - John Myers and Justin Silverstein from Augenblick, Palaich and Associates (APA) testified before the Senate K-12 Education Budget Division regarding the December 2, 2005 study "Determining the Cost of Education in Minnesota" and presented an overview of the work currently being completed in Phase II of the study.
December 2, 2005 - Parents United Special Update - The greater significance of the study is that it calls for a fundamental change in the way schools are funded. The study proposes that the funding formula be rationally linked to student learning rather than based simply on the availability of state funds; in other words, the funding formula would be standards-based.
December 2005 - Study Finds Minnesota Schools Under-Funded by Nearly $1 Billion (page 2), Association of Metropolitan School Districts.
August 2004 - Analysis of the Education Finance Reform Task Force Report - Prepared to help parents evaluate the Education Finance Reform Task Force report released July 2004, Parents United.
See Additional Resources on School Funding for more information on Education Finance Reform strategies.
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