September 23, 2004

We deserve better

by John Gunyou

September 21 Address to Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce
Education Funding Conference

Thank you for inviting a non-educator to sit on such a distinguished a panel. I feel a bit like the thorn among the roses.

I wanted to first congratulate Commissioner Alice Seagren on her new appointment, and also commend the Governor for one of his best appointments to the cabinet. I’ve had the privilege of working with Alice in the past, and can assure you that she truly cares about public education. If only more of our state leaders did.

Thirty years ago this month I started my own short-lived career in education. After one year of teaching junior high math, I realized that others were far better equipped to deal with preteens.

I did eventually bequeath something to public education. My oldest daughter teaches at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. She teaches Ojibwa and American Indian Studies, and runs a liaison program that tries to keep Native kids in school. Much of what I write and speak about, I see through her eyes.

So why is a city manager so concerned about our schools? Quite simply, our quality of life in Minnetonka is inextricably linked to the quality of our schools. As Mayor Karen Anderson often says, “Strong schools make strong cities.”

There's an unfortunate misconception that all is well out here in the “wealthy western suburbs.” In truth, our schools have been particularly hard hit by the shortsighted shift in priorities at the state. There are two problems:

First, the Governor and the legislature adopted a budget plan that reduces education funding every year for the next three years in a row. That's the consequence of their no-tax pledges and fiscally irresponsible decisions.

After promising to take over school funding without any plan to pay for that huge commitment, they compounded their self-inflicted budget crisis by temporarily plugging the gap with one-time gimmicks. That meant they had to cut even more – cuts that were three times greater than would have been necessary had they simply done the right thing a year earlier.

When I testified at the legislature about this issue, one senator admonished me that tough times call for tough measures. I responded that times are not tough due to the recession. Times are tough for our schools because of the most irresponsible financial management our state has ever seen.

There’s a second problem the school districts in my community face. They receive far less state aid than other districts – our Minnetonka and Hopkins school districts are ranked second and 11th from the bottom in state aid among the 343 districts in the state.

Statewide and metrowide, the state covers about 90 percent of basic education costs. In Minnetonka, they cover less than 80 percent. The state also refuses to allow our duly elected school boards to levy the funds that are needed to meet our children’s needs. It’s the worst of both worlds.

As a result, the growth in total funding per pupil (state plus local) for all western suburban school districts has lagged behind the state average by about 20 percent over the past decade. State formulas and levy restrictions continue to shortchange our schools.

Here’s a taste of what all that means for the school district that serves my community: they just had to cut another $3.2 million over and above the $14 million they’ve already trimmed over the past four years. When my three younger children returned to school this year, their high school offered 60 fewer courses, their junior high teachers each had 18 more students, and bus transportation for their after-school activities was limited to three days a week. Oh, and my son’s favorite teacher was laid off.

The state's decision to shortchange our schools has nothing to do with the recession. It's solely attributable to fiscal mismanagement and a conscious choice to value lower taxes over investments in our children. By pretending that inflation doesn’t exist, the governor and legislature simply decided to require that schools fund their higher costs by reducing services.

There’s something seriously wrong when our schools now have to rely on private fund raising to pay for basic education – not after school electives, but basic education. There’s something seriously wrong when our state is no longer willing to meet its obligation to provide our children with the most fundamental of their constitutional rights.

Someone recently asked me why I was so critical of our state leaders. I gave her a simple answer – I think we deserve better.

I think we deserve leaders who will stop claiming they “protected schools” when they’re cutting state support for education every year for the next three years in a row.

I think we deserve leaders who will accept the responsibility to implement real reform, instead of hiding behind task forces and meaningless gimmicks.

I think we deserve leaders who will continue the education investments that have served our state so well for over a century, rather than sacrifice Minnesota’s economic future on the altar of no-taxes.

I think we deserve leaders who value the long-term future of our children over their own shortsighted political ambitions.

I think . . . we deserve better.
 

John Gunyou is Minnetonka's city manager and was the state's finance commissioner under Gov. Arne Carlson.