Category: Education
Posted: 07/12/10 05:42
by Dave Mindeman
And so it begins....
School districts have begun the process of borrowing money to cover the shortfalls in budgets that resulted form the education funding budget shift.
A Pioneer Press article about Washington County school districts gives us the state wide estimates:
The current delay is expected to cost districts statewide about $20 million in interest, since many will take out loans to keep up their cash flow. Forest Lake, for example, could pay up to $420,000 in interest next year. That equals about eight teaching jobs.The approximate $2 billion funding shift is, in theory, going to be paid back in the next biennium....in theory. A DFL legislature and Governor would more than likely do so...although I wouldn't rule out more accounting gimmicks going forward. But an Emmer administration would be less likely to bring in extra revenue or target any of current revenue to pay that money back.
Education is not being held harmless by anybody. We don't have any guarantees that school districts will be able to pay that interest money back with returning state funds. Which means that the interest money becomes another district liability and another dip into the pockets of local property tax payers.
Pawlenty has played games with our students and Emmer shows little indication of changing that policy. Even for a DFL governor this will be a struggle, but at least on that side of the ledger there will be an effort to fix this.
So if you hear Pawlenty give us his line about protecting education, you have $20 million reasons to say -- not true.
