Pioneer Editorial: Pawlenty ed plan rates an ‘incomplete’

      After lying stagnant for too many years, adding more money to the K-12 education pot in Minnesota is a positive step, especially from a governor who has had to wield a sharp budget knife the past two years.

      Gov. Tim Pawlenty, in outlining his K-12 funding plans last week, called for an infusion of $350 million in new funding, including a 2 increase in each year of the two-year state budget cycle in the general per-pupil allowance--a figure which has been frozen for three years. It is important that the Republican governor, who lives and dies by his “no new taxes” pledge, is calling for increases in a program that consumes a hefty portion of the state’s budget.

      But it can only be considered a starting point, singling movement but not a trend.

      While the $350 million is significant, when the state faces a $700 million deficit or $1.4 billion if inflation is figured, a 2 percent boost doesn’t even cover inflation which has been put at 2.5 percent. And it certainly doesn’t recover any lost ground, something which school districts say is desperately needed.

      But more importantly, the governor does not indicate where the new money will come from. We know one thing--it won’t be from new taxes. Most likely it will come from budget savings by cutting another huge state budget area, health and welfare programs for low-income Minnesotans. But that pot has been drain-ed before, and many lawmakers maintain spending cuts there has already adversely affected Minnesota’s quality of life.

      Lawmakers such as Rep. Kent Eken, DFL-Twin Valley, have another worry. In town hall meetings last week, he urged Minnesotans to be wary of “lip service” to increase education funding when it may only mean shifting funding from one pocket to another. He worries that more funds may be given to the general formula by taking from categorical aids, such as the $180 million taken from special education funding in the last budget, as well as aid taken from alternative education, Early Childhood Family Education, Head Start and after-school programs.

      Pawlenty would give school boards more power to raise local taxes to pay for school needs, such as rising special education costs. But that would penalize districts such as Bemidji, a regional center with strong special education programs which attract students with special needs and which would burden local taxpayers. It should be a state-funded obligation.

      The governor has also made a bold proposal offering $60 million to districts agreeing to performance pay for teachers, but hoping to turn back the current en-trenched system of pay by education and experience will take years, we believe.

      Still, the governor has at least laid a proposal on the table. But it can’t be graded yet--it only merits an “Incomplete.”