The Republican-controlled Legislature and the Governor both prioritized K-12 education by not cutting the base funding as they acknowledged that a highly educated workforce is vital for Minnesota's future prosperity.   As the new education finance bill will be drafted over the next few days, the exact details are still not known.  With the loss of new policy provisions, it is expected that special education dollars will not be shifted to fund these new initiatives.   Education funding is likely to be similar to what districts received last year with a 1% annual increase to the general education formula (inflation will be at least douple that) and a 4.6% increase in special education funding to help offset the projected average 8% increase in actual costs to deliver these services. 

Of SERIOUS concern is the magnitude of the 60/40 shift which is unprecedented and amounts to over $2,500 per student.    Most districts will have to borrow money to pay the bills.  It will be hard for districts to run schools with on-going cash flow problems, continuous short-term borrowing efforts and the uncertainty of knowing if the shifted money will ever get paid back.   If/when the shift is paid back; it will take years (as a reference, in the 1980s the state shifted funding to 80/20 and it took 15 years to repay our schools).  Also as we have seen in the past, legislators and governors like to say that they are giving our schools new money when they pay back the shifted dollars.  This is inaccurate and leads to the public perception that our schools are well funded when, in fact, the state has been underfunding our schools for years. 

With the removal of all policy provisions, mandate relief that would have been helpful is likely gone such as the elimination of the cash penalty for not settling contract negotiations by January 15^th, the elimination of the Safe Schools Levy maintenance of effort provision for student support services (i.e. counselors, nurses, social workers, etc.) and flexibility in the 2% staff set aside. 

Although it looks like the end is in sight, much could happen to upset the current agreement.  For more details and ongoing updates, see Brad's Blog.