Minnesota school superintendents say funding system broken

Broke?!?!
What, isn't getting 50% or more of my tax dollar enough?
Not sure who is a larger parasite on our economy, welfare recipients or the schools.

Of course the funding system is broken. No one can explain why it cost $16,000 to eductate a child for one year in MPLS

About the only thing Jesse did right...now the schools have to come directly to the citizens. Problem is, they still don't take no for an answer. Maybe we should make another law that says once they have been turned down, they have to wait 3 years to try another levy. It's amazing how the first things to go are teachers and, of course, things the parents think are necessary. How about the 4 layers of management...oh yeah...and the teachers PAC oops union.

Are they admitting that part of the reason that the funding system is broken is because too much of the money that goes to schools is going to administration??

Minnesota needs to stop throwing money at the education mess and come up with a new plan. We have in real terms increased spending on K-12 by 28%(adjusted for inflation) the past 10 years while our student enrolment numbers have declined. MN spends 2.6 billion on special education and ESL each year. These children are not our future inventors and leaders who are being short changed by Minnesota schools. Parents of Gifted and Talented youths better be wealthy because most districts have the parents pay hundreds of dollars out of their own pockets to have their children tested and then these parents pay thousands more out of their pockets to place these students in accelerated classes at the UofM and elsewhere, yet we spend billions on children who are mentally challenged and inspire to one day clean up after us at McDonalds.
Minnesota needs to break free of Federal mandates that force us to spend 2.6 billion on special education and ESL (Supposedly reimbursed by the Federal Government but has never been so) and use this money to invest in the gifted and talented and “average” student body. We need to stop wasting 19% of our yearly State Education budget on future Wal-Mart greeters and spend it on our future engineers, scientists, and leaders!

Sounds like this brilliant left-wing survey has come to the conclusion that these Supts want more money? Well, uh....hmmm....isn't that like asking 5 year-olds if they want more sweets?...of course they do! What's the news here? Liberals/state workers/union thugs...wait, those terms are redundant.....will always say the beauracracy they control needs more money from the cash cow which is the taxpayers...that's the very nature of scam they run.

what a stupid article. It doesn't say anything except that a bunch of liberals say a bunch of liberals think schools don't have enough money. What a shock. We spend too much money on public education for the results we get. Maybe they should ask how much money they want! The Teachers union is destroying education in Minnesota - that doesn't mean the teachers that is the union.

Mike you are right - said a little harsh - but you are right.

Maybe if the MEA would stop using tax payer money to run commercials to guilt us into paying even more taxes or lobbyists they would have a little more money for the schools. Maybe citizens vote no becuase all they hear is "it's for the children" instead of open discussions about where the current money is being spent. We are just supposed to hand it out because "the children" will suffer. How about teaching kids about budgeting & being responsible with money?

Here we go again. What do you expect when you have an education monopoly that is accountable to nobody...a system that cannot educate anyone...big shock.

Wow, Mankato Mike. Not many people have the guts to say that. But well said. You hit on the real reason that there is never enough money for schools. There isnt enough for 'normal' school things, teachers, books etc. because too much is required to be spent on the bottom of the accademic barel. Trying with all the might possible to do some really noble things. The only problem is that it is happening at the expense of the rest of the barrel.
Not that the bottom of the barrel should be drained out from the barrel, but we need to stop trying to make it into top shelf stuff.

We spend only $16,000 per student per year in the St. Paul public schools.

How to you educate a class of 25 on only $400,000?

We definitely need more money.

How many of you know how much the average district spends on administration as a percentage of their total budget? The state average is less than 5% on district administration! How do you think that compares to 3M or Best Buy or BlueCross? Nothing pisses me off more than people complaining about administration costs in schools and not having Clue #1 about how school money is actually spent. The vast majority of money is spent on the people who educate students, which is to say it's used to hire teachers. I can't think of a better way to educate students than with teachers, but if you have another solution, throw it out there. Otherwise, please stop writing about something you obviously haven't taken any time to understand.

If you want to see what the real cost of education is, remove education from the state's general budget (and transportation also). Somehow once the money starting flowing into the general fund, there was no state accountability on ensuring monies flowed back to schools. There does need to be accountability by the districts, which seem to be awfully top heavy with "administrators" and the funds do not seem to trickle down to schools. Also, it would be nice if the MEA got rid of all the days off - including the non attended MEA extra long weekend in October. That is a huge waste of my tax dollar!

I'd say the expense system is broken. Look to the self serving teachers unions for all the waste and unwisely spent funds.

They said that the system is broken no the amount. The schools recieve a great deal of their funding through property taxes. A school in an affluent neighborhod is going to recieve more taxes than a poor one. Likewise with school that recieve more tax payments from industry. This should be spread out amoungst all of the students in the state. This isn't a survey to determine whether enough money is being pumped into schools just that the system is broken. Most of the posts here fail to understand that.

The largest problem with the education system is the government monopoly on it. Parents need to be given the option of where the education money allocated to their children should be spent. Competition in the education system will bring out the excellence in teachers who can then raise the level of teaching. Many wonderful teachers should be compensated more highly for their skill but the union and government monopoly prevent reward longevity rather than perfomance.

Why don't they take the lottery proceeds and use a portion of that for funding eduction?? The environment has lived off the "fat cat" lottery long enough. It is ridiculous that the money continues to be spent on the environment when you won't have educated citizens to enjoy and preserve it in the future!

addendum, by the way, I may be in Bradenton, FL, but have lived my life in Minnesota and am very concerned about the education system and my relatives who are still using it.

Mankato Mike wrote:

Minnesota needs to stop throwing money at the education mess and come up with a new plan. We have in real terms increased spending on K-12 by 28%(adjusted for inflation) the past 10 years while our student enrolment numbers have declined. MN spends 2.6 billion on special education and ESL each year. These children are not our future inventors and leaders who are being short changed by Minnesota schools. Parents of Gifted and Talented youths better be wealthy because most districts have the parents pay hundreds of dollars out of their own pockets to have their children tested and then these parents pay thousands more out of their pockets to place these students in accelerated classes at the UofM and elsewhere, yet we spend billions on children who are mentally challenged and inspire to one day clean up after us at McDonalds.
Minnesota needs to break free of Federal mandates that force us to spend 2.6 billion on special education and ESL (Supposedly reimbursed by the Federal Government but has never been so) and use this money to invest in the gifted and talented and “average” student body. We need to stop wasting 19% of our yearly State Education budget on future Wal-Mart greeters and spend it on our future engineers, scientists, and leaders!

Mankato Mike,

You do touch on a real problem, however, you could stand a little tact/class and I don't know that your position is entirely fair (as presented anyway). There are definite environmental factors resulting from industrialism (mercury emissions being one of many) that has contributed to a significant increase of severe nuerological disorders. As a result, special education (which is far more costly than general education) demand has risen incredibly and is (as you point out) consuming an inordant amount of education fudning. I wouldn't disagree with you that this is impacting available resources for average and gifted students and that it's a problem. Considering that we all benefit from the institutions that have contributed to this situation (i.e., we all like our electricity and cars, etc..), I think it's fair to say that there is a moral obligation to provide some level of releif to those suffering from these disabilities and the families that have to care for them. I guess, your position would be more well rounded if you made some suggestion regarding what should be done with these individuals. Are you suggesting that we just exclude them from the school system and if so, what releif do you feel is justified for the disabled and their families.

Again, I don't disagree with you, I just think you've stated the obvious and haven't provided any answers.