Reader's View: State funding hasn't kept up for education

2923762+Opinion 1.jpg — Denfeld’s 1947 boys basketball team is the only Denfeld basketball team to win a state title. The team’s head coach was Lloyd Holm. Team members were Rudy Monson, Larry Tessier, Paul Nace, Kenneth Sunnarborg, Eugene Norlander, Howard Tucker, Tony Skull, Jerry Walczak, Bruce Budge, Keith Stolen and student manager Bob Scott.

Opinion by Josh Gorham

October 27, 2018 at 5:41 PM

Did you know Duluth voters approved spending is $371.78 per student? Did you know that the state average for voter-approved spending per student for fiscal year 2018 is $776 per student? For fiscal year 2020, the projected state average for voter-approved spending is about $966 per student, according to the Minnesota Department of Education.

As a parent and a Duluth School Board member, I was concerned by the Oct. 24 News Tribune editorial's insistence that voters should vote yes only on the first of ISD 709's education levy questions (Our View/Endorsement: "'Yes,' 'no,' 'no' on school questions"). Passing the first question will not increase taxes but by itself it will leave Duluth schools without financial resources to move forward.

Passing the second question will amount to a substantial increase in per-student funding and will only result in an average tax increase of $8.64 per month for the average, $150,000 Duluth home.

Passing the third question will result in a tax increase of $5.03 per month on average while ensuring students aren't using computers that are 10 years old.

Minnesota state school funding has not kept pace with inflation. In 2016, the new state special-education funding formula used new calculations that resulted in an unfunded gap in reimbursements the district is still experiencing in the current fiscal year.

Since state-level support for public education is failing to keep up with student needs, we must ask local communities for support. I'll repeat: As a community, we're substantially below the state average of voter-approved spending per student.

Many positive headlines could be written about Duluth public schools, like, "Special education coordinator recognized by Minnesota Department of Education," "Duluth schools welcomes highly acclaimed CFO," "Duluth and Minnesota outperform national average on ACT test," and, "Survey shows support for school levy increase."

Let's move forward. Vote "yes," "yes," "yes" Nov. 6.

Josh Gorham

Duluth

Josh Gorham is an elected at-large member of the Duluth School Board.

Reader's View: State funding hasn't kept up for education

Did you know Duluth voters approved spending is $371.78 per student? Did you know that the state average for voter-approved spending per student for fiscal year 2018 is $776 per student? For fiscal year 2020, the projected state average for voter...