By Mark Messman, Superintendent
EV-W District #463 Legislative update
The legislative session ended May 17, and we’re still waiting for answers. By statute, school districts are required to complete their fiscal budgets by the end of June. Yet it gets increasingly difficult when we don’t know what to expect for funding from the State. It appears we will not know for anytime soon how much to expect in dollars on the basic pupil formula and whether it will be tied to inflation, sustaining PreK funds, ELL funds, special education cross-subsidy, loss of enrollment due to COVID and distance learning, compensatory funds that are declining due to fewer families completing the F/R lunch applications, and much more, not to mention the policy issues around distant learning, student discipline, the World’s Best Workforce, and the ability of school districts to renew existing operation levies, and the list goes on.
The current funding targets that have been set by legislative leaders do not provide much room for a typical pupil formula increase. My biggest concern is that the limited funds will go to a select group of districts or programs, and not on the pupil funding formula which provides equity for each school district and student in attendance.
We’ll continue to advocate for equity in funds, and I encourage you to reach out to the top three decision makers – Governor Walz, Speaker Hortman, and Majority Leader Gazelka. Ask them to provide equitable funding on the pupil formula and address the growing funding gap between school districts. I’m grateful for the time you spend advocating for our kids, schools, and community.