MN State Representative Al Juhnke, District 13B

May 1, 2003 -- NEWS RELEASE -- State Representative Al Juhnke

rep.al.juhnke@house.mn

281 State Office Building, St. Paul, MN 55155

651/296-6206

3951 Horizon Hills Circle, Willmar, MN 56201

320/235-4442

JUHNKE: SCHOOL FUNDING BILL LEAVES RURAL KIDS BEHIND

Schools across Minnesota would lose more than half a billion dollars of state funding over the coming two years under a Republican-designed education budget bill passed by the Minnesota House of Representative Wednesday evening, according to Rep. Al Juhnke.

Willmar schools alone would lose about $600,000 in the coming two years.

"The important thing to look at is what those dollars pay for," Juhnke, of Willmar, said. "Losing these dollars means losing teachers, which boosts class sizes. It means losing new textbooks or

computers. It means not having that little extra help that will lift a kid from being and F student to a C student. Dollars don't buy quality - but they buy the tools needed to provide quality education."

Juhnke noted that House DFLers offered a budget plan to eliminate all cuts in education, but majority Republicans used parliamentary procedures to prevent a vote.

"Republican legislators are claiming they reversed the cuts proposed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, but in truth they've just hidden them," Juhnke said. "The biggest trick is that about $366 million

of school aid is shifted to the next budget cycle. That's going to force a lot of school districts to go to short-term borrowing, at a high cost to their taxpayers."

School districts currently receive 83% of their aid payments in the first year of the state's two-year budget period, and 17% in the second year. The GOP bill changes that to a 77%-23% schedule. In addition, the bill cuts funding for a variety of education-related programs, such as special education, school nutrition, libraries and classes for non-English-speaking students.

"We can shift the payments, but we can't shift the students," Juhnke said. "If a kid loses a year of quality education, that year is lost forever. And when kids from rural districts go out into the world, it means they're handicapped in competition against those from schools that have more resources."

Impact of House K-12 Finance Bill - Revenue Loss vs. Base Funding, 2004-05

School District

New London-Spicer

-$106,974

Willmar

-$598,903

Hutchinson

-$303,419

Litchfield

-$1,164,201

Paynesville

-$150,017

Kerkoven-Murdock-Sundburg -$97,345

Prinsburg

-$8,188

MACCRAY

-$149,206

Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa

-$48,281

Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City -$128,500

BOLD

-$145,471

Renville County West (DRSH) -$179,985