Yesterday, as an exercise, we
compared the revenues allocated to Edina and St. Cloud respectively. In doing so, we counted all Fund 1 revenues reported by MDE data for the two
districts. We should keep in mind that
different districts have differing access to operating referendum revenue. Edina is one of those metro districts that
has extraordinarily large operating referenda.
We are looking at district
pairs to compare representative districts to St. Cloud to use the comparisons
as illustrations, and to think about how the state should assure that each district
has sufficient funding to provide its students with an education that meets all
state standards, as the constitution requires.
As in our last post, we begin with a comparison of Minneapolis and St. Cloud demographics. The theory of using these demographics in the district’s funding formula is that some of these demographics are statistically correlated with students who need more instructional and other assistance to thrive. By no means does every student in any demographic group share the educational characteristics of its entire demographic group. We sometimes say that students can “beat the odds,” but that’s not really correct, is it. A student is not a prisoner of statistics.
You may be surprised to see how
nearly St. Cloud’s demographics compares to Minneapolis. St. Cloud has slightly higher percentages of
English Language Learners, and probably a cohort that are on the average newer
to country. It has a slightly higher SPED
percentage, and slightly higher Free and reduced lunch percentage. So let’s see if we can justify the way that
these demographics translate into funding.
With state,
federal and referendum Fund 01 funds combined, Minneapolis receives almost
$2,000 more dollars per student. Minneapolis spends $513 per each student ( that is per 37K students) and
St. Cloud spends $308 per each student (that is per 10,084 students) on English
Language Learners. Each district has
a significant English Language learner funding deficit. In addition, Minneapolis has a couple hundred dollars per
each of its students greater special education deficit that St. Cloud.
You can make arguments as to
why this comparison is fair, or unfair. Minneapolis has access to a larger market and multiple colleges and
Universities. But its a common assumption that anything in Minneapolis costs a whole lot more than outstate. In Minnesota, we focus a whole lot on how funds get distributed, but focus not at all on how much it costs in the first place to actually deliver an education that meets state standards. Please don't respond by telling me that we can't solve education by "throwing money at it." Everybody knows that. Propagating that platitude adds nothing to the conversation and completely evades my point: we have no idea what it should cost.
