What Should More Money Accomplish--with adequate state funding (1)

I've been writing about the importance of fulfilling the constitutional mandate to provide enough funding to meet all state standards.   Although the comments to posts have been positive, on occasion, someone will say, but what would we do with more money?  This is a really important question. Important because Minnesota school districts serving the students we are now leaving behind desperately need adequate resources.  Important because we can't expect the state to provide adequate funding unless we identify what the money is needed for, nor can we expect that additional money to do its job, if we can't guarantee that it actually goes to things that make a significant benefit to those students.

Many educators are not used to thinking big when asked what money could do, because they are so used to receiving tiny increments that cannot make transformative changes.  Or, they may receive a grant or temporary funding to initiate a program for a couple of years.    So I decided to pepper these posts with a few statements by actual educators in support of the things that they really need.  Some of these statements are taken from affidavits filed publicly in a constitutional litigation that is proceeding up in St. Cloud. 

The first statement is an excerpt from a statement delivered to the legislature from an experienced teacher and administrator to a legislative education finance committee.  In that statement, she is arguing that the special education deficit in St. Cloud, which is $13 million per year, is impairing the district's ability to meet state educational standards for all students.  This is not the whole list; on the contrary in future posts, I'm going to present a laundry list from multiple educators on what we need to do in Minnesota.  Here are cuttings from that first statement:

" (School Board member) Al Dahlgren shared with you the budgetary impact that the Special Education cross subsidy has on our district. But it is more than just dollars and cents ... it is about fulfilling our mission and our combined (state and district) obligation to prepare all of our students to be successful. What could we do with additional funding ... it would allow us to better meet the social/emotional and academic needs of all of our students.

"We are seen as a leader and looked to for being current about best practices and for doing our homework. But there is so much more we could be doing for our students. With the funding that we should be receiving we could:

• Expand our co-teaching efforts into math and other contents (to ensure that all students have access to grade level standards, with support). 
• Enhance our Career and Technical Education offerings and resources
•  Expand our Talent Development and Accelerated Services programming which is showing promise in closing the achievement gaps. 
• Provide creative extended learning time programs, afterschool/weekends/summers, for our students who need that consistency, "catch-up" time, or accelerated learning. 
• Increase professional development opportunities for our staff to stay current on best practices including being culturally responsive. 
• Increase support for our students who show characteristics of dyslexia.
• Provide appropriate staffing and resources for our English Learners. 
• Ensure equal access and opportunities for all students to participate in extracurricular activities (busing, and scholarships for activity fees
• Increase Social and Emotional support for all students (counselors, social workers, etc.).

"I would be happy to talk with any of you in more detail about the good things we are doing and how we could be even better. I started by saying I was proud of our district ... but our students deserve more. They deserve full and equitable funding for their education." [end of statement]


This is by no means an exhaustive list of things that school district needs.  The Governor's 2004 school finance task force (about which more later) reported that in order to meet the needs of all students, that is, to meet all state standards, school funding must:

provide an annual revenue amount sufficient to cover full dollar costs of ensuring Minnesota public school students have an opportunity to achieve state specified academic standards. These standards are connected to a comprehensive instructional program offered by schools.

If Minnesota wants to get serious about meeting the needs of students we are leaving behind, we have to stop merely funding an education that is adequate for advantaged students and begin to make a list of the systemic changes that will meet the needs of those students we are now leaving behind.  And then, we need to make sure that when the legislature provides annual funding, it must set aside money -- money that is "off the table" -- to provide the new things that are necessary to provide an adequate education.