Published the week of 11/7/04

Money, medical care and holdbacks: Governor Pawlenty and the 2005 Legislature should focus on how they affect schools and students. The Legislature could allocate more money to education, and still see continued programs cut, if they do not deal with holdbacks and health care.

The basic Legislative allocation for public schools has been flat for the last couple of years. HOWEVER, and this is a big however, the Legislature has steadily increased the percentage of dollars it owes schools, but does not pay them during the year. Here's how this holdback works. Say your boss promises to pay you $40,000 for the coming year. But then the company explains that you will not actually get $40,000, minus tax withholding. An extra five percent is being withheld, that you will not receive until the following year.

Moreover, how would you react if this goes on for five years, and every year or so, the company withholds a larger percentage? So the company is not keeping five percent of your salary until the following year - but twenty percent.

That's where Minnesota's legislature has done for the last several years. State school funding per pupil has been level. BUT the state has withheld a growing percentage of funds from schools until the following year.

Meanwhile, medical care costs are increasing. According to Grace Schwab of the Minnesota School Board Association, Minnesota school district insurance costs increased between 7 and 14 percent in the last year, depending on the region. So even where salaries have been flat, educators have seen more money go into paying for medical costs.

The result, not surprisingly, has been cuts in programs. Moreover, many districts have asked families for larger fees, for athletics, drama, and other extracurricular activities. Wisconsin's legislature has dealt with this, in part, by capping the percentage of salary increases school districts can offer.

Wisconsin's legislature - and many researchers - are convinced that simply giving schools more money does not produce higher achievement, graduation rates or other important outcomes. Schools must be committed, for example, to increasing family involvement, and to retraining educators in research-based ways to teach. Schools can also become more efficient and effective by sharing space with social service agencies. I'll say more about that in a future column.

But money CAN make a difference. The Center for School Change showed that recently in a project funded by Cargill that sponsored 11 schools serving a high percentage of low-income students. We produced gains of 20-30 percent in the number of students making at least a year's worth of progress in academics. The program also increased family involvement in conference attendance and evening training programs by up to 60 percent. (For more info, go to www.centerforschoolchange.org, and see Cargill Schools First project on the home page).

So we need to watch the 2005 Legislature carefully. Wise legislators will find ways to help schools with both money and medical care.