Break!

No blogging until after Christmas. I’m chasing a story and last-minute presents today.

Filed under: Announcements, Announcements

K-12 Education NOT Cut

Confirming what many educators had hoped, Governor Tim Pawlenty did NOT cut any K-12 or Early Childhood education. We’ll see about next year, though. When I spoke with her an hour ago, Rep. Mindy Greiling (DFL- Roseville; Chair, K-12 Finance Committee) speculated that T-Paw might look to cut some education funding in the upcoming fiscal biennium, although the Governor has said he would like to protect that money.

The folks who really took the brunt this time around are:
- States and Counties
- MN state reserve accounts (entirely depleted)
- University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
- All state agencies were told to cut 10% of their budgets
- Human services spending (state Medicaid, teaching hospitals, and a variety of grant programs)

Hopefully more to come on the Human Services side of things….

Filed under: Minnesota, Budget Crisis, Education Funding, Mindy Greiling, Tim Pawlenty

Bullet Dodging

It looks like E-12 education in Minnesota may dodge the budget crunch bullet this time around, but many other states are not so lucky. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that 18 states have slashed funds for Early Childhood through 12th Grade education in their 2009 proposed budgets, and New York is proposing significant cuts. The Center says on average, 46% of a state’s budget is taken up by education funding, on par with Minnesota schools’ 43% share.

Reading through the list of cuts is like reading through a list of “great new ideas in education” – a sign state education systems will be retrenching around their core activities, perhaps putting some reform efforts on hold. In Massachusetts, Head Start and pioneering early childhood education programs. In Maryland, money for in-school breakfast pilot program – a bedrock for in-school poverty fighting efforts – has been canceled. In Rhode Island and Nevada, Head Start is also being cut back.

In many other states, general education funding is being cut back. If Minnesota is any guide, most of the cuts will hit bus drivers, custodians, guidance counselors, and other support staff whose work around the edges — particularly in poorer schools — keeps schools and kids functioning.

Update: Looks like Virginia will slash Ed budgets, too

Filed under: Minnesota, National, Budget Crisis, Education, Education Funding, National Issues

Yeah yeah yeah…

So Arne Duncan, Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools, has been named the next Secretary of Education. It’s really a draw for either side in the education reform wars, though — Duncan has signed on to both major reform platforms, and has a history of walking a middle road between the Michelle Rhee/Joel Klein camp and the Laura Darling-Hammond camp — decent relations with the Chicago teacher’s union, but has still pushed hard for teacher accountability and the like. As The American Prospect’s blog points out, the thing to watch will be who is Under-Secretaries are.

Filed under: National, Arne Duncan, Education, Education Policy, Education Reform, Federal Education Policy, Secretary of Education

Sacred Cow or Sitting Duck — In budget crisis, are education funds on the chopping block?

Photo by Lisa Yarost, Flickr

(Originally published at the Minnesota Independent 12/15/08)

Will state funding for education take a hit in efforts to close Minnesota’s gaping $5.3 billion state budget deficit?

State Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, thinks so. “Do the math” was his pessimistic analysis at a panel in Bloomington last Tuesday, pointing to education’s 40-percent share of the state budget. Without new taxes, significant cuts throughout Minnesota’s budget will have to be made, and education’s huge share of the budget makes it a tempting target, said State Rep. Mindy Greiling (DFL-Roseville) in an interview on Friday.

Ask public school officials, though, and they’ll probably tell you what Lois Rockney, the chief financial officer of St. Paul Public Schools, says: After years of underfunding, “[t]here’s no fat left to cut” in school districts’ budgets.

Filed under: Minnesota, Budget Crisis, Education, Education Funding, Larry Pogemiller, Mindy Greiling, Minnesota, Policy, St Paul, Tim Pawlenty

Watch out for Falling Budgets

(Originally published in the Twin Cities Daily Planet on December 10, 2008)

As Minnesota governments reel from the December 4 announcement of the $5.3 billion state budget deficitTwin Cities schools are nervously examining their own budgets in anticipation of cuts in state aid. $476 million of the deficit announced last week will fall during this budget cycle, and the remaining $4.8 million will fall in the next 2-year cycle, beginning in 2009. Even as the state announced its budget deficit, Minneapolis Public Schools announced that the district is facing a $28 million shortfall for the 2009-2010 school year, up by $6 million from projections made in January.

Filed under: Minneapolis, Minnesota, St Paul, Budget Crisis, Education, Education Funding, Minnesota, St Paul

Fresh Times at Edison High

(Published in the Twin Cities Daily Planet, 12/8/08)

Last year, Minneapolis Public Schools pushed the restart button on two of their seven high schools. It was a dramatic move, designed to restore parents’ confidence after years of sinking test scores and declining enrollments. Students and teachers alike greeted it with tears and anger. After these so-called “fresh starts,” at least one school—Edison High School—is going full steam ahead with a high-energy restructuring plan.

Filed under: Minneapolis, Edison High School, Education, Fresh Start, Minneapolis, Minneapolis Public Schools, NCLB, Public Schools, Restructuring

The Christening!

No, not the kind that involves Christian religious officiators dumping water on your head. This is more of the nautical kind, involving fashionable ladies and bottles of champagne. Ships are built in two stages: first, the hull is put together on a slipway, then it is launched and towed to a dock to be “fitted out”, where the engines, masts, and superstructure are put on. It’s formally given its name when its hull is put into the water at a ceremony called the “christening” and a bottle of champagne is smashed on the front of the vessel. I’m not sure why the do it. Testing the construction job, maybe?

Launching a Liberty Ship, from the New York Public Library collection via Creative Commons and Flickr user bobster1985

OK, so first, we’ll need our rich lady, and her bottle of champagne. Oh-oh-okay…This is a little nerve-wracking…When I smash this bottle, I’ve got to start taking responsibility for this thing and all the stuff I write here. Well, here it goes. The wind-up… And the pitch!

Filed under: Announcements