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
[...] The money saved, according to legislators, would go directly back into the schools and not into the state budget. If approved, the state could end up giving school districts more than expected then, since K-12 education was spared from the first round of state budget cuts. [...]