Call to Action

The Issue -

• Whether a cap that limits how much money a school district can raise through voter approved levies should be eliminated.  This would allow districts to levy as much money as their voters are willing to approve.  Sen. Terri Bonoff, who represents a portion of our district is one of the authors of this bill.

The District 279 Parent Legislative Network believes:

• Eliminating the levy cap would further increase the disparity in the quality of education students in different MN school districts receive.  The MN constitution states “it is the duty of the legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public schools.”

• We believe that the quality of education a MN public student receives should not be dependent upon whether they live in an area of high property wealth or low property wealth.

• We believe eliminating the cap will negatively impact our D279 schools.  In the short term we will not be able to compete with the educational programs offered at districts who are able to levy with no limit.

Action

Please contact your legislator and tell them:

• Raising the levy cap will harm your children’s or communities schools and increase

the disparity in quality of education across MN.

• MN needs to reform the way we fund education.  Education needs to be funded     through a equitable, adequate and sustainable formula.

Visit our website: www.district279pln.org to easily find and contact your legislator.

For those who would like to know more…

History of Voter Approved Levies

Intially voter approved levies were utilized for districts to fund extras beyond the basic costs of education.  Over the past decade our state has preferred to not raise taxes at the state level.  Education funding has not kept pace with rising costs.  Local school districts have been given the option of asking voters to pass levies to make up for the shortfall.  This allows districts to raise taxes locally.  The difference is that now the levies are making up 15-17% of many school district’s basic operating budget.  They are no longer paying for the extras.

Minnesota’s State Constitution says:

ARTICLE XIII
Section 1. UNIFORM SYSTEM OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it is the duty of the legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public schools. The legislature shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise as will secure a thorough and efficient system of public schools throughout the state.

The levy cap was initially put into place as a way to try to maintain some level of equity between districts.

Currently the cap is set at $1500 per pupil in the district, although 6 districts in the state were grandfathered in at a higher level.

$715.00 x 21,000 D279 Students = $15 Million dollars per year!!

So with 21,000 students and a levy equal to St. Louis Park, our district would have $15,000,000 more in our operating budget each year. In the past 3 years alone we would have had $45,000,000 more in resources to provide the high quality education that our community wants to provide and that our students need, to compete with students from other districts , not to mention the world.

In addition Minnetonka voters approved a $5 million per year technology levy for their 7,000 students, which would equate to $15 million per year for our 21,000 students.  Another $45 million over the past 3 years.

What programs and opportunities could we provide our students with $90 million dollars?

Summary

Students living in the Minnetonka School District benefit from living in an area of high property wealth, both commercial and personal.  It is much easier to pass a levy if you have a high number of large corporations, retail stores, and a lower number of residents living in poverty.

Districts such as Minnetonka, know that with the current level of state funding, they will not be able to continue to provide the quality of education they would like in their schools.  We don’t blame them for wanting to look at all options including eliminating the levy cap as a way to deal with shortfall from the state.

We believe that eliminating the cap will only increase the disparity in the quality of education available in our state.  To compete economically in the 21st century, all students in MN need to receive a high quality education.  There are not enough students lucky enough to live in these high property wealth districts to provide the number of highly educated workers that MN will need in the coming decades.

The answer is not to eliminate the levy cap, the answer is to fix the broken education funding system in our state.