by Brigitt Martin

Despite winning their November 2007 tax referendums, alumni Kevin Borg, superintendent of Westonka Public Schools, and Rolf Parsons, a veteran member of the board for White Bear Lake Area Schools, find flaws in the current system for funding Minnesota public schools.

"The system works on the surface: The notion that citizens would tax themselves to do their community good implies an engaged citizenry and publicly supported schools that answer to its citizens," says Parsons. "But last year, two-thirds of the districts didn’t get support for their referendums, and this year one-third didn’t."

Alumnus Kevin Borg had little time to savor his district's
successful referendum before facing new financial hurdles.

The mixed election results create greater funding gaps between districts. "If your levy referendum doesn’t succeed and your neighbor’s does, then zip codes define the quality of education” says Borg, who prepared for his principal and his superintendent licensures through the college.

In Westonka, where public levies provided 21 percent of the district’s $26 million operating budget in 2006–07, the results of the November referendum were bittersweet. Voters approved the new excess levy of $334 per student by a slim margin of 100 votes but elected two school board officials who were critical of the measure.

One month later, Borg found himself apologizing to the public for the district’s having fallen into statutory operating debt (when expenditures exceed general unreserved fund balances by more than 2.5 percent).

“[The debt] is a management, not a funding issue,” admits Borg. “But there’s definitely a feeling of loss. The community thought we’d be gaining back programs with the levy money, but now the feeling is that we won’t and that’s frustrating.”

He predicts that by applying the levy funds toward the deficit, the district will be out of statutory operating debt by the summer of 2009. Then he can start concentrating on its future.

Not easily done, notes Parsons (B.S. ’70, M.A. ’73, Ph.D. ’78), who has been involved in seven levy referendums and one bonding campaign in his 12 years on the White Bear Lake school board. “The price of the levy system is the inability to plan ahead. Since these are votes taken in the community and are, consequently, hardly a ‘sure thing,’ school boards are not in a position to plan for future program improvements or for new staffing opportunities until the referenda pass.”

He laments the sheer number of hours each funding effort takes away from the district’s real work. “This is what the job has become, and what a waste of time! We could have used those thousands of volunteer hours inside classrooms instead of wasting them knocking on doors and licking stamps!”

After a levy referendum failed in 2006, Parsons says the White Bear Lake school board did a great deal of research to find out how to best garner their citizen’s support in 2007.

“In our polling and focus groups we found that support for education is not the issue; the issue is property tax increases,” he says. “Thus we needed to change our message and address the issue of rising taxes. Districts who did so won their referendums in 2006.”

The successful White Bear Lake referendum allocates an additional $10 million, or almost $1,471 per student, toward operating costs, including programs such as special education, extracurricular activities, and transportation services.

Despite the levy’s success, Parsons says school boards should not have to bring their funding needs to the voters and get mired in the politics of taxation. Instead, he suggests that public school funding is a state responsibility.

“Most students move around after they graduate, although in Minnesota they tend to stay in-state, so it’s hard to make a case to support education at a local level,” he reasons. “Funding at the state level makes the most sense.”

Superintendent Borg credits the college for preparing him for such challenges of school funding and administration, saying it did “an incredible job of finding relevant, qualified people from the field” as instructors.

Before being recommended for an administrative licensure, every student must study school finance and complete additional credits for any special licensure, including a class in school finance elections for future superintendents and in special education funding for potential directors of special education.

That deep expertise is important, says Ann Zweber Werner, director of the college’s educational administration licensure program, as taxpayers and citizens demand better outcomes, and more innovative and efficient educational systems.

Related stories

When the levy fails

An equal opportunity education?

PHOTO: Leo Kim

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