How might the changing demographics in Minnesota influence future conversations by state leaders regarding public school funding priorities?

By Don Allen, M.A. Ed./MAT - Candidate: Superintendent Licensure (2023)

The following text was written as a response to 2023 Spring - GED 8125-1 - School Finance, Hamline University. 

Hamline University professor David Schultz wrote: “More money spent on education does improve outcomes. But the money must be spent correctly. View spending as an opportunity cost or cost-benefit issue. In other words, what type of spending yields the best results in comparison to other expenditures…but the biggest impacts on student performance have little to do with what happens in the classroom” (Shultz, 2023). After reviewing our prompt for this week and doing the various readings, the school finance piece comes back to the question: Is there talented leadership running school finances? I have always been under the influence that we (leaders and educators) must make sure that people that sit at the tables of school and education finance have the understanding to lead conversations and practices while doing business in a way beneficial to the systems in Minnesota’s K-12 public school constructs. In my response to this assignment, I will focus on what I see in the finance systems (creative and otherwise) within Twin Cities public schools to tackle the question of how might the changing demographics in Minnesota influence future conversations by state leaders regarding public school funding priorities?

      I know bad actors inside systems. I was fortunate enough to gain experience in K-12 buildings that are highly functional but deliver a bad product and very little customer service. I have more experience looking into the blind spots in many district sites regarding district finance, partisan politics, or collaborations with the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) that usually end horribly. I feel this background is necessary for my response. To start, Minnesota taxpayers and schools lost more than $500 million (not $250 million) with what should have been a school site initiative that was culturally awarded (guilt) to the first group of Minnesota immigrants off the welfare roles in Minnesota; the Somali community. I am not the most minor upset with the Somali community, but I am upset with why MDE thought Feeding Our Futures would be able to feed over 800,000 Minnesota students during the COVID-19 pandemic - but they've never served one. Even with the 54 people indicted, only $67 million in assets have been recovered (Sepic, 2023). Again, the blind spot is the missing money (school/education finance); the amount is more like $500 million, according to Minnesota senator Mark Koran who said, "...that money was being shipped out of the MPS (airport) in suitcases; yes, it was declared, but MDE and state officials didn't say anything" (Our Black News, 2023).  

 

The Demographics - Minnesota, the White Minority 30< 

(YMCA Equity Innovation Slides, 2019 - Figure A)

     

     

Minnesota continues to see a significant shift in demographics that, for the most part, are
being ignored by school districts along with state and local governments in charge of culture and climate (relative oxymorons), DEI (diversity, equity, and including - the big distractions), and organizational health, design, and communication suffering because of the lack of creative problem-solving.  The ability to produce outcomes needed to create Minnesota's Best Workforce has been abandoned since 2016 in Twin Cities public school districts. The slide presentation from the YMCA titled Tipping Points: Year When Age Group Becomes Minority White shows the massive increase in Minnesota's minority population. In the next 12 years, most of Minnesota's population will be minority-ethnic, 70 and under, in 2036. In 2023, the state's population 30 and under are majority-minority ethnics (Black, Hispanic, Somali, Asian). The disparities (gaps) in inner-city educational constructs have ignored its minority ethic, mostly secondary population, and rerouted funding into dead-end programs like AP (College Board) for inner-city schools in minority neighborhoods where not one student has passed the test since 2016 (See Humboldt High School AP - all disciplines from 2016-2020). 

     Minnesota public school funding has no flukes or wobbles; the system trends are riddled with bad actors with little to no vision but usually really lovely people. This creates the beginning of the challenges. In The Principal′s Guide to School Budgeting, Sorenson and Goldsmith write, "Schools perish when a lack of vision exists. When money is thrown at problems, human nature takes over to ensure "give me my fair share." This usually translates into "get all I can get." In the absence of an understanding of the budget–vision relationship in the planning process, greed takes control, and the good of the learning community is abandoned" (Sorenson & Goldsmith, 2018, p. 15). The state of Minnesota has had billions of dollars to address inequities in education but delivered very little to families in inner-city school districts. In 2019, the Star Tribune reported in a front-page story (above the fold) that "$600M a year, yet achievement gap persists" (Golden & Webster, 2019). From 2020 forward, combined with the pandemic, the state legislature says the amount in 2023 will be more than $1 billion flung out to school districts, programs, curriculum, and Pearson with little to no accountability, ergo, money being thrown at challenges. 

 

     "How far can I go to fix something that's broken?" (Morbius, 2022).

 

     All of this is about human capital, bad organizational design, and communication with no receipts. In the second reading, Equity and Adequacy in School Funding - The Future of Children, the heavy lean-into equity is troubling to me as an educator, but I get it - these days it's all about equity; it doesn't matter if it's done good or bad, it just has to be on the website. After reading the journal article, Equity and Adequacy in School Funding (Augenblick et al., 1997), I feel they point out what I've been thinking about all along: 

●      Equity and adequacy are essential factors in education funding litigation, but no universally accepted definitions exist.

●      Equity is often measured by the variation in per-pupil revenues among school districts within a state, with wealthier districts typically having higher expenditures than poorer ones.

●      Greater equity can be achieved when residents of poor districts pay higher taxes and when states contribute more to lower-income districts.

●      Adequacy refers to ensuring sufficient funding to deliver an adequate education to every student in the state. Still, most states have not defined what constitutes an "adequate" education or how educational standards can be converted into a financial formula.

●      Calculating the cost of an adequate education is complex and varies depending on factors such as student characteristics and needs, costs of doing business, and local tax revenue.

●      Ensuring equity and adequacy in education funding is challenging for state legislatures due to the varying needs of different school districts.

 

Summary

     The changing demographics in Minnesota should influence future conversations regarding fiscal policy because of the changing human capital. Unfortunately, human capital is not a part of the dominant culture therefore the information about school finance and demographics will mostly be seen in graduate school responses on Canvas. From what I've seen this year at the state level - if you're a member of the controlling party (not picking sides) and you run a district, it's more likely that you will get what you want. No matter how you look at school finance, vision, and purpose should be top-of-mind. Again, Sorenson and Goldsmith make the great point: "Schools perish when a lack of vision exists" (p.15); the challenge continues to be financing with no deliverables. Minnesota law and state statutes are very clear, but the mission of education in Minnesota is an efficacy not reached generationally by many school districts and more critically our K-12 scholars. School funding is in a crisis, it's not a crisis about needing more funding; it's a crisis about what's not being done with the current money on the table. Yes, the changing demographics are a huge piece, but again the gaps and poverty are man-made - it’s very profitable to fail in Minnesota’s education systems. If local districts would have taken succession planning and adequate school funding seriously in the early 1980s, I don’t think we would be in such bad shape. I attest there is enough money in public school systems; the challenge is the human capital in charge of checks and balances. 

 

References

 

Allen, D. (2020). Humboldt High School AP Data 2016-2020.

 

 

Augenblick, J. G., Myers, J. L., & Anderson, A. B. (1997). Equity and adequacy in school funding. The future of children. JSTOR, 7(3), 63–78. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1602446?seq=1

 

Espinosa, D., Sazama, M., Sharpless, B., Arad, A., Tolmach, M., Foster, L., Leto, J., Smith, M.,   

             Arjona, A., Harris, J., Madrigal, A., Tyrese., & Keaton, M. (2022). Morbius ([English,   

              French, Portuguese, Spanish or Thai version].). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

 

Golden, E., & Webster, M. (2019, June 1). $600M a year, yet achievement gap persists. Star Tribune. https://www.startribune.com/despite-targeted-funding-struggling-students-still-experience-an-achievement-gap/510160142/

 

Our Black News (Executive Producer). (2023). Feeding Our Future with MN senator Mark Koran (3, 14th ed.) [TV series; Online]. ReStream. www.OurBlackNews.com (Original work published 2023)

 

Schultz, D. (2023). Improving minnesota education: What does the evidence say really works? Minnesota Reformer. https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/03/14/improving-minnesota-education-what-does-the-evidence-say-really-works/?fbclid=IwAR1So9WtJp0fEJhHfIZJ4AgTpdO7dG4oj56uo2XCDysWVKcrehJ88yNwF6I 

 

Sepic, M. (2023, March 13). Minn. U.S. attorney charges 10 more people in feeding our future case. MPR News. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/03/13/minn-us-attorney-charges-10-more-people-in-feeding-our-future-case 

 

Sorenson, R. D., & Goldsmith, L. M. (2018). The principal′s guide to school budgeting (Third Edition ed.). Corwin.

 

YMCA Equity Innovation Slides [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JCt-fKqv3pIJ06_SRbxBZuBxmsIIZ-50pTBKKaIUVi0/edit?usp=sharing].  (2019, May). In p. 2. YMCA.