The Taxpayers Legaue of Minnesota

Tuesday, November 6^th is an election day!  Although the Presidential election is still more than a year a way, it is the none the less an important day for Minnesota voters.  On November 6^th millions of Minnesota voters will have the opportunity to cast a ballot in city and school board elections.  In addition to deciding local level representation, many Minnesota voters will be answering one of the most basic of all public policy decisions… “Are you willing to pay more taxes?”  Across Minnesota 99 school districts, almost 1/3 of the school districts in the state, will ask voters if they want to raise property taxes to fund their local schools.

There is the usual propaganda that the state legislature hasn’t adequately funded K-12 education, even though the Legislature has more than doubled K-12 funding in the last 10 years, while student enrollment has remained virtually unchanged.  The plea for additional funding has reached epic proportions with school districts touting “doomsday” scenarios.  And the constant refrain of “it’s for the children” can be heard echoing through every classroom. 

But, is it really for the children?

When school districts like Anoka-Hennepin (the largest school district in the state) make shocking statements like…507 regular teachers would be eliminated and that class size would increase by 6 to 12 students if their levies don’t win voter approval – is it for the children?

Or are children being used as foil to prop up a “legacy” education bureaucracy that is financially as well as innovatively bankrupt?  If our schools aren’t educating more children then why do the costs keep spiraling out of control?

As we have seen with other “legacy” industries it’s one thing --- labor costs.  Just like the airline and automobile industries, the public education system has rapidly increasing labor costs which “management” cannot control.  On average, labor costs represent 80% of a school district’s budget, therefore with rapidly increasing costs, school districts have little ability to balance budgets without billions of additional taxpayer dollars.

The public education system’s “legacy” labor costs are primarily the results of four factors:  tenure, steps and lanes, pensions and health care.  If these four issues are not confronted head-on by the Legislature, the K-12 system will continue gobbling up billions of additional dollars, despite no change in enrollment numbers or improved outcomes.

The simple reasons are:

1. Tenure – Tenure in the K-12 system merely ensures that teachers at the top of the pay scale keep their jobs regardless of performance or skill level.  As wages increase, this forces school districts to layoff less senior teachers driving up class size.
2. Steps & Lanes – This is an antiquated concept that not only gives teachers additional pay based on years of service, but it also rewards them for earning additional degrees without any measurement of improved educational outcome.  This system again removes any control from the school district to reward teachers based on competency and performance.
3. Pensions – Just like the airlines and automakers, defined benefit plans instead of defined contribution pension plans continue to drive up costs far beyond general inflation rates.  Last year, the State dedicated an additional $30 million to bail out the almost bankrupt Minneapolis teachers’ pension fund.  The cost of funding teacher retirements each year is growing at a staggering rate.  And these pensions are certainly more generous than the average private sector pension.
4. Health care – We all know how rapidly health insurance premium rates are climbing, adding yet another spiraling cost to school district budgets.  The solution proposed by the teachers’ union is to put all teachers in the state under a single plan, taking control away from local school districts and leaving them with one more uncontrollable budget item.  Fortunately, Governor Pawlenty vetoed this legislation last session, but it is likely to be tried again.  As health care costs have risen, teachers should not be immune to rising co-pays and deductibles like everyone else is paying.

Without real solutions to these four issues, taxpayers will continue to be asked to fork over millions of more dollars for schools with larger class sizes, fewer classroom teachers and higher activity fees, all because the Legislature has failed to deal with the cost drivers which are bankrupting our schools.

As you head out to vote on Tuesday, November 6, remember it’s not really for the children – it’s for the teachers’ union.