School Districts Caught In Middle Of Budget Battle
EDINA, Minn. (WCCO) -- The meetings keep mounting -- and state agencies are starting to plan for a possible government shutdown.
If state leaders can't compromise on the budget by the end of the month, most of the state government will shutdown on July 1.
Although Gov. Mark Dayton and republican leaders will continue their daily meetings, including one Thursday, some agencies will have to start sending out layoff notices this week, to get ready for the shutdown.
Meanwhile, school districts feel caught in the middle of the budget battle.
School boards across area districts are concerned about how the proposed budget would affect education. They say it could affect Minnesota's biggest districts the hardest -- Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth.
Forty-two school board members from the metro area districts and St. Cloud sent a letter asking lawmakers for a more balanced approach with revenue increases and spending cuts.
They say some of the cuts proposed by republican lawmakers are unfair and would take away money and services from the students who need them the most -- special education and the integration aid, which provides money and services for poor and disadvantaged students.
"Especially for these kids that have special needs, kids of poverty -- if you cut that funding away from them, then what are you going to do? How are you gonna work on the achievement gap with a lot less dollars than you've had in the past?" said Peyton Robb, of the Edina School Board.
Robb said this pits school districts against each other because it changes the way the money is distributed. It gives school districts in Minneapolis and St. Paul less money per student -- sometimes hundreds less -- and gives small districts, like rural and charter schools, more money.
That would create a situation of winners and losers among schools and Robb said that's just not fair.
