It's back to the classroom for most kids in Minnesota, and thus the perfect occasion for the Winona Daily News to school ALEC zombie legislator Steve Drazkowski.
In Our View: Shame on the GOP (if shame really worked), WDN editor Darrel Ehrlick writes on behalf of the paper's board:
It’s called lying by half-truths.
Some GOP lawmakers have gone on the offensive when it comes to school levies. Not satisfied enough to shortchange public education, State Rep. Steve Drazkowski, whose district includes large portions of Winona County, wants his constituents to vote against any school levies. In fact, in one of his most recent legislative newsletters urged residents to shoot down any local initiative for more funding. He mentioned, among others, Lewiston-Altura and St. Charles districts.
. . .Drazkowski is half right: The Legislature actually gave a per-pupil funding increase, the first in a long time. That means every student is worth more to a school district than they were last year or the year before.
Yet that ignores what the Legislature did to those same schools. Instead of paying school districts the full amount, the state will now defer a larger percentage of those funds, causing districts to dip into reserves or, if they don’t have any, to borrow against the state’s promise of paying later. It’s called a funding shift and it was the only way the GOP-controlled Legislature, packed with more politicians than statesmen, could pass a budget.
We use the term “budget” loosely because the Legislature has essentially balanced the budget on the backs of school districts. The school districts can’t stop this “funding shift” from happening. Yet, one of only two responsibilities the Legislature has, according to the state constitution, is to provide for public education.
Many of these districts will see some of the increased money they get per student eaten up by having to borrow money to make ends meet. The increase is also paltry when you consider how long it’s been since Minnesota has given districts an increase. . . .
... The reason the districts need to raise the levy is because the state is shorting them millions of dollars they’re owed. It’s been shorting districts for decades by funding shifts and adding nothing to education.
What’s worse is that the extra money coming from taxpayers’ pockets won’t be funneled into the classroom, it’ll go to paying interest on the promise the Legislature hasn’t kept, despite a constitutional clause that demands it....
...We’d try to shame Drazkowski. But that would imply he could be shamed.
Read the entire editorial at the Winona Daily News, since th papers has a lot more to say and says it well.
The need for levies for local schools isn't confined to southeastern Minnesota. Last Monday, Minnpost Gleaner Brian Lambert noted a St. Cloud Times article about the large number of school seeking levies because of the legislature's inability to do its job:
Left to their own devices by the Legislature, several school districts are asking local taxpayers to pay more. Dave Aeikens of the St. Cloud Times says: “As many as nine area school districts and as many as 120 in Minnesota will have at least one question on the Nov. 8 ballot [emphasis added by BSP]. Many will have two, and one will have three. The requests for residents to raise their property taxes come as schools try to maintain their programs and services while state funding has not kept up with costs, school officials say. Schools also are dealing with costs from having to borrow money because of delayed aid payments from the state. ‘We’ve had flat funding for so long. The hole is deep. In order to get out of the hole, you have to do something. You can’t continue to cut all the time. We have been cutting for 10 years in a row,’ said Gerry Arndt, superintendent of Upsala, a district of about 420 students in Morrison County.”
Bluestem stands by its recommendation that we reform government by slashing legislative salaries, since Draz and other members of ALEC in the Minnesota legislature have outsourced writing legislation to the conservative corporate bill factory:
Bluestem thinks that the selfless creation of model bills on the part of America's finest corporate citizens should be acknowledged in Minnesota by cutting legislative pay by two thirds and doing away with the per diem system. Since the Republicans believe that there's nothing wrong with having the American Legislative Exchange Council write our laws, perhaps Minnesotans should simply concede our out-dated and expensive conceit that legislators work for us. We can save a lot of money by not paying them for plagiarizing model bills written elsewhere. Surely $10,000 should be a generous stipend for each lawmaker to act as ALEC's file clerks.”
But in the spirit of Draz's willingness to stomp on local school districts' efforts to ask voters for money to adequately fund their kids' education, we're willing to revise the salary amount. Since the legislature couldn't figure out how to do one of its two specific constitutionally mandated tasks--and members like Draz now urge voters to follow that leadership in starving the schools locally--it's only fair to half our original suggestion. Schools shouldn't be alone in being nickel-and-dimed.
Indeed, $5000 a year would be a generous reward for Draz. If shame doesn't provide a dose of reality upside his head, maybe a hefty paycut will.
Related post: Drazkowski proposes outsourcing own job to corporate bill factory in bold redesign move
Image: ALEC Zombie, Steve Drazkowski
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