Back in mid-November, state senator Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, told the New Ulm Rotary Club that greater Minnesota just doesn't get its fair share of state spending.
That claim was debunked in Madison McVan's Twin Cities metro sends money to rural counties in the Minnesota Reformer earlier this month.
At a town hall at the New Ulm Public Library on Wednesday, Dahms waved another place-baiting flag, according to Clay Schuldt's article for the New Ulm Journal, ‘Still several unknowns.'
That Minnesota's new statewide program of free school lunches in public schools was passed with the intention of stripping funding for rural schools.
Schuldt reports:
. . . Minnesota’s free school lunch for all program was a contentious issue at the town hall. There was concern that the new law could have an unintended negative effect on school funding.
Previously, Minnesota would use a school’s free and reduced lunch program list to determine how much aid a school received. Last session, Minnesota approved a free school lunch program for all. As a result, families no longer need to apply for free or reduced lunches. . . .
. . .Dahms said in his opinion the real purpose of the program was to get rid of this funding formula and remove money from rural schools. [emphasis added}
“I think it is going to hurt rural Minnesota,” Dahms said. “In my opinion, the purpose of the program was to change the formula.”
Dahms said the state will need a different formula for determining school funding, but currently, there is no new method.
“We should be spending our money wisely helping the people who need help,” he said. “Giving a free lunch to people who can afford to buy a lunch is not a wise use of our resources.” . . .
While there were concerns during session about the part of the school funding formula based on school lunches and family income, as Eder Campuzano reported in As free school meals near passage, Minnesota districts worry about funding tied to aid, at the Star Tribune, that concern didn't center around a rural-urban split.
Indeed, McVan explains the school funding formular in Twin Cities metro sends money to rural counties:
. . . The rest of the state funding comes from the education formula, a 14-component algorithm that is built to compensate schools for the cost of educating populations that need more support, like English learners and special needs students.
The formula has an “equalization” component that gives extra money to districts in areas with low property values, in order to bring funding closer to that of property-rich districts without increasing taxes on those lower-value properties. Rural and city schools alike benefit from the equalization component.
Some formula components benefit rural schools, including increased compensation for small schools and sparsely populated districts, plus a transportation allowance for spread-out districts, according to the Center for Rural Policy and Development’s report on the education formula.
Other components tend to benefit urban schools, like compensation based on the number of English learners, which are more prevalent in cities than rural school districts. Some greater Minnesota Cities, like Worthington, St. Cloud and Willmar, also serve large populations of English learners.
Rural and metro schools alike receive additional funding based on how many students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa Public School District, a rural district in central Minnesota, received nearly $13,000 per adjusted pupil unit in fiscal year 2022, the highest in the state. (Adjusted pupil units are used to count students for formula purposes, and are weighted based on grade level.)
A large part of that funding — about 37% — came from the “sparsity” components of the formula.
Minneapolis Public Schools received a total of $8,790 per adjusted pupil unit. About 16% of the funding came from the “compensatory” component of the formula, which is based on the percentage of students qualifying for free- and reduced-price lunch.
Ada-Borup-West Public Schools, in rural western Minnesota, received less than Minneapolis Public Schools in 2022 with $8,474 per adjusted pupil unit; the district isn’t as sparse as Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa and serves fewer low income students than Minneapolis Public Schools.
Suburban districts tend to receive the least amount of state funding because they generally feature high property values, are not sparse, and have a lower percentage of poor students. . . .
Was Dahms tying poverty to rural Minnesota?
Perhaps Dahms and his Republican companion at the town hall, Hanska's Paul Torkelson, could quit the place-baiting pity party and work in good faith during session to improve the formula.
Not that either gentleman serves on an education committee in either chamber of the legislature.
But telling voters in the New Ulm area that the "real purpose of the program was to get rid of this funding formula and remove money from rural schools"?
Did he stay up late dreaming that one up to divide Minnesotans? Somehow I doubt defunding rural schools was foremost in House bill author Sydney Jordan, DFL-Minneapolis.
Photo: L to R: State Sen. Gary Dahms (R-Redwood Falls) and State Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska) held a town hall meeting at the New Ulm Public Library ahead of the 2024 legislative session. Photo credit: New Ulm Journal.
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