Gov. Dayton's Budget Proposal Mixed Bag For District 196

Gov. Mark Dayton unveiled his proposed state budget for the upcoming fiscal year on Tuesday and the preliminary details offer up a classic "good news-bad news" scenario for administrators at the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District.

Dayton's proposal offers more money for early childhood programs and expands the availability of all-day kindergarten. But his budget also pushes off any repayment of the shift in last year's state aid payments until the 2014-15 budget.

First, the good news.

Dayton is proposing an additional $33 million over the next two years for an expansion of all-day kindergarten programs. He is also requesting $11.9 million to launch an “excellence in education award," $2 million for expanded early-childhood education and $5.1 million to use better technology as a way to close an achievement gap among students.

But the bad news for the district is that the proposed budget also delays repayment of any of the shifted funds until the 2014-15 budget. Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty used the shift in state aid payments to help close a funding gap in the current budget. The current statute would begin repayment of those funds in the 2012-13 budget cycle.

District 196 Director of Finance Jeff Solomon said the overall Dayton proposal seems to be in line with what the district expected to see from the state over the next several years. "Right now there aren't a lot of details on the governor's plan, but education funding seems to be holding at about 38.4 percent of the overall state budget. It's not a decrease, but it won't add any additional funding for the district."

Solomon said the delay in repaying the shifted aid funds was also in line with the expectations of the district financial planners. "We expected the repayment date might be pushed back and had budgeted accordingly for that possibility. It was a bit of low-hanging fruit for legislators and was one of the options that would most likely be used to balance the budget."

One potential increase in funds flowing to the district would come from Dayton's proposal for items such as the kindergarten expansion. "Right now we offer the option of an all-day kindergarten, but at an additional cost to parents of about $3,000. It appears the governor's proposal would provide money to help low-income parents pay for the all-day program. That's potentially an expansion of the money we have available."

The District 196 School Board and the district's administrators had been anticipating the extension of the funding shift and its ultimate effect on the district's bottom line. "We have been projecting that, ultimately, we would be looking at effectively a 2.5 - 5 percent decrease in General Education Funds for the coming year," said District Communications Specialist Tony Taschner. "We have also recognized that no matter what budget the governor ultimately proposed, it would have to be approved by the legislators. We continue to believe that the ultimate budget number will fall into the range and we have been planning our budget accordingly."

Solomon agreed that the Dayton budget is in the range of what the district projected. But he also said it was very early in a state budget process that may last into the summer. "This is just another step in what will be a long process to balance the state budget and also provide a reasonable level of funding for education," he said. "There will be a lot of discussion before we end up with a final sense of the funding level for schools."