President Dooher's statement on operating levies

Next Tuesday, November 3rd, 57 local school districts in Minnesota will be asking their local communities for a “lifeline” in the form of an operating levy.

They are asking local voters to do what the state has failed to do:

• Provide the necessary funding for their local schools.

Today I am here to encourage voters in these 57 communities to carefully consider voting in favor of those levy requests.

Take a close look at what the school district is requesting. Before you go into the voting booth, please consider the following two questions:

1. What it will mean for the students’ education? …and
2. What will happen if the levy does not pass?

It shouldn’t be the responsibility of the local taxpayer, but for now it is.
In just this past year, state education funding has been:
• frozen,
• it has been withheld by the Governor,
• and next year funding is up in the air because the state hasn’t acted to solve its financial problems.

So as we head into Election Day next week, I also want to challenge the Legislature and the governor to take a hard look at Minnesota’s neglected system of school funding.

Operating levies are no longer “excess” levies… they no longer pay for extras. These levies pay for the basics to make up for what the state no longer provides.

Our schools are becoming more and more dependent on an inequitable system of property tax levies that varies from district to district and zip code to zip code. Students in some districts have access to courses of study and other learning opportunities that students just a few miles away do not.

All because of the success or failure of a local levy.

Right now, districts are on pins and needles worrying about next Tuesday’s weather, and if enough of their supporters will show up at the polls.

That’s not what Minnesota is about

We used to be a national model for educational opportunities for all students. No matter where they lived. The state made sure that funding was equitable, sustainable, predictable and sufficient.

Now we are reaching a point that I thought we would never see again in Minnesota. Our state has reverted back to a time when only those students in privileged districts got the best education. And that is not what we are all about as a state. At least I hope we are not.

In next Tuesday’s elections, many districts are simply asking to keep a levy that’s already in place. So if levies are voted down, it will be the same thing as a cut. The district won’t be able to offer students the education they’re getting now. Class sizes will get bigger, more programs will be eliminated and student fees will go even higher – creating additional inequities.

So again, I am asking people who live in those districts to consider a “yes” vote on school levies when they head for the polls. I’m confident that if you examine the purpose of the levy and the need it will fulfill for your community, that you will vote “yes”.

And I urge the governor and the Legislature – most of whom will themselves be appearing on the ballot for re-election one year from now – to ask themselves:

• How did our schools to get to this point? and
• Do they have the vision and the commitment to bring Minnesota back as the national leader in education at all levels.

October 29, 2009