Dear Candidates,
Many of you recently received an email from Senator Prettner Solon and Rep. Tom Huntley discouraging you from making a pledge to reintroduce the JarosÂ’ legislation. We at Let Duluth Vote have inserted our rejoinders to their warning. We are still waiting to hear from some of you.
Sincerely,
Let Duluth Vote
The Huntley/Pretner-Solon letter (LDV’s comments bolded)
Dear Candidates,
Recently, all Duluth area legislative candidates have been asked to
sign a pledge to either reintroduce or to support legislation to oppose
(and essentially overturn) the Duluth School DistrictÂ’s long-range
facilities plan (i.e. the Red Plan) during the 2009 Minnesota
legislative session. Before legislative candidates commit to such an
action, Tom Huntley and I wanted to weigh in on this issue. We suggest
you carefully consider all the facts and the serious implications such
a pledge could have on the children of our area. Agreeing to sign such
a sweeping pledge without looking carefully at the facts of this case
could have serious ramifications for not only the Duluth School
District, but for districts across Minnesota as well.
It is important to recognize the danger to our children’s education posed by the Red Plan. As candidates you talk to a great many people. If you have not discovered the overwhelming opposition to the Red Plan you had better get out and do some more campaigning. The worst consequence of the Red Plan (other than the theft of our voting rights) is the certain failure of the fall operational levy. On top of millions already cut from the Duluth school budget the failure of this year’s levy will force the School District to cut an additional $7 million from its budget annually. This will be traumatic and the prospect of this led Mary Cameron, one of the staunch supporters of the Red Plan to wistfully wish that voters would “repeal” the school board rather than allow such harm to befall our children. This is the real threat of the Red Plan. Only a swift abandonment of the Red Plan will change the publicÂ’s attitude toward an operational levy. For this year it is too late but stopping the Red Plan in the next legislative session might permit the passage of an operational levy.
First, the school board has authorized the sale of bonds to finance the
vast majority of those projects approved in the long-range facilities
plan and those bonds have already been sold. Even if the Legislature
were to interfere with the lawful action of a local unit of government
and were to find a way to halt construction, the fiscal integrity of
the school district would be permanently damaged. This could have
serious long-term fiscal affects for the district.
While commencing the Red Plan has generated some expenses which can not be easily recovered, the initial construction year has only cost $10 million out of the proposed $293 million Red Plan budget. Not spending the additional $283 million will have a much greater positive impact on taxpayers than abandoning the Red Plan will have.
Second, during the 2008 legislative session, legislators took great
issue with the contention that the Duluth School District approved a
plan that was unlawful and that it should be overturned. Minnesota has
a strong tradition of local school control, and it is inappropriate
that the legislature get closely involved in an intensely local issue.
If the Duluth School BoardÂ’s decision to go ahead is overturned by the
legislature, what kind of chilling effect will that have on other
school districts experiencing declining enrollment who are trying to
make fiscally responsible facility decisions to best meet the needs of
their schoolchildren? In our view, it is highly unlikely that
legislators will approve a bill that will set a precedent that could
adversely affect local school district control all across the state.
During the 2008 legislative session only Rep. Tom Huntley and Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon took issue with Let Duluth VoteÂ’s contention that the Duluth School District had approved a terrible plan. LDV concedes that until it is overturned in court it must be treated as legal. That is why we asked the legislature to change the law.
Because the repeal bill was a “local bill” which was irrelevant to other legislative districts other legislators looked to the Duluth delegation to make the call. Our delegation was split between Red Plan opponents Mike Jaros, David Dill, Tom Rukavina, Sen. Tom Bakk as well as Rep. Mary Murphy (who later insisted on an amendment to the Jaros’ bill which LDV quietly opposed) and Rep. Huntley and Sen. Prettner Solon who supported the Red Plan.
As for legislative interference – that began when the legislature decided to severely limit the right of voters in cities-of-the-first-class to vote on excessive school building plans. The original Jaros bill simply restored this right to the voters of the Duluth School District.
Third, the facilities plan is intended to benefit the students of the
entire school district, not just one part of the school district. This
large-scale construction project will allow some schools to close,
design re-construction and maintenance on other buildings, and new
construction where necessary. The need for new air-quality control
systems and energy conservation systems are more obvious than ever as
the country faces a crisis in spiraling energy costs. The energy
savings to the district over the years will be enormous and the savings
will benefit the educational programs of all future Duluth students.
This is the School Board’s argument and it has not persuaded most voters. Look at it this way: While it might be economical to save gas by purchasing a Prius for $23,000, spending half-a-million dollars to buy a Prius would not be. Half-a-million dollars is a price tag consistent with the Red Plan’s inflated costs. Ironically, neither the School District or Johnson Controls ever calculated the increased transportation costs of reconfiguring Duluth’s schools. As Dave Korhonen, JCI’s initial project manager for the Red Plan, said, fewer schools will require busses to drive more students and drive them longer distances.
Fourth, the integration plan for students have not been ignored, and
the school district is embarking on new strategies to greatly improve
the integration efforts in Duluth and further close the “learning gap”
for students of color.
The integration plan has been deliberately ignored despite repeated pleas.
We hope that you will carefully consult with the citizens, Chamber
members, labor leaders, and parents of students in all areas of Duluth
to see how they feel about the new improvements and construction of
school facilities for our childrenÂ’s future before signing a pledge
that could tie their hands and actions–during future legislative
sessions.
Let Duluth Vote hopes so too. We are confident that the vast majority of the voting public opposes the Red Plan and is looking to you candidates for legislative redress. We will let the Public know which candidates support our voting rights and which support the Duluth School Board. We are still waiting to hear from some of you.
Sincerely,
Tom and Yvonne
Sen.Yvonne Prettner Solon & Rep.Tom Huntley
