Before I analyze any more of the column its worth recalling the title given it by some DNT editor “…Running fewer schools results in savings that are applied to repaying bonds.” Its worth remembering because the Trib is putting those words in Art Johnston’s mouth. Art would never make that claim. He would simply say the way the Red Plan was implemented and financed crimped, crippled maybe, the operational budget.
What follows is a few simple truths about Minnesota School districts. I don’t like the oversimplification of the next paragraph where Duluth is concerned:
General-fund deficits have been a fact of life for Minnesota school districts for at least 20 years, well before the school construction projects began. In Duluth, as in most school districts, general-fund deficits occur simply because operating costs are rising faster than revenues. School districts have little control over revenues, so strategies to reduce deficits generally center on controlling costs and making budget cuts.
Yes, and No. Before I was elected to the School Board in 1995 we had just been in statutory operating debt. Two years before I got elected the District paid off the debt and built up a “ten percent reserve” over and above annual costs and kept that reserve for the remaining eight years of my tenure. Today, thanks to the Red Plan it is being spent down. The DNT’s education reporter told me it was down to four million dollars and that she expects it all to be spent within a year. That reserve is paying off bonds among other things and when it is gone you can expect increasing teacher layoffs or a new bout of Statutory Operating Debt.
The next two paragraphs are generic space filler.
Each year school and district leaders work with people inside and outside our schools to identify ways to reduce spending without impacting classrooms. Duluth schools have made tens of millions of dollars in reductions in general-fund spending over the past
20 years. Reductions have been realized at various times to district and school administration, health insurance premiums and as many non-classroom areas as practical. Unfortunately, we’re well past a time when cuts can be made without impacting the classroom, as evidenced by an increase in class sizes this year
