Public schools everywhere face challenges from unfunded federal mandates, tighter state aid and local tax bases that are tapped out. But here on the Iron Range some special circumstances threaten the very existence of two districts, which I think are like canaries in the coal mine for school districts all over the state.
First, in Greenway, the school board lost an appeal over a judgment against the district in favor of the teacher retirees (“Greenway loses appeal of retiree lawsuit,” Grand Rapids Herald Review). This will add half a million dollars to the annual costs to the district, which has the dual effect of smothering the district’s functionality and ability to consolidate with other districts.
Then, in the St. Louis County schools, teachers and the administration have yet to reach a contract agreement, making this among the last districts in the state to go without one (“Still no progress in teacher talks,” Timberjay). The St. Louis County schools are examples of extremely rural schools that consolidated into one administrative district but still can’t keep up with costs because of a very small population and a very rural coverage area that requires massive bus fleets and lakes of gasoline.
You can ignore these problems if you want. After all, only a tiny, tiny portion of the state’s population are affected. But I truly believe these examples are, to reemphasize my cliche, canaries in the coal mine. There will be other schools squeezed next year and the year after. The 20 years of shifting away from a state-funded education system to a local-funded one will choke out schools in poor and rural areas and create a two-class educational system that is positively un-Minnesotan.
Maybe if the mine taxes which you contend are in lieu of local property taxes weren’t squandered on museum boondoggles, the schools up there would be a bit more to your liking.