state + local

Beyond the impact on schools, financial analysts say it is unwise fiscal policy. Fitch Ratings cited the state's school shifts as a key factor in its downgrade of Minnesota's bond rating Thursday, noting that it leaves a larger deficit down the road. Take it off the table Govenor. Don't continue to play the same games that got us here today. You can make the necessary changes. Stand Firm on your beliefs, we are behind you 100%, let the GOP take the heat for what they are doing.

Delay 40% of state payments to school districts? No. Do something to deal with Minnesota's constant, structural deficit - something that doesn't rely on accounting gimmicks? Yes. And that means a mixture of service cuts and revenue increases. Over 30 states increased taxes in 2009 to deal with budget deficits. Thanks to Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota wasn't one of them. We simply can't consider ourselves to have a civilized, compassionate society if we keep constantly cutting services for the elderly, disabled and children and keep defending the tax cuts that the wealthiest among us has received during the past decade.

So what? For 40 years, all we've heard is that we have to increase school funding. What do we have to show for it? A dysfunctional public education system - not just here but everywhere. Schools have always got their hands out with taxes, bond issues, fees, bake sales. When all else fails, they trot out the blackmail and extortion - if we don't get more money, the quality of education will suffer. How much worse can it get? No amount of money will ever be enough, so let's try something different. Let's cut them back and let them live within their means.

Anybody that believes that these are shifts is kidding themselves. The republicans will never allow these to be paid back.

24% of our state budget is already spent on education. Don't tell me we don't ship enough dollars in that direction already. Something stinks and needs to be fixed. I'd start with the Department of Education and the Teacher's Unions. Neither of which care about our children's education. It's all about their budgets and their employees and members...

Don't do this.

I think we have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that continuous increases in school funding do not result in a better educational system. It is time to go in a different direction. How about returning to simplicity and literacy? Get rid of all the bells and whistles, fire every teacher in the school system and start over from scratch.

I ask again. How do the liberals, who still hate the fact that Pawlenty deferred school money, feel now that Dayton is also proposing the same thing only a larger shift?

I don't get it. Republicans argue that we have a spending problem but yet we don't have the revenue to pay schools so we must force them to borrow the money. That's Republican fiscal responsibility for ya - don't tax, borrow.

It's unacceptable to "balance the budget" on the backs of our schools. Cowards.