didnt mark borrow from the money they had, to pay down the debt of 5 billion dollars.so they could build the stadium.now were going further in debt.if you ask me they are starting to juggling those glass balls again.

Dayton wasn't even in office when the borrowing happened; Pawlenty was. After he was out he recommended that the state legislature never pay it back. Trying to tie the stadium to the school payback plan is twisting this, and you could say that Dayton did this for every fiscal piece of legislation that came through last year which just isn't true. I don't like the stadium deal either but here it is, and it has absolutely nothing to do with school finance or Dayton. So, what's Pawlenty doing these days? You have questions? Go ask him.

School funding is an important issue. However, it amazes me that all the think tanks, politicians, and in many respects, the media, miss the whole problem of Education in America. We talk about excellence in the classroom and everybody assumes that is the teachers. When are we going to insist on excellence in the classroom from the students?

The effort should be directed at making education more effective and efficient and stop the more money game. To start look at less administration, longer use of text books, national standards to eliminate custom books by state and custom reporting / testing by state. The idea that each school or state can do it better may help a few, but not the whole. There are 100s if not 1000s of other ways to improve education of students without more money.

Instead of looking at the states here, and what others are doing, why do we not look to OTHER COUNTRIES, who are doing better at educating and for less money? One place to help though would be cutting the bureaucracy...there are schools with way too much on the top end, with way too much pay. And then let's get to the technology debate. The students do not need iPads to be able to learn. Funded computer labs that are open hours before and after school, with enough computers is a necessity, but providing all of them with iPads, at $600 a piece is NOT necessary to learn!

mplsjim you are so right on the textbooks. The textbook companies will change around a chapter to make it necessary to buy a new one. I'm sorry, but I know math hasn't changed that much since I went to school, nor since when my parents went to school... The math they are using though. I remember one school spending $1.4M for iPads because it would save them $600K on books...ummm...something wrong with that math? No wonder students aren't doing well. Not to mention that parents need to be more involved in their kids education.

1) make paper text books an option - many students have laptops or home computers on which they can consume the "textbook" (2) shut down the task force "road trip" - Crowd Source this portion of the process on a website - where everyone is logged in with their REAL NAME - so there is accountability attached to activity. run it for 90 days of focused proposals, reviews, discussion. Let anyone who want to read it , read it - daily. (3) end funding of athletics and atheltic fields - its become far tooooo large of a facilities, insurance and transportation cost. (4) with any luck - we can bypass the politicians on this one - they couldn't drop water and hit the floor - cut them out of the loop.

Comment229***I don't know how you came up with Pawlenty telling the Legislator never to pay it back, and by the way this Legislator passed a bill to pay back some of the money to the schools, Dayton vetoed it. On another note how about making the school system accountable for the money they receive.

The problem is that the tax system in MN is a disaster. It is a conglomeration of high rates and special interest buy downs. Property taxes in outstate MN are bought down very low through credits while taxes for renters and home owners in the city are exceedingly high. The first priority should be to have flatter and more fair taxes with very few deductions and buy downs.

marcymmb: He said it on a national talk show, and said he recommended that the money never be paid back. And you are right up there with fox news on the half truth about Dayton vetoing it. Funny thing about republicans and their ideas of finance even in their own party; a partial payback is just fine with them, but tell that to their creditors and in this case, it was the schools. When the money was "borrowed" it was not "borrowed" in small amounts. It was borrowed all at once. THAT is how it should be paid back and with interest. If a district had to borrow against that money, they would have to pay interest on it. Enough of the half truths from you and your party.