Fully Fund Education: Provide Students and Staff with the Resources They Need to Succeed.

• Reduce the Special Education cross subsidy to cover the actual cost of providing services. For the 2022-23 school year, Robbinsdale Area Schools has budgeted $19.4 million from the general fund to cover unreimbursed Special Education costs.
• Reduce the English Learning cross subsidy to fund the cost of providing services for English Learners. For the 2022-23 school year, Robbinsdale Area Schools has budgeted $2.2 million from the general fund to cover unreimbursed English Learner costs.
• Link the funding formula to inflation. The basic education formula is the district’s primary source of operating funds and accounts for 45.01% of Robbinsdale Area Schools’ general fund revenue. Increases in the basic education formula have not kept up with inflation. In fact, the basic education formula would be $1,263 higher per pupil if it had kept up with inflation since 2003. For Robbinsdale this amounts to $13.6 million. Adequate, reliable, and predictable funding is essential to provide programs that ensure every student develops their unique potential and graduates career and college ready. 

Ensure All Kids are Kindergarten Ready

• Continue funding the Voluntary Pre Kindergarten (VPK) program to ensure school readiness. The $1.8 million investment for Robbinsdale Area Schools provides children and families with robust PreK programming. Research shows it reduces the achievement gap, and need for special education and remediation, improves health outcomes, and reduces the need for social services, while lowering criminal justice costs and improving self-sufficiency and productivity.

Stem the Student Mental Health Crisis and Enhance School Safety

• Increase the Safe Schools Levy. The Safe Schools levy amount has remained at $36 per the district’s adjusted pupil units since 2014. Times have changed dramatically. Our students deserve the school-based mental health services needed to navigate the effects of COVID and increasing social pressures.
• Expand the allowable uses of Long-Term Facilities Maintenance Revenue to allow school districts to make the needed building modifications including purchasing systems and equipment to keep our buildings safe.

Institute Taxpayer Equity

• Increase equalization for operating\ referendums and debt service to fund all districts equitably, not according to our zip code. Property tax levies play a crucial role in funding education programs and facilities. Higher commercial and residential property wealth in a school district impacts the tax rates for referendums and levies. For example, taxes on a home valued at $314,000 cost homeowners in Robbinsdale Area Schools almost more than twice what homeowners in the commercial and residential property-rich Hopkins School District pay.

Allow School Boards to Renew an Existing Operating Referendum for the Same Amount

• Locally elected school boards should have the authority to renew an existing operating referendum at the same funding level. Over the past seven years 100% of Minnesota’s referendum renewals were approved by voters. Money and time spent on elections should go into the classroom instead.

Download the 2023 Legislative Platform