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Legislative sitdown shows there are few easy solutions to school budget woes
The general public was absent but indeed there was quite an audience when school board members in Ely gathered on Monday night.
For the first time in decades, not one but both of the Ely area’s representatives in St. Paul met with school board members at the same time.
State Sen. Grant Hauschild (D-Hermantown) and State Rep. Roger Skraba (R-Ely) joined lobbyist and Ely native Jeff Anderson in attending the board’s monthly study session and listening to the many concerns voiced by board members and superintendent Anne Oelke.
The meeting was refreshing and rare. We can’t ever remember both area lawmakers attending an Ely School Board session before and the legislators were genuinely interested in the problems - nearly all of them financial - facing the Ely district.
But as engaged as the lawmakers were and despite the overall energy in the room, those hoping for quick and easy relief are sure to be disappointed.
When it comes to school finance, particularly for rural districts with declining enrollment such as Ely, there are no quick and easy solutions.
The meeting addressed all of the hot-button issues, and over the course of an hour, all the key boxes were checked - the declines in student population, student departures to post-secondary enrollment options, home school and online options, stagnant state aid, an archaic and nonsensical property tax collection formula, and unfunded mandates.
All have a negative impact on the Ely School District’s bottom line and most have a negative effect on many other rural school districts.
But sadly, none appear to be easy to solve, and the legislators made it clear they had no magic bullets.
Hauschild made it clear that PSEO isn’t going anywhere, and that’s bad news for Ely, where 38 juniors and seniors have bypassed the high school to instead take classes at Vermilion Community College.
That’s a major hit to the district, to the tune of $300,000 or more.
Hauschild seemed receptive to legislative action, perhaps a bill that would not allow high schoolers to take PSEO courses if the same class is offered at the high school.
But if college credit can be obtained at Vermilion but not at the high school, that remedy wouldn’t seem to help in Ely.
Indeed, Hauschild said any changes may help “at the margins” but PSEO is more than a marginal problem for the local school district.
It’s also obvious the state can’t do much about the plethora of online education options that weren’t available decades ago but are now.
Declining birth rates and demographics also have little to do with who’s in power in St. Paul.
The numbers show that school funding hasn’t kept pace with inflation.
Despite action by the legislature to tie current state aid formulas to inflation, that won’t make up for the years that districts fell behind.
And given the state’s own financial woes, it’s all but certain there’s no political appetite - or money - to write big checks to schools to make up for funding that was lost.
School officials also aren’t happy with state programs that come with a cost but no additional money. Unfunded mandates were part of the discussion Monday and the lone bright spot from that discussion was Hauschild’s indication that the state will almost certainly fund unemployment insurance for districts rather than have schools take on yet another additional cost.
The good news from Monday’s meeting was that the legislators are clearly up to speed about the issues facing Ely and other rural districts.
The bad news, at least for now, is there doesn’t seem to be much the state can or will do to make a significant impact.
We found it intriguing that Hauschild suggested that Ely and other rural districts align with Minneapolis and St. Paul to build a coalition that could bring about change at the state capitol. Unlikely allies indeed but perhaps it’s an idea that has legs.
We hope as well that a move to bring more seasonal recreational property tax monies to local schools - a plan supported by both Hauschild and Skraba - will gain traction in 2026. It’s a common-sense idea that would funnel more money to Ely without imposing further tax burdens on those who live and work here.
It’s not a game-changer, but it’s something. And right now, anything will help when it comes to funding for the Ely School District.
Let’s hope the legislators can make it happen.
