Hey look! School board drama that’s not related to mask mandates! That’s right, the Minneapolis School Board decided to cut $27M from its annual budget, signaling cuts are coming, just like a certain season.
Here’s Five Fast Facts on the Minneapolis School Budget Cuts:
- 🙋 How Much, Again? - $27 million. That’s a 5% cut across the board, but a 1% decrease in funding for all Minneapolis schools. Each school is responsible for making its own cuts.
- ✂️Cut Who and What- Board members said since 87% of that budget is spent on staff, schools will probably have to cut some jobs. When faced with cuts like this, most schools also look at getting rid of arts and music programs. When you consider 30% of Minnesota teachers are already thinking about calling it quits, moves like this aren’t going to help.
- 👉Who’s to blame? - The school board is pointing at new teachers they hired last year and decreased enrollment.
- 👀The Bigger the Cushion - One board member suggested taking $10M from the district’s reserves. His amendment was declined, as some members are worried digging into those reserves would lower the school’s bond rating, making it hard to borrow money in the future.
- 💰Out of Pocket - If you have a kid in arts and music programs, expect to shell out more cash or worse, not have a program at all.
🔥Bottom line: The politics (and math) of school funding has always been a thorny road, but post-pandemic, things are starting to look worse. There’s no easy solution for this, but it’s clear that students, faculty and staff are going to suffer. How the public school system survives is going to take more than a simple equation to solve.
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