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Future looks bleak for increase in state educational funding
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EmailSeptember 09. 2010 2:48PM
During a conference call with South Dakota Secretary of Education, Tom Oster, last week the Secretary discussed several issues related to school funding. The Education Jobs Fund Program recently approved by Congress is bringing $26 million in monies targeted for preserving education jobs. South Dakota has had its plan approved and the money will be flowing into the state along with millions more slated to help with the Medicaid program.
The South Dakota plan is to send the Education Jobs Fund money to schools in the form of state aid with the state reducing its General Fund contribution to state aid by an equal amount. The result is no net increase in funding for schools in South Dakota. The Brandon Valley School District was slated to receive just over $714,000 from the program, which would have been extremely helpful to our otherwise tight budget.
The biggest question is, how will the state use the money saved? Secretary Oster painted a bleak picture of state finances for next fiscal year, so presumably the money will help moderate the impact of the projected shortfalls. Whether that will translate into more funding for education will be a matter for the state legislature to decide. The Secretary said that schools should optimistically expect another year of zero percent increase in per pupil funding, but should prepare for the worst. The worst, of course, would be an actual decrease in the per pupil funding amount.
Growing school districts like Brandon Valley will not be immune from the pain of another year of zero, or worse. However, our colleagues in districts that have stable or decreasing enrollments will be much harder hit by this eventuality. At Brandon Valley, we proposed a balanced budget for this year that was predicated on growing by 103 students. The district is still short of that enrollment increase and is hoping that enrollment will increase before the official count date on Sept. 24. We still have a strong reserve that can be used to cover budget shortfalls for a couple years, but reserves cannot last forever so we will be planning fiscal restraint this year and for the next few years.
The Brandon Valley School District appreciates the strong support it receives from the communities it serves and pledges to squeeze every academic penny it can from the resources provided to it. In the end our goal is same: the creation of learning environments that result in success.
The South Dakota plan is to send the Education Jobs Fund money to schools in the form of state aid with the state reducing its General Fund contribution to state aid by an equal amount. The result is no net increase in funding for schools in South Dakota. The Brandon Valley School District was slated to receive just over $714,000 from the program, which would have been extremely helpful to our otherwise tight budget.
The biggest question is, how will the state use the money saved? Secretary Oster painted a bleak picture of state finances for next fiscal year, so presumably the money will help moderate the impact of the projected shortfalls. Whether that will translate into more funding for education will be a matter for the state legislature to decide. The Secretary said that schools should optimistically expect another year of zero percent increase in per pupil funding, but should prepare for the worst. The worst, of course, would be an actual decrease in the per pupil funding amount.
Growing school districts like Brandon Valley will not be immune from the pain of another year of zero, or worse. However, our colleagues in districts that have stable or decreasing enrollments will be much harder hit by this eventuality. At Brandon Valley, we proposed a balanced budget for this year that was predicated on growing by 103 students. The district is still short of that enrollment increase and is hoping that enrollment will increase before the official count date on Sept. 24. We still have a strong reserve that can be used to cover budget shortfalls for a couple years, but reserves cannot last forever so we will be planning fiscal restraint this year and for the next few years.
The Brandon Valley School District appreciates the strong support it receives from the communities it serves and pledges to squeeze every academic penny it can from the resources provided to it. In the end our goal is same: the creation of learning environments that result in success.
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