MinnPost/Terry Gydesen

Gov. Mark Dayton

During his campaign, Mark Dayton visited countless schools and broke bread with pretty much every public-education advocate in Minnesota. On Tuesday, when he released his proposed 2012-2013 budget, the governor proved he was taking notes during those meetings.

The governor proposed spending $33 million on all-day kindergarten, $5.1 million on competitive innovation grants, $11.9 million on excellence in education awards, and $2 million to expand a preschool quality ratings system. He also promised to hold cuts to the public institutions of higher education to 6 percent — good news, believe it or not.

But the part of the plan [PDF] that drew the loudest applause involved transparent accounting. More money or an end to the budget-slashing would certainly be nice, school administrators have repeatedly said, but stability in funding would be even better.

On that score, it appears that the governor has a plan to deliver. To understand it, you need to know a little something about the wily, much mischaracterized sleight of hand that is the school funding shift.

A moving target
Because education finances are calculated by a series of convoluted formulas, the amount the state owes school districts can be a moving target. Back in the day, Minnesota dealt with this by paying school districts for 90 percent of what they were owed in a given year in the year in question.

It was generally agree that holding back the other 10 percent pending final tallies of arcane measures like pupil hours — which is not the number of hours a literal, corporeal pupil is in school, believe it or not — was sensible and fair. The state was good for the money and districts could dip into and replenish their reserve funds.

Somewhere along the line, cash-strapped politicians thought to hold back a little more, 15 percent at first and then 20. As the amount grew, and compounded from year to year, it stopped seeming so sensible and fair. Much in the way that a consumer will never pay off a credit card by making minimum payments, the state never really reimbursed districts.

Reasoning that a shift is better than a cut, districts swallowed hard and asked voters to pass levies not just for big initiatives, as was true in the past, but to keep the lights on.

Under Pawlenty, the shift shifted
Finally, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty began balancing the budget by changing the shift to a 70/30 split — insisting all the while that he was “holding K-12 harmless.” Suddenly, districts were doing things like cramming 40 kids in a classroom and going to four-day weeks to compensate.

Even if he gets his tax hike, Dayton acknowledged in his proposed budget, he will not come up with a pot of money big enough to settle the state’s debts to school districts. Indeed, the 70/30 split will have to remain in force for the next biennium.

But in 2014, it will fall to 90/10. Even without a return to the Halcyon days of full funding, administrators will know what they are getting, and when they are getting it.

Mary Cecconi is executive director of Parents United for Public Schools. “My point last year was that a 70/30 shift without something in law saying how and when it will be paid back is a cut,” she said. “This particular governor is being quite honest.”

Dayton, she continued, “is making it very clear the state is using late payments to schools to balance the state budget.”

Mixed reviews on all-day kindergarten funding
The governor’s proposal to spend $33 million to fund all-day kindergarten drew mixed reviews. Cecconi, for one, noted that lots of districts already fund full-day programs and can be expected to funnel that money back into their general funds.

She and plenty of others would rather see any “new” money spent on universal early-childhood education. In the seven-point education plan he released earlier this month, Dayton pledged to make pre-K, as it’s known, a formal part of the state’s education system and find ways to expand its availability.

So early-ed advocates were doubtless disappointed that the only new pre-K funding in the budget is $2 million to expand a program that rates preschool programs on a series of quality indicators. Called Parent Aware, the program is being piloted in a limited part of the metro area right now. Dayton’s funding would allow it to go statewide.

School districts, however, are pleased with the idea of funding for all-day kindergarten. “Research really shows early-childhood education and all-day kindergarten are critical to getting kids ready to learn,” said Erin Glynn, associate superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools. “We have a lot of kids who need more time in school.”

Most MPS schools already offer it
Indeed, it’s so important that most MPS schools already offer full-day kindergarten at a cost of $15.5 million a year, of which the state reimburses the district just $10 million.

Glynn understands the argument that earlier education is important to closing the achievement gap, but noted that once a child is enrolled, school attendance is mandatory.  “You don’t have to go to preschool,” she said. “You’re going to reach more kids at the kindergarten level.”

Finally, the governor’s plan to make innovation grants met with general approval. In terms of sheer dollars, $5 million isn’t much, but a formal effort to identify effective gap-closing strategies that can be replicated elsewhere is money well spent.

The remaining question: Will the governor’s calculus win over any GOP lawmakers?