Governor Pawlenty's proposal

The following was on the school E-list today (orange text because of the hot discussion it generated):

GOVERNOR PAWLENTY PROPOSES REQUIRING 70 PERCENT OF EDUCATION SPENDING BE IN THE CLASSROOM -- January 9, 2006

Under a proposal announced by Governor Tim Pawlenty today, more than $112 million would be redeployed from school district administration and other non-classroom expenditures to classrooms. The proposal would require every Minnesota school district to spend at least 70 percent of expenditures directly on classroom instruction.

"After dramatically increasing K-12 funding last legislative session, we want to ensure that those dollars are well spent,” Governor Tim Pawlenty said. “Requiring at least 70 percent of funding be dedicated to the classroom is common sense – taxpayers expect state funding to be targeted on children, not bureaucracies.”

The 70 percent plan would still allow local school boards to set the specific budgets for each school and the district. It would, however, require superintendents to certify each year the percent of the district's total operating expenditures that are intended to be spent on direct classroom expenditures.

Under the proposal, classroom expenditures would include classroom teachers and personnel (salary and benefits), special education, vocational education, classroom instructional supplies, instructional aides and activities. Non-classroom expenditures would include district and school administration and support services, operations and maintenance, staff development, pupil and instructional support services, athletics and co-curricular activities.

Having started out my career as a teacher -- well, alright, a music teacher (but that's another post) -- I have a passion for schools. And as a multitype librarian, one of my four types of libraries is the school library media center. This proposal has left MEMO members (Minnesota Educational Media Organization) scratching their heads. We are left to assume that media centers are "pupil instructional support services" which leaves them competing with the football team for the remaining 30% funding.

It appears that where the media center lies (classroom expenditure or support service) depends on its position within the school budget. For those schools where the media center is another classroom where curricular learning activities take place, the media budget will be in far better stead than the media center where students go to give the classroom teacher release time and where nothing occurs directly related or enhancing classroom learning.

But then, where is the classroom? Is the classroom only the room behind the "Grade 4" (or whatever) sign? Or is the classroom wherever the student is involved in experiential hands-on experiences in a corrdinated learning atmosphere. This should be the goal of the entire educational team, which includes every person who impacts a child's school day.