Commentary by Alice Seagren

Dayton claimed that K-12 funding in Minnesota decreased over the last 15 years. This is simply not true. Even after adjusting for inflation, Minnesota's support for public K-12 education increased nearly 27 percent between 1991 and 2007.

While I don't know how Dayton arrived at his incredible and untrue conclusion that education funding has decreased over this period, my best guess is that he looked at only one piece of Minnesota's education funding pie -- the basic formula -- while ignoring other important funding sources like categorical aids and local revenues.

In focusing only on the basic formula, the senator left out funding for: special education, class size reduction, equity revenue, Q Comp, gifted and talented education, transition aid, integration aid, operating referendums, sparsity and capital revenues. Presenting such an incomplete picture of our actual education funding system is an insult to taxpayers, who generously support public education in Minnesota.

Another important fact left out of Dayton's article is that Minnesota students continue, on average, to achieve at or near the top of nearly every measure of student learning.

Our students who took the ACT tests last year achieved the top average scores in the nation. On the National assessment of Educational Progress reading tests, Minnesota's students finished second. Granted, we face the challenge of closing the achievement gap, as Dayton notes. But misleading Minnesotans about our support for public education is not the way to face that challenge.

While it's important to adequately fund our schools, it's also important to ensure that we're receiving good value for our investment. That's why the Pawlenty administration is focused on bringing accountability to K-12 education through more rigorous and focused standards and the introduction of performance pay for teachers.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the Legislature boosted education funding by $800 million last year -- bringing the total state investment to $12.6 billion for the two-year budget. We also enacted significant reform for teacher pay and training.

As commissioner, I will continue to work with state and federal education leaders, regardless of political affiliation, to make sure our schools use their resources wisely. I'm hopeful that Minnesotans understand their substantial support for our K-12 schools is appreciated. Rather than point fingers, we should come together to make our excellent public schools even better.

Alice Seagren is Minnesota's commissioner of education.

This commentary originally appeared in the Star Tribune on January 26, 2006.