Schools for Equity in Education (SEE)

Delano Schools belongs to SEE, a consortium of 56 Minnesota school districts that represents about 250,000 Minnesota schoolchildren. SEE advocates for the establishment of legislation that assists low property wealth school districts, like Delano.

Homeowners in low property wealth school districts pay two or three times more to generate the same amount of revenue per pupil as high wealth districts on operating levies. For instance, for every $100,000 of assessed home value Delano residents will pay $89 as compared to a wealthy neighboring district that will only pay $32 on the $430 per pupil operating levy that Delano carries.

The neighboring district carries a $1,205 per pupil operating levy and a taxpayer in that district will annually pay $89 per $100,000 of assessed value. If Delano carried that kind of levy the annual tax burden would be $250 per $100,ooo of assessed value.

Look at these numbers again. The neighbor gets $1,205 for $89 per $100,000 of assessed value and Delano receives $430. Is there something wrong with this picture? This is an example of the kind of inequities that the legislature has allowed to exist at the expense of both taxpayers and students.

On November 9 the school boards of Delano, Rockford and Buffalo/Hanover/Montrose will be meeting with legislators in the Rockford Community Center at Rockford High School at 7:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

On November 30 at 7:00 p.m. the Delano School Board will be holding a Public Forum on the State of the School District's Finances and Building Capacities in the DMS Auditorium. The public is invited to attend this event.