Bismarck, ND – Today, Governor John Hoeven announced a dangerous plan to drastically increase spending on education in North Dakota. The plan released today and available on the governor’s website calls for a $300 million increase in spending for local education in the state. The governor claims it will reduce the average mill levy for local property taxpayers by 50 mills but it does not address the problem: state and local officials are continuing to spend more money for fewer students and the same end result.

“Local school boards made the decisions that led to a higher dependence on property taxes to fund education. By letting the state bail out local officials, this plan ties the hands of local officials who are the only people who have the power now to fix the problem. The state has never funded education more in terms of inflation adjusted per pupil dollars than it does today,” state director Duane Sand said.

“There has been a lot of talk in recent years that the state has not done its part in funding education in North Dakota. If the actual facts are taken into account, we see on a per pupil basis education funding today is at record levels – even when adjusted for inflation. Since the historical low reached in 1992, state funding of education has increased drastically – over $1,400 per pupil after inflation” state director Duane Sand stated.

It is important to keep in mind that in this time span, enrollment in K-12 education has decreased by over 25% (from 130,000 to 95,000). Current Department of Public Instruction projections point to a further decline of enrollment to just over 87,000 students by the 2016-2017 school year.

With fewer students enrolled each year, it is important that local officials take the proper right-sizing measures to assure that funding is focused on teacher pay and other classroom costs rather than administrative overhead. Only West Fargo School District has seen an actual increase in enrollment over the last 10-years.

“The governor’s plan takes control away from local officials – and more importantly it takes control away from local parents – and it puts that control in Bismarck. Do we really want nameless and faceless bureaucrats making decisions about our children’s education rather than local officials and local parents who know what their kids need?,” Sand concluded.