Posted: 9/21/05
Final Draft - by Cliff Buchan
Primary election for schools another silly mandate
Weíve all heard about unfunded government mandates.
Usually, it is the federal government that gets the blame. And rightly so in most cases.
There arenít many who question the mandates for special education services under the umbrella of the public school system. And in general terms, not many will argue against the intent of No Child Left Behind federal legislation.
But what does rankle many in the public school system is that mandates like special education services and NCLB are handed down to the local districts through the state without the funding necessary to cover the expenses.
On Tuesday, Sept. 13, residents of the Forest Lake School District saw another example of a mandate that didnít make a lot of local sense and was passed along to ISD 831 with no cost assistance, thanks to state legislation.
We refer to the primary election for the local school board. With three seats up for election on Nov. 8 and eight candidates, it was necessary, under a law enacted by the state legislature in 2003, to conduct a primary to reduce the field to no more than two times the number of candidates up for election.
Under Minnesota math, that means if six people or any lesser number had filed there would have been no primary election. Of course, Forest Lake would be one of the first districts to help break new ground.
So, we all dutifully went to the polls (well not really) on Sept. 13 to cast our ballots in the primary. In reality, very few of us in ISD 831 voted.
When all was said and done last week, a total of 851 ballots were cast from among the 27,687 registered voters in the school district. That works out to 3 percent.
Diane Borle, chief election official for the district, reported this week the district spent $5200 for printing ballots, legal notices, wages for election judges, mileage and any overtime expense tied to regular school district staff involved with the election. There may be some added costs that are being left out.
By our Minnesota math, that works out to $6.11 for each ballot cast. All this to narrow the field from eight to six.
As we understand it, the primary election bill for school board contests originated with two Republican senators from the St. Cloud area, Dave Kleis and Jim Knoblach. The bill was a corrective step for school board elections in St. Cloud District 742.
In a previous election, according to Sen. Kleis, 12 or 13 candidates filed for office and it required only 13 percent of the electorate to capture a seat.
The bill popped up in 2003 and eventually passed as part of the Omnibus Education Funding Bill for 2004 in the special session of 2003. It became effective for all school districts in 2004.
It is clear the bill didnít collect much, if any, public discussion. Rep. Ray Vandeveer of Forest Lake says he was not aware of the provision, one of the hundreds that get tacked on to major bills in the final hours of a session.
Kleis said this week he felt the bill was important to restore fairness to school board elections where large numbers of candidates come out. It is important to attract quality people to serve on school boards, he adds.
And cost should be no road block, he said. The bill provided no special funding for school districts to run the primary. ìWhatever it costs (in a democracy) is what we have to pay,î Kleis said.
Vandeveer, after seeing the results in the Forest Lake primary, is not so sure.
ìI donít know if this worked any better,î he said of the plan to cut the field from eight to six. Heíd also like to see more discussion before such items become law. Too often, he said, bills are passed with provisions that give lawmakers little wiggle room on voting them up or down.
ìYou should talk to the people before you do this stuff,î he said. Vandeveer said he may be interested in revisting the plan in the next session with the idea of making school board primary contests optional for districts or increasing the limit to three times the number of seats up for election to reduce the chance for a mandated primary.
Too often bills based on a special interest become law with wide sweeping ramifications that were never anticipated. Kleis and Knoblach were probably well intended. But to pass such a bill without knowing the full impact doesnít make good sense from here ó not with the fact that it cost $6.11 a ballot to get where we are today.
Mandates. Theyíre hard to live with and, in government circles, you are always going to have them.
And the cost will be there, too.
Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605