(KNSI) – Local private school officials are worried about a proposal in Governor Tim Walz’s latest budget.
Prince of Peace Lutheran School in St. Cloud serves grades K through 8. Principal Anne Nielitz estimates that cutting back on state funding would result in a loss of tens of thousands of dollars per year. “It would affect us to the tune of about $35,000 in the first school year that it would come through. We receive about $15,000 that’s available to us for textbook reimbursement, standardized testing, instructional materials.”
Nielitz estimates nursing services, currently coordinated through District 742, cost Prince of Peace about $10,000, even though they are on-site only once a week. St. Cloud Christian School and Catholic Community Schools would also be affected, among many others in central Minnesota.
Nielitz laments that the proposal bucks five decades of precedent. “Minnesota made a commitment about 50 years ago to support students, regardless of where they receive their education, and so it would be really frustrating for us to try to give our students the best education possible, but not be able to receive the money to be able to help support them.”
Neilitz notes that strict guidelines regulate how public funds are used by private schools, and staff is careful to prevent them from going towards religious curriculum.
Lastly, Neilitz points out that the parents of private school children are taxpayers who already pay for tuition on top of helping to foot the bill for public schools they are not a part of. She thinks it is only fair that some of that money goes to where they are actually sending their children for classes.
Private schools are part of a larger lobbying group called Minndependent. The organization is already lobbying against the budget measure.