Brad Lundell likes to point out that the state Constitution charged government with two particular duties: build roads and educate the children.

One hundred fifty years later, government is still building roads and educating children, but it’s becoming a tougher task when the money isn’t available.

Lundell is executive director of Schools for Equity in Education, an association of 61 Minnesota school districts that works for legislation to provide adequate and equitable funding for Minnesota public schools. He was in town this week to provide support for the Litchfield School Board and its quest for a new operating levy.

Public schools across the state are strapped for cash and turning to district voters for help, Lundell said. Still recovering from two years of flat funding in the early part of the decade, districts have endured rising energy costs and a growing need to shift money from the general fund to cross subsidize special education costs. At the same time, state and federal mandates continue to put pressure on districts to do more to improve student performance.

This fall, 50 school districts, including Litchfield, New London-Spicer and Willmar, will seek operating levies, according to the Minnesota School Boards Association.

The Litchfield School District will ask voters Nov. 4 to revoke the district’s current $300 per pupil operating levy and replace it with a 10-year, $600 per pupil levy that will generate an additional $636,139 per year.

Lundell said Litchfield’s proposal is reasonable, since it is still below the $760 state average.

“It’s $300 that’s clearly needed for the district to maintain its level of excellence,” Lundell said.

Read the full story in the Sept. 25 Independent Review.

Have a question about the school district's upcoming operating levy referendum?

Send your questions to staff writer Kristin Holtz, reporter@independentreview.net [2], and the Independent Review will hunt down the answers. Each week, a question will be answered in the paper and posted online.

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This is your chance to ask school administrators what you need to know before you head to the polls to vote.