Partisan Fights, Budget Cuts Complicate School Funding

A frustrated Gov. Mark Dayton addresses the news media on June 30, hours before a midnight deadline for a budget agreement. State government shut down at 12:01 a.m. on July 1, for the second time in six years, after political leaders couldn't agree on how to solve a $5 billion budget deficit.

—Kyndell Harkness/Star Tribune/AP

By Sean Cavanagh

After months of arduous negotiation and partisan squabbling, states across the country have produced budgets for the new fiscal year that in many cases will bring deep cuts to state spending, including money for schools.

The budget blueprints adopted by numerous states were postscripts to divisive legislative sessions that saw newly elected Republican governors and lawmakers successfully push for big policy changes, including reductions in teachers’ collective bargaining rights. Proponents argue that change will save districts money over time. ( "Legislatures Approve Tougher Teacher Policies," July 13, 2011.)

Deliberations over state budgets also were marked by sharp ideological divides between GOP leaders and Democrats over taxes and...