Declining enrollment and the state funding disparity between rural Minnesota schools and Twin Cities schools continues to cause operational challenges for our district’s schools. State mandates threaten the ability of our schools to provide high quality education at reasonable funding levels. Steve strongly favors reducing state mandates for schools, simplifying the state’s funding formulas to make them easier for all to understand, increasing local school board control, and introducing performance pay for teachers. He will fight for schools in rural Minnesota – to bring equity in education funding with the Twin Cities.
The chart below compares the dollars per pupil received from state tax dollars by the schools in House District 28B to Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts:
| School District | 2009 per pupil funding | 2010 per pupil funding | 2011 per pupil funding |
| Minneapolis | $13,002 | $13,951 | $14,404 |
| St Paul | $11,882 | $11,704 | $11,924 |
| Cannon Falls | $8,019 | $7,964 | $8,025 |
| Goodhue | $7,676 | $7,492 | $7,504 |
| Lewiston-Altura | $8,774 | $8,385 | $8,524 |
| St. Charles | $7,244 | $7,175 | $7,218 |
| Winona Area | $10,808 | $10,665 | $10,822 |
| Pine Island | $7,718 | $7,566 | $7,614 |
| Rochester | $9,218 | $9,077 | $9,117 |
| Wabasha-Kellogg | $9,273 | $9,253 | $9,394 |
| Lake City | $8,660 | $8,596 | $8,746 |
| Triton | $8,578 | $8,647 | $8,816 |
| Plainview- Elgin-Millville | $7,562 | $7,568 | $7,777 |
| Kenyon-Wanamingo | $8,797 | $8,709 | $8,954 |
| Zumbrota-Mazeppa | $8,545 | $8,332 | $8,673 |