Grand Forks School Board Member Lies About Grand Forks School Funding

I know “lies” is a strong word but I don’t think anything else fits. Grand Forks School Board member had an Op-Ed in the Grand Forks Herald. In it he said.

History reflects that the cost of educating a school child has maintained a steady level relative to inflation.

According to the Americans for Prosperity confirmed by my own research spending per pupil has been growing at twice the rate of inflation in recent years.

“As the above chart shows, total per pupil revenue in the Grand Forks School District has increased by 49.8% while the Midwest Consumer Price Index as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has increased 21.3%. Mr. Lamb’s assertion that the cost of education has remained steady when compared to inflation is simply wrong – per student funding has actually increase over twice as fast as inflation,” state director of Americans for Prosperity, Duane Sand, said.

He also is trying to mislead the public in other ways like this:

In North Dakota, school districts are dependent on the Legislature providing its fair share of funding for K-12 education, which has decreased from 60 percent to 40 percent during the past 20 years.

As my research showed the state legislature increased funding by 10% from 1985 to 2005. The “reduction” is because local school board members like Mr. Lamb went on an irresponsible spending spree. I don’t see any way the state can keep up with the demands of the public school spendaholics.
Irresponsible school board members like Tim Lamb are responsible for your property taxes going up. Now they’re lying about the facts and trying to blame the entity that has been responsible.