(UPDATED) Emmer would begin K-12 pay back in 2014

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer released the second part of his budget proposal Friday, focusing on "broad-based reform" of education and pledging to repay money the state borrowed from schools starting in four years.

Emmer also said that "K-12 funding would be held harmless" in the next biennium, in which the state faces a protected deficit of $6 billion. But DFL challenger Mark Dayton said Emmer is actually cutting K-12 education funding by nearly 15 percent in the next two years.

"Next to creating new jobs in the current tough economy, our highest priority as a state must be educating our kids well," Emmer said in a news release. "In tough times, I believe we must prioritize state government spending for the most important public services: I believe our children's education is fundamental to our future success. As governor, I will protect classroom funding."

Emmer released his education plan at a candidate forum sponsored by the Association of Metropolitan School Districts. He released the first part of his plan – focusing on business tax breaks – on Monday. Emmer's final budget details, tackling the multibillion-dollar deficit, will be released in coming days, the campaign said.

Of the three gubernatorial candidates, Emmer would wait the longest to start paying back the K-12 shift, waiting two budget cycles. By doing so, he knocks down the projected deficit in the coming biennium by $1.4 billion because that budget forecast assumed the money would be repaid.

It's unclear how long Emmer would stretch out the K-12 repayment. Of the three candidates, he's the only one not talking about raising taxes to balance the budget. He's holding off the repayment of schools to give the economy time to rebound.

"We will do so faster by growing our economy and putting Minnesotans back to work which is why we must enact our jobs creation agenda," Emmer said.

Emmer said he would spend $13.3 billion in K-12 funding for those two years. According to the Minnesota Department of Management and Budget, the state expects to spend $15.6 billion on K-12 education in those years.

Emmer's plan would actually result in a significant cut to K-12 education funding, Dayton said.

"The consequences of more cuts would be larger class sizes, more districts going to four-day school weeks, lower quality education and higher property taxes to pay for operational expenses in the schools," Dayton said in a statement.

Dayton continued to hammer on Emmer for not releasing a complete budget proposal.

Dayton noted that Emmer already proposed $626 million in tax cuts and now another $2.3 billion in education cuts.

As part of this, Emmer wants to redirect money for state child care and sliding fee child care programs to early education initiatives.

Other proposals:

•Redirect funding from existing state child care and basic sliding fee child care program to early child education in order to ensure all children are ready for kindergarten.

•Create urban school district empowerment zones and reduce state mandates by allowing school districts to have greater authority to operate their districts.