A government shutdown means two things for education: Colleges and universities will be severely hampered, and education officials are used to this sort of thing.

There are plenty of reason for higher education officials to be concerned: heavy cuts are expected, as GOP budget bills called for around $400 million in higher ed cuts and Gov. Mark Dayton’s education bill would cut higher ed by $175 million.

Yet the more pressing concern is the shutdown, which would lay off faculty and staff at every public college and university in the state. Riverland Community College is no exception, as up to 200 employees could temporarily lose their jobs come July 1. Many college officials are worried about what that means in the classroom.

“It’s going to be so disruptive to our students,” said Riverland President Terry Leas.

More than 67,000 students taking summer courses could be affected by a shutdown, with about 100 of those attending Riverland. A government shutdown would mean school’s out until a budget’s in. Worse, it would affect the enrollment process at MnSCU colleges and universities as well as the University of Minnesota system. That’s more than 250,000 students in MnSCU alone that could potentially be affected by scheduling issues and enrollment issues.

“We don’t know how (a shutdown) would affect enrollments for fall,” Leas said.

As higher ed officials watched their funding drop in recent years, public education officials waited for some good news of their own. They’re thankful K-12 education was emphasized in both Dayton’s and GOP lawmakers’ budgets. They’ve got even more reason to rejoice: GOP lawmakers last week offered to meet Dayton’s K-12 education limits, dropping the $80 million in cuts they were seeking.

Yet schools still have plenty of budget problems to overcome. Over the past eight years, state per pupil funding, which makes up a majority of any school district’s budget, has increased twice. Per pupil funding was frozen for the past two years and it doesn’t look like there will be increases for the next two years.

“The estimates are that the per pupil funding is going to remain flat, or constant,” said Mark Stotts, director of finance and operations at Austin Public Schools.

Every year, districts must complete a budget by June 30, when their fiscal year ends under state law. During budget talk years, district officials are harried by political grandstanding and education budget delays among lawmakers, which means school administrators often wait to complete the next year’s budget until the last minute, when they have a better if not clear idea how much in state funding they’ll receive.

“It is messy because it’s making it very difficult to plan,” said Steve Sallee, superintendent of LeRoy/Ostrander and Southland Public Schools.

Rural schools feel the pinch more often than bigger districts like Austin, as enrollment numbers are more financially important in schools with a smaller student population. In Hayfield Public Schools last year, district officials cut $300,000 out of a budget of about $7 million, which meant one faculty position was cut.

Southland, while not hurting quite so much, has three employees retiring and will only fill one of those positions. Southland officials won’t fill an elementary teacher job and a media center specialist/success coach position, but will hire a band teacher who works with students from fifth-graders to seniors. While Southland officials also think per pupil funding will stay flat, they’re worried about what could happen in a special session.

“We’re just really hoping that we won’t see a decrease.” Sallee said.

Austin is faring slightly better. The district carried a balanced budget of about $47 million during the last fiscal year, with about $1.9 million in excess funds. That’s in part due to a one-time, $1 million federal grant from the Education Jobs Fund bill, which gave money to districts to employ or maintain teachers. That covered a projected $1.5 million deficit district officials were expecting. Since there’s so much expenditures and revenue going in and out of various district funds, that grant money covered the deficit and prevented any serious cuts from taking place.

That could change next year. While a government shutdown won’t immediately affect the district, the flat funding won’t offset inflation costs of between $800,000 and $1 million Austin receives every year. That means the district could look at a deficit of $1.9 million according to Stotts, although various factors could influence the deficit amount and state funding hasn’t been decided.

There’s still no getting around the fact that, even with an increasing enrollment, the district will operate on a deficit budget next fall.

“It’s a planned deficit but we still have adequate reserves,” Stotts said.