Austin Public Schools Superintendent Corrine Johnson joined about 20 other superintendents from Minnesota to talk with Republican legislators about saving compensatory aid to schools.

Johnson said she was contacted by the Minnesota Association of School Administrators and the Minnesota Rural Education Association about coming up for the visit.

"They said there are rumblings around that the compensatory money the schools are receiving is in jeopardy," she said.

Rep. Jeff Anderson, R-Austin, said that he would ask members of the K-12 finance committee for more details about plans for the money.

Compensatory aid is money given to schools based on the number of students they have who qualify for free and reduced lunches. The Austin School District gets about $1.4 million from compensatory aid.

Superintendents met with their Republican legislators to discuss the matter. They then held a general meeting where they shared the results of those conversations. Johnson said the results were mixed. She said she is still uncertain about the feelings of the legislators.

"I really don't know what the deal is," she said. "What I do know is that that compensatory pot of money is looking very appealing to the House."

"There will be some reductions to compensatory funding," Anderson said. "It's going to be a difficult thing to try to restore them."

Anderson said he would work with Johnson and Austin to try to think of solutions to the problem, but he said that right now, education is taking a far smaller share of the state deficit burden than other areas, a point that Johnson does not deny.

"The vast majority of school aid will remain untouched," Anderson said. "The foundational funding will remain the same. It's the additional funding that will be affected."

Despite the fact that Johnson still doesn't know what's going to happen, she said the trip was worthwhile.

"I think you always get a better feel for what's going on. Time spent there is very worthwhile. I should probably be spending more time in St. Paul," she said.

Matt Merritt can be reached at 434-2214 or by email at

matt.merritt@austindailyherald.com