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The U.S. military trains its soldiers to deal with trauma in the field using materials they may have on hand in absence of a medic. A rifle, for example, can be used as a splint to stabilize a broken leg, or a plastic wrapper can be used to seal a sucking chest wound, with the pressure differential. Unfortunately, judging by Gov. Pawlenty, Sen. Bonoff and Rep. Winkler's proposal to mandate collective purchasing for back office functions to reduce school district costs, some of our state's top elected officials didn't pay much attention in their field trauma treatment classes - offering little more than a playful smack on the ass to treat the massive trauma that Minnesota school districts are likely to feel when the funding numbers for K-12 education are announced in the next state budget.

To explore the most serious evidence of our state government's inability to cope with the exit wounds associated with an economic drive by, we must put aside, for the moment, the simple fact that many school districts in Minnesota already collaborate with one another to drive down prices. Ignore the fact that government interference in those already established purchasing collectives is all too likely to throw a wrench in a system that functions rather smoothly to begin with. The real issue demonstrating our fearless leaders' frightening lack of triage ability is just how little this program will aid those districts most in need of help. Large urban school districts like Minneapolis and Saint Paul already have significant purchasing power. In essence, our state government is bringing a band-aid to scenic Omaha beach.

Education reform that will remedy the problems facing our most threatened school districts isn't a matter of making school lunch cheaper. The Saint Paul Public School District already feeds students at a cost of $1 per serving or less. And with the state likely having to freeze or cut education funding to cover the nearly $5 billion deficit, schools aren't terribly likely to buy any new computers any time soon. The state needs to start triaging the lack of funding for special education, English language programs, and finding a new way to fund urban school districts which have been losing students to surburbs and charter schools for more than a decade, leaving them segregated, disadvantaged - fix the funding formula that is consistently leaving the most disadvantaged students in the state worse off every year.

For example, Saint Paul Public Schools spends more than a third of its budget on special education, with Federal funding far lower than was promised in the early days of Pres. Bush's term in office. And while the state reimburses school districts $254 per student for transportation to charter schools, the actual average cost of transit is nearly ten times that amount. In Saint Paul, 70 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced price lunch. Finding a way to modify the funding formula for urban schools districts that addresses the most difficult educational issues of our time is the solution to the problem - not finding ways to obtain cheaper sloppy joes and crayons.

Of course, with Gov. Pawlenty's habit of slashing health and social services to keep his no new taxes pledge, soon even non-metaphorical sucking chest wounds won't get the treatment they need either.