Now&8217;s the time, Albert Lea.

Last fall during the weeks leading up to the referendum election for the Albert Lea School District&8217;s operating levy, opponents and proponents of the levy agreed there was a problem with the state funding formula. They agreed it was unfair to outstate Minnesota and agreed they would push legislators for change in the 2008 session. After all, state leaders are to blame for this district and so many other districts across the state needing to ask voters for operating levies in the first place.

The Minnesota Legislature reconvenes Tuesday. Now&8217;s the time to do something. Now&8217;s the time to speak up.

Voters in Albert Lea shouldn&8217;t sit back and just let school officials and elected officials do all the heavy lifting. People who want change when it comes to school funding need to send the same message to St. Paul that they did to each other last fall. Get your pens and write not merely your legislator but all the legislators and the governor, too. Write letters to newspapers. Put up signs. Call others to action.

Show the state leaders that everyday people care about school funding and are sick and tired of inequitable funding and having to offset it with our local property taxes.

Where are TEAM and LEARN &8212; Together Education Achieves More and Let&8217;s Educate and Accept Responsibility Now &8212; when the root of the school-funding problem is at hand? Both said they support schools. Now&8217;s the time to show it more than ever.

As a town, let&8217;s get as vehement and emotionally invested in this issue as we were on Nov. 6.