We all asked for it. You, they, all of us are responsible for the loss of the band instructor at Albert Lea High School.

Every single one of us. This is what we voted for.

We Minnesotans and our leaders keep dragging our feet on equalizing education in Minnesota. The Minnesota Miracle funding formula was turned on its head by Gov. Jesse Ventura’s “Big Plan,” which was meant to be temporary. Gov. Tim Pawlenty kept that formula not-so temporary.

We fixed what wasn’t broken.

And that is merely one problem with school funding. It is a problem that Minnesotans — a people who used to care about education — seem happy to keep voting for. Or perhaps they are numb to the issues facing the education of our children.

Another big problem is that state lawmakers balance the state budget with deferred payments. We voters pay taxes to the state so it can disburse the revenue back to the school districts. However, to bridge the state budget crunch, state leaders have not paid the school districts on time.

This is not kitchen-table budgeting by any means. How would you like it if you didn’t have to pay your bills? That is what the state has done to the schools.

It forces the schools to take out loans until the checks arrive months or years late. When state officials say “deferred payments,” it really means late checks.

The unfair formula and deferred payments mean the schools have cut corners and done without many of the aspects that once made education in Minnesota a cut above the rest.

And schools like Albert Lea with declining enrollment face further problems because state funding is on a per-pupil basis. Fewer students equals less revenue.

And now these issues — all of them — result in Albert Lea High School having to get rid of a really good band teacher. And, to be fair, several other teachers.

Albert Lea already has the second lowest administrative cost in the Big Nine Conference. Cutting another administrator would not remove the fact that the realignment of the grades in the school district to be more efficient means one less band teacher is needed. It does not remove the fact that reduction in school funding in general will result in the loss of teachers.

What would change things is if voters placed a higher priority on quality education.

So when you, they, all of us speak to the administrators and school board members of Albert Lea Area Schools, let’s keep in mind what the real cause of this situation is: The people of Minnesota have been voting for the past 10 to 15 years to starve the beast called government often at the burden of education.