ST. PAUL — A Wednesday morning announcement by state officials revealed a $323 million surplus in Minnesota’s budget.

“A little bit of good news, a small amount of revenue,” Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook said. But he said the bigger story here is how the vast majority of the $323 million will be used — to pay back the state’s K-12 education system, which is required by state law, and he blames the 2011 Republican budget in forcing schools to borrow.

“Last year’s budget was paid for by delaying payments to schools,” he said, adding that as of Feb. 20, K-12 schools have borrowed $600 million because the state hasn’t been living up to its obligation to pay off the aid they’re owed.

Of the $323 million, $5 million is earmarked for the state’s budget reserve; the rest, $318 million, goes to repaying schools for the delayed state aid. But that leaves about $2.4 billion still owed to school districts before they are whole again.

Republican leadership says the surplus happened because their fiscal plan from the 2011 session is working.

It’s because of “good fiscal management by the House and Senate Republican caucuses,” said House Speaker Kurt Zellers, adding that it’s good news to taxpayers and business owners of the state.

Senate Majority Leader David Senjem said this is a reaffirmation that the GOP plan is working, and he’s looking forward to writing that check to Minnesota school districts.

“It’s an early recovery period to be able to pay back schools, it’s positive money going to schools,” he said. “Let’s keep this going.”

And that’s just what Republicans plan to do. Zellers said the majority party will continue to do its job to fiscally manage in a way that produces even bigger surpluses in the future.

But DFLers don’t think it’s that simple.

“It’s good that we’ve started down that road, but there’s a word of caution about how far we still have to go,” Bakk said.

“We’ve shifted our budget problem over onto our K-12 system,” Bakk said. “Fortunately we can give $300 million back of the $600 million they borrowed, but they’re still holding $300 million in loans.”

Sole Republican Range legislator, Rep. Carolyn McElfatrick-Grand Rapids, praises the surplus and said it’s due to reduced government spending — a major goal of the GOP.

“We’ve begun to see a payback from the efforts we’ve put into this,” she said. “I hope the people of the state of Minnesota have a positive response to this.”

Sen. David Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm, agrees that the surplus is good news, but said the real question is whether that can be maintained in the next biennium.

“We need to take a step back, and focus on jobs this session,” he said.

Tomassoni said that making cuts because of a financial deficit hurts the people of Minnesota — tuition and property taxes rise and service costs go up.

Democrats strongly feel that this session should be about jobs — both in Gov. Mark Dayton’s bonding bill proposal and his jobs plan; and while the surplus is good news, they say the bonding bill needs to be a major focus.

“The sooner we get this bonding bill teed up and passed, the sooner we can get shovels in the ground this spring and put Minnesotans back to work,” Bakk said.

“We’re willing to do heavy lifting on a bonding bill, get it on the floor, get it passed and on the governor’s desk,” the senator said.