Lots of things are moving at the Capitol and we have one more week before Easter/Passover break begins. Governor Walz released his revised supplemental budget last week and the "summer school bill" saw strong movement. We highlight both in this edition of the Weekly Advocate and will go into more depth on Friday when we look at finance bills in our second session of Advocacy in Action - At Home Edition. Also, Chair Ruth Richardson of the House Education Policy Committee will be joining us as well. Our Advocacy Toolkit can be found at the bottom of this email.

The Governor’s office revised and released the supplemental budget bill last week. Some highlights are:

• Provides an additional $83 million to help students catch up on learning. 

• Holds school districts harmless by providing $68 million in one-time funding for lost Compensatory Revenue due to reduction in free/reduced counts due to pandemic Loss.This proposal helps keep schools and programs whole.

• Invests additional $5 million to expand access to tutoring services for K-12 students with ongoing revenue by partnering with experienced community organizations to deliver tutoring and increasing access to enrichment opportunities.

• Provides $10 million over the biennium to fund professional development opportunities for educators on non-exclusionary disciplinary practices with the goal of ending the disproportional impact of discipline on students of color and Indigenous students.

In addition, midweek last week the "summer school bill" (HF 1064) captured the attention of everyone when the House version/Governor’s Summer School bill moved to the floor – hoping to engage the Senate. The bill spends $104.5 million of state funding for fiscal year 2021, with the majority going to one-time grants and with $26 million for enrollment revenue stabilization. It appears there is going to be bipartisan support. YOUR voice was heard in the Ways and Means committee - members of both parties agreed something needs to be done quickly. In a letter and an action alert we challenged the legislature to pass it before the Easter/Passover break.

MSBA's Advocacy in Action events are designed to provide you with tools to make advocating for issues easier for you. One of the tools needed is to have a list of items, or in this case bills, to help you identify what issues are important to you and/or what mandates you don't want to see implemented. If you haven't already registered, contact Bruce Lombard to register for the Friday (March 26) Advocacy in Action session.