Legislative Update from SEE

A Communication for Education Advocates in SEE Districts - April 9, 2021

SEE Bill Summary

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What is happening at the Capitol (via Zoom)?

The House and Senate introduced their education omnibus bills this week and passed them out of committee. The bills will stop in the taxes committee and then the ways and means committee (House) or the finance committee (Senate) before heading to the floor for a vote. At that point, several Senators and Representatives from the education committees are chosen to serve on the conference committee, which is charged with merging the two bills into a final bill that will go to the Governor for signature. That is the theory anyway. Over the years, we have seen the concentration of power with the Governor, the Senate Majority Leader, and the Speaker of the House controlling the final negotiations, periodically including the committees' chairs for advice and feedback.

As far apart as the House and Senate are on most issues, there are several areas of agreement found in both bills. The provisions are almost certain to become law and include:

Provides grants to the Sanneh Foundation that provides intensive supports for at-risk African American male students with dedicated African American mentors to help them become successful in their education and life. The foundation also succeeds in recruiting its mentors and students into the teaching field and supporting them as their earn a teaching license. Senate - $2 million, House - $4 million

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Premier Business Partners.

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Increases Grow Your Own grants to increase teacher diversity through recruiting and supporting current school staff to earn a teacher's license. Senate - $5 million, House - $15.6 million
Establishes come teach in Minnesota hiring bonuses. $700,000
Requires the Professional Educators Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) to implement an outreach and marketing campaign to elevate the teaching profession and recruit aspiring teacher candidates, especially people of color and American Indians. $1 million
Provides Kognito online suicide prevention training grants for teachers and staff to recognize signs of student distress and tools to intervene and get the students the help they need.
Adds student performance measures in a district's World's Best Workforce plan to include (1) participation in honors or gifted and talented programming with a focus on underrepresented students and (2) 9th-grade students on track for graduation.
Increases transportation sparsity aid for the unreimbursed transportation costs. Senate - $15.3 million, House - $1.6 million
Requires districts to have a policy on absence from school for religious observation.
·Requires districts to consult with families to determine the services and supports necessary for special education students to recover from the impact of Covid-19 on their education.
Requires schools that serve a student with a seizure disorder to develop a seizure action plan to ensure the student's safety.
Requires districts to have a school meal policy that ensures students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch are offered a lunch even if there is outstanding lunch debt. All meals must be served respectfully, and students cannot be denied access to school activities or events due to lunch debt.
I haven't gone through all the policy so their is likely more policy provisions, which I will discuss next week.

The House education target is $722 million, and the Senate is $152 million. Almost 70 percent of the respectable House target is spent on providing predictable and stable revenue for schools. The basic formula increases by 2% for the next two years. A down payment of 0.5 percent increases to the formula happens for the following two years. After that, formula increases are linked to inflation (CPI). Additional funding is provided to keep the growth of the unfunded cost of special education and English learning (EL) services down. The bill also links EL, local option revenue, extended time, and American Indian education Aid to increases in the basic formula beginning in the 2023-24 school year. The rest of the bill is focused primarily on racial equity, both in the teacher workforce and school environment, non-exclusionary discipline practices, and changes to the new tiered teacher licensing system. At over 200 pages, the House bill contains more spending and additional mandates.

With the Senate's meager education target, the bill has zero increases to the basic formula. The largest budget item provides $58 million per-pupil funding for classroom support for all districts and charters. It caps the revenue at $1 million for districts that receive over $5,000 per pupil in federal round 1, 2, and 3 ESSER funding, which recognizes the needs of the many school districts that received very little in federal aid. The Senate also increases referendum equalization and adds inflation-linked equalization on the safe school levy. Safe schools revenue from the state is created and adds one dollar to the safe school levy. The bill diverts more funding to private schools through Education Savings Accounts (vouchers), safe school revenue, and providing guidance and counseling services to elementary students in private schools. The bill also suspends the review of academic standards, allows districts to continue distance learning, and provides more flexibility around student seat time and learning hours.

Both education bills contain many other provisions that I can't cover in this summary. Check out the SEE side-by-side comparison between the Governor, House, and Senate on the spending items. The policy will be added later. You can find legislative research summaries, the bill language, district runs (when available), and other information on the education bills on this page of the SEE website.

As always, check out Brad's Blog for more detailed information.