Legislative Update from SEE

A Communication for Education Advocates in SEE Districts - April 16, 2021

SEE Bill Summary

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What is happening at the Capitol (via Zoom)?

The House education finance and policy omnibus bill will be taken up on the House floor on Monday. The Senate will also have their education bill on the Senate floor sometime next week. After that, a conference committee made up of several members that serve on the House and Senate education committees will begin negotiations to reconcile the two education omnibus bills into a single bill. See this Brad’s Blog entry for a quick summary of the two bills and this page on the SEE website for more detailed information.

I know there is a lot of interest out there for school boards to have the authority to renew existing operating referendums. The House education omnibus bill includes the provision, and the Senate does not. However, the Senate heard the referendum renewal bill in committee, and it seems support is growing there as well. For those of you who have regular conversations with your state senators, I would encourage you to discuss this issue with them. After the education conference committee convenes, I will send out an action alert to urge support for this commonsense law with the reasoning below.

Of the 104 referendum renewals over the past seven years, voters approved all of them, often with solid support.

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It is inefficient to continue to run referendum renewal elections when the outcome is almost certain. The time and money spent by the school district for renewal efforts would be better spent in the classroom.
As school boards are elected officials, if the voters are unhappy with their performance, they can be voted out of office just like state legislators.
As elected officials, school boards should have the authority to make budgetary decisions for their school district just like state legislators decide the state budget.
Renewal authority will not give boards the power to raise new revenue through property taxes. However, it stabilizes existing revenue that the voters already approved and is crucial to providing a quality education for their students.
To the argument that referendum renewals are an opportunity for school districts to engage in conversation with the community, districts already provide numerous options such as public comment time at all school board meetings and mandated truth in taxation annual meetings. The state should not require another inefficient and expensive repetitive mandate.

The House Education Finance Committee released this look-up table, most likely to build support for HF1065 – the education finance and policy omnibus bill. The table shows the revenue increases proposed in the bill for each school district. With a spending target of $722 million, the proposal adds over *$550 million in ongoing, and therefore stable funding, though increases for the basic formula, special education, English language learners, school support personnel, and preschool. This is the level of investment needed for Minnesota’s public schools. However, the House proposes to increase taxes on the most prosperous families and businesses to fund their priorities, which the Senate flatly rejects. Thus, the Senate can only offer a $152 million increase for education with just over *$32 million of ongoing spending in safe school revenue and transportation sparsity. The choices are stark. Unfortunately, the final negotiations will likely fall somewhere in the middle and, regardless of what the politicians say, will not prevent most schools from making cuts to valuable programming and services. (*Only ongoing expenditures over $20 million were included as most of the remaining dollars go to limited grant programs or onetime funding.)

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