Dayton's Education Budget. Consistent with his campaign promises, Governor Dayton did increase the K-12 education budget by approximately $50 million with a slated $33 million proposed for all-day, every day kindergarten. Under the Governor's plan, kindergarten students who qualify for free or reduced price lunch living in a district that provides all-day, every day kindergarten will have their pupil weighting raised from 0.612 (the current kindergarten student weighting) to 1.0.

The Governor's budget also proposes $11 million for a grant program that recognizes excellence in education, $5 million for an innovation fund aimed at closing the achievement gap, and $2 million for an early childhood program rating system.

MDE link for Governor's E-12 Budget Summary: http://education.state.mn.us/mde/index.html

Full Education Budget Link (all 275 pages): http://www.mmb.state.mn.us/doc/budget/narratives/fiscal11/education.pdf

Education Budget Link (short version): http://www.mmb.state.mn.us/doc/budget/profiles/education.pdf

Stay tuned. More to come.