Summer Bill Takes Its Next Step.  HF 1064--Governor Walz' "Summer Bill"--passed on the House floor today by a vote of 69-63.  When the bill was passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee last week on a bipartisan vote, there was conjecture that the floor vote would not be the almost strict party-line vote it turned out to be.  On the final vote, only one Republican--Dakota County Representative Pat Garofalo--crossed party lines by voting for the bill.  No DFLers voted against the bill.

One theme that will be a recurring one as this bill and, most likely, the omnibus education funding bills move forward is the distribution of revenue in the various Federal measures that have aimed to remedy education funding shortfalls resulting from the pandemic.  The Federal revenue is distributed first to states based on their national share of Title I revenue and then to individual districts based on their state share of Title I revenue.  This has led to an uneven distribution of benefits, much of which can be fairly easily justified as districts with higher levels of poverty and language barriers have faced additional challenges.  At the same time, an argument can be made that the fixed costs associated with reacting to the pandemic (delivering meals, building accommodations, personal protective equipment purchases) are similar across all districts and that the Federal dollars are not enough in many cases to fully reimburse districts that receive little Title I revenue for the costs they have incurred.  Two amendments that were offered, but defeated hit at this issue and while the "Summer" bill has moved on, it is likely that the dynamics around the distribution of Federal dollars will be revisited as the session continues.