Governor's "Summer" Bill Heard in House Education Finance Committee.  The House Education Finance Committee heard HF 1064 this morning.  The lion's share of the bill provides assistance to students who have been adversely affected by the state's transition to hybrid and distance learning through a variety of educational opportunities,  Here is a breakdown of those funding initiatives:

• $5 million for community partnerships for tutoring and mentoring programs.  Eligible programs include school districts, charter schools, intermediate districts, and cooperative units.  Maximum grant amount is $100,000.
• $3.25 million for expanded tutoring.  Same programs eligible as with community partnerships.  Maximum grant amount is $200,000.
• $1 million for mental health supports.  School districts and charter schools eligible.
• $10 million for field trips and hands-on learning experiences.  School districts and charter schools eligible.  Revenue distributed per ADM and concentration of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch.
• $10 million for Adult Basic Education.
• $5 million for neighborhood programs.
• $20 million for Summer pre-school programs.  Grant amount of up to $4,800 per student,
• $6 million for Summer college program for graduating seniors.  Grant amount of up to $512 per course.
• $6 million for School-Linked Mental Health Program.
• $1.025 million to the Office of Higher Education for learning acceleration and college readiness initiatives and to combat learning loss of historically underserved students.
• $25 million to school districts who have lost enrollment due to the pandemic by increasing the percentage in the declining pupil aid program from 25% to 48.5%.

The funding for all these programs comes in FY 21 and the programs run for this summer only.  It is hoped that this bill will be passed early in the session so that education providers can plan to implement the programs outlined in HF 1064 smoothly.

There was a lot of testimony in support of the bill, both written and presented.  The companion to HF 1064--SF 973--will be heard in the Senate Education Finance and Policy Committee tomorrow along with the Governor's budget recommendations and the Department of Education's policy bill.  Full day ahead.

Flying Through a Monday.  I'm always reminded on days like these when the temperature flirts with 20 degrees below zero that as bad as I think the weather is treating me when my car won't start, I can't imagine my father having to get up at 3:30 in the morning and taking an axe to the ice in the water trough outside our barn so the cows could drink.

It's President's Day and there's no mail, but the Legislature still meets and held floor sessions and committee meetings today.  The House Education Policy Committee had an abbreviated session today and took up two bills that were knocked off the agenda last week when the committee went overtime on the comprehensive sex education bill.  The bills considered today are both authored by Republicans.  Representative Dean Urdahl's HF 561 would require that school districts set aside a portion of the current staff development reserve fund and invest the revenue into teacher mentorship programs.  Under the bill, the Minnesota Department of Education in consultation with education groups must develop a model plan for teacher mentorship and provide funding for its implementation.  The committee then moved on to HF 351, a bill authored by Representative Peggy Scott that would suspend the current academic standards review process and have the Commissioner of Education report back to the Legislature in 2022 with findings as to if the standards review process should be revised and, if so, how it should be revised.

Action then crossed the street (if there is such a concept as a street in the universe of distance-legislating) with the Senate tackling four bills during its committee hearing.  First up was Senator Roger Chamberlain's SF 627, which would slightly increase the safe schools revenue category, equalize the levy, and would extend safe schools revenue to the intermediate districts and cooperative units.  The committee turned to Senator Justin Eichorn's SF 925.  SF 925 would expand eligibility for counseling services provided to nonpublic schools to include elementary school students.  Private schools have long qualified for state aid for counseling services, but those services are only available to secondary level students.  Informal discussion of SF 1012--another bill authored by Senator Chamberlain--then took place.  Earlier in the session, the committee heard from experts and parents about the negative effects of social media on students.  SF 1012 would provide a grant to the non-profit LiveMoreScreenLess to identify a network of partners to help develop and implement a train-the-trainer model to help combat cyberbullying and other aspects of social media that are damaging students.  Capping off the hearing was Senator Cwodzinski's SF 237, which would limit the allowable screen use by students in Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms.  Under the bill, students in those levels could not use a screen unless under direct engagement with a teacher.  The bill also calls for the Minnesota Department of Education to contract for the production of educational materials that would inform parents of the effects screen use on children.

Single Hearing Today.  Only one education-related hearing on the docket today and the House Education Funding Committee heard two bills.  The first of these--HF 292 (Frazier)--would allow school districts to renew expiring referendum levies provided there is no increase in the levy amount or the length of the levy beyond the amount and term originally approved by the voters.  While not spelled out on the SEE platform this year, SEE has supported this proposal in the past and I was more than happy to make the organization's stance known to the committee members.  Three witnesses testified in favor of the bill:  Robbinsdale Board Member John Vento, Mounds View Superintendent Chris Lennox, and Owatonna Superintendent (and MASA President) Jeff Elstad.  There was the usual pushback on the bill from committee members who believe that taxpayers should have a direct say on renewal of these levies.  It was pointed out by all the witnesses that the community does receive input from the school district during the truth-in-taxation process.  I would add to that with the following point.  All levies--even voter-approved levies--are discretionary to the extent the board wants to levy the entire amount for which they are authorized.  While districts have not under-levied to an appreciable extent in recent years, it wasn't that rare in the 1990s when many districts did not levy the entire amount they were allowed under the now-defunct special education levy.  I can also think of examples of more recent vintage where districts did not levy the full amount of their referendum or local option revenue allowances.  It's rare, but it is also prevalent enough to show that school boards are cognizant of the desires in their community and if they have to adjust their levies downward, they often do.

The other bill--HF 683 (Olson)--is a local bill for the Duluth school district that would adjust the special education base on a one-time basis.  The formula glitch due to charter school billing caused Duluth's special education base to erode, causing a considerable increase in the cross-subsidy.  The base adjustment would mitigate that issue.

Things Taking Shape.  We are still a couple of weeks away from the February budget forecast that will provide the Administration and the Legislature with the revenue picture that will dictate the remainder of the 2021 legislative session.  At this point, it appears that the shortfall for the coming biennium will be reduced somewhat, but that the state will still be looking at a deficit and difficult decisions will have to be made.  At this point, it's difficult to know exactly where things will be heading, but hearings being held in the various committees are giving us an inkling of where the two legislative bodies will be heading as they move toward setting their targets and meeting their committee deadlines.

After finishing their review of the Governor's budget yesterday, the House Education Finance Committee took up Representative Zack Stephenson's HF 843 this morning.  HF 843 would increase the general education basic formula by 2% in each of the next two years:  $134 per pupil unit in the 2021-2022 school year and $6,832 per pupil unit in the 2022-2023 school year.  The total budget commitment is just under $400 million over the biennium.  This is richer than the Governor's budget recommendations, which sets the basic formula at $6,633 per pupil unit for the 2021-2022 school year and $6,799 per pupil unit for the 2022-2023 school year, increases of 1% and 2.5% respectively with a total revenue commitment of $300 million.  The committee also heard Representative Dan Wolgamott's HF 156, a bill that would provide funding for a dozen education partnership programs.  These programs supply vital full-service links in the communities they serve and a number of these programs are located in SEE member districts.

The House Education Policy devoted its entire hearing to Representative Sydney Jordan's HF 358.  HF 358 would require the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) to develop a model curriculum for comprehensive sex education.  This bill was part of the House omnibus education funding bill in 2019, but it did not survive the conference committee process.  Debate on this bill was quite spirited as this is a somewhat controversial bill and school districts would be expected to implement the model curriculum during the 2023-2024 school year.  Districts not wanting to implement the model would have to submit an alternative curriculum for approval by MDE.

The Senate Education Finance and Policy Committee plowed through four bills (well, not exactly plowed as will be explained) during its hearing.  The bulk of the hearing was dedicated to Senator Carla Nelson's SF 2.  SF 2 would rescind the Governor's ability to close schools during the peacetime emergency that has arisen due to COVID-19.  This has been a bone of contention between the Senate Republicans and the Walz Administration pretty much throughout the decision to curtail in-person instruction, especially during the 2020-2021 school year.  It is difficult to tell at times whether the disagreement is over the use of emergency powers in general or the specific decisions the Walz Administration has made concerning schools and businesses.  It will be interesting to see if this bill travels on its own (which appears to be the plan at this point) or is folded into an omnibus bill.  Given that there won't be much, if any, of the 2020-2021 school year left, the effect of limiting gubernatorial powers would have little immediate effect, but one doesn't know if (or for how long) COVID-19 and its variants will stick around and what effect it may have on school opening in the Fall of 2021.

The committee also covered the following bills:

SF 380 (Draheim): Requiring school districts to publish costs related to consulting fees.

SF 438 (Chamberlain):  Suspends academic standards review by MDE for one year.

SF 522 (Clausen):  Requires the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board to work with higher education institutions to make sure that online programs (including out-of-state programs) are available to teaching candidates in all licensure areas.  Currently, there are a number of licensure areas for which there is no program at any Minnesota higher education institution.

 Finishing Last Week . . . And On To This Week.  The House Education Funding Committee finished off the education action for last week with the initial presentation of the Governor's proposed budget for the coming biennium.  There's only so much that can be explained in an hour-and-a-half and the Governor's budget is extremely ambitious and is much broader in approach than what we have seen for a long time.  What we've seen most over the past decade are "narrow and deep" budgets with concentration focused on major budget components and major upgrades in the form of all-day kindergarten and increased pre-K programs; programs that affect almost all school districts.  The upheaval resulting from COVID-19 has certainly forced everyone from school districts on up to the Governor's Office to think outside the box and many of the programs proposed in the Governor's budget aim to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on learning, both in terms of student academic achievement and the stress and trauma brought on by distance and hybrid-learning models.

Here is a link to the Committee hearing page for that day.  Several information documents for you to download:  House Education Funding, February 4, 2021 (Scroll Down to 10:30 Meetings)

If the education meetings on Monday are any indication, we are now entering the stage when the direction of each house of the Legislature will begin to become more clear and given we have the only legislature in the country that has split partisan control, we can expect those directions to be somewhat different.

The House took up Representative Jordan's HF 603 and Representative Lee's HF 505, two bills that would provide continuing contract rights to community education teachers.  The changes proposed in these bills have long been sought by community education staff and the changes have been resisted by management.  A series of amendments were offered to the bill by Representative Sondra Erickson trying to curb some of the provisions of the HF 603.  All of them failed and most (I can't say for sure "all") on a party-line vote.  These bills have a long and winding path ahead of them, as they need to go through a number of non-education-related committees before trekking back to its likely landing place in the omnibus E-12 bill (provided the HF 603/HF 505 survive the gauntlet). 

The Senate Education Finance and Policy Committee didn't tackle any legislation today, but did delve into several controversial topics.  The first of these surrounds a book being used by some school districts that deals with a police shooting.  While it is the intention of the book to elicit discussion about race, it is viewed by some to as being too critical of law enforcement and that the discussion emanating from the book may actually be further deteriorating the relationship between the police and communities of color.  The committee then turned to the process by which the new social studies standards are being developed.  There has been a push to include a greater concentration on bringing in multiple ethnic perspectives--usually termed "ethnic studies"--into Minnesota's social studies standards.  This is welcomed by some, but others believe it tosses out much of what has been traditionally been taught without much consideration of merit.  It is difficult to discern what the Legislature might do on this front.  There generally has been reluctance on the part of the Legislature to delve too deeply into the standards-setting process and instead leaving that to the committees and panels that compose the standards.  The last time the Legislature got deeply involved, Minnesota ended up with 126 pages of social studies standards in 2004 and I think everyone wants to avoid that path.  However, if one side of the debate or the other believes that the process has gone too far in one direction (or not far enough), I can see this issue working its way into the debate this session.  Lastly, the Minnesota Department of Education outlined its plans on the process for re-opening schools in the coming months.

Neither Snow, Nor Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Covid can stop the Southeast Service Cooperative from putting on a dynamite legislative forum.  Last week, a strong showing of legislators met virtually with over seventy school board members and school administrators from Southeastern Minnesota.  Kasson-Mantorville Superintendent Mark Matuska served as Master of Ceremonies and introduced several panels that dealt with the basic formula, the special education cross-subsidy, the English Learner cross-subsidy, and property tax fairness (especially as it relates to debt service).  Great job by all the presenters and special thanks to Southeast Service Cooperative Executive Director Steve Sallee and his remarkable staff.

A Day Late (and Many Dollars Short).  Is it just me or does anyone else get about 90% done with a blog entry and suddenly . . .  it totally disappears never to return?  I think this sums up how I felt about 9:00 PM last night when "poof" went an hour and a half of work

So here, delayed by a 13 hours is the report on Wednesday's proceedings on education-related issues at the State Capitol.

The House has established a new committee this session--the Industrial Education and Economic Development Finance and Policy Committee chaired by Representative Gene Pelowski--and they had an absolutely dynamite hearing on career and technical education on Wednesday morning.  The hearing featured testimony from educators and administrators in school districts and cooperatives that have career and technical education programs that are exemplary and reach a number of students.  As many of you know, state support for career and technical education was decimated in the 1990s and only now is there seeing some recovery.  It is difficult to tell why the state backed off funding career and technical education.  Some blame the reform movements spawned at the Federal level by Goals 2000 that morphed into No Child Left Behind that morphed into the Every Student Succeeds Act.  While career and technical education is not totally ignored, the testing regimen and core content requirements that states enacted as part of those efforts has clearly left many students without room for electives in their schedules and has forced school districts to concentrate more heavily on accountability as measured by standardized tests.  Comedian/Talk Show Host Dennis Miller used have a line "I don't go off on a rant here" and in that vein, I'm not going to go further than to simply say career and technical education is needed and desired by both students and the business community.  These programs are more expensive to implement and maintain than the standard classroom, so strengthening categorical funding for them is warranted.  Interest from the committee was quite fervid so that time ran out before witnesses from small business could testify.  They will be returning for a future hearing.

The House Education Finance Committee heard Representative Hassan's HF 217, a bill that seeks to increase the number of teachers and administrators of color that are working in Minnesota schools.  As was the case in the House Education Policy Committee, the testimony on this bill was extremely compelling, as students and recent graduates of color in Minnesota school districts outlined their experience of rarely, if ever, having a teacher of color throughout their time as a student.  Numerous studies show that students of color often show better achievement if they are exposed to teachers and administrators of color, but as former Monticello Interim Superintendent (and current Assistant Superintendent in Roseville) Dr. Michael Favor pointed out, all students benefit from having teachers from a wide range of racial and ethnic backgrounds.  Representative Lisa Demuth offered three amendments that will likely re-surface as this bill (and others aimed at increasing the number of teachers of color) moves along.  The amendments would increase districts' ability to place teachers of color with Tier 1 licenses instead of having to first consider higher licensure tiers and to not necessarily adhere to current seniority rankings when making layoff decisions.  The argument against these amendments is that they would disrupt current teacher licensure practices and also decimate the practice of "last in/first out."  There is a wide range of ideological opinions regarding teacher bargaining and how the current paradigm affects hiring and retention of teachers (and not just teachers of color).  All three amendments failed, but Representative Hassan agreed to work on the issues moving forward.

The last hearing of the day was the Senate Education Finance and Policy Committee, which heard four bills.  The first bill, SF 351 , authored by Committee Chair Senator Roger Chamberlain, would provide aid to students whose education has been greatly disrupted by COVID-19.  To qualify, the student would have to qualify for free- or reduced-price lunch and eligible expenditures would include tutoring and a variety of technology purchases.  Parents would have to apply for the grants and could receive up to $450 per eligible students.  Parents with students in either public or private schools would be eligible to apply.

The committee then moved to Senator Rich Draheim's SF 379 that would streamline the process and eliminate some paperwork for school districts that are charter school authorizers.  Northfield Superintendent Matt Hillman--a stalwart SEE member--testified in favor of the bill.

SF 408 was next up.  This legislation has been around for a few years and has come close to passing at several junctures.  The bill is authored by Senator Karin Housley and it would make changes to the transportation sparsity formula.  While the current situation does not affect all Minnesota school districts, most of those districts affected by the current situation are subsidizing their transportation operations out of their general funds for costs beyond what the state formulas provide.  It's another one of the hidden cross-subsidies that plague Minnesota's education funding system.  Forest Lake Superintendent Steve Massey has worked on this issue extensively and this proposal was part of the Minnesota Department of Education's  School Finance Working Group's final recommendations that were issued last month.  

Last bill of the day was Senator Carrie Ruud's SF 96.  This bill would limit participation in women's and girls' athletics to individuals born biologically female.  This issue was grappled with by the Minnesota State High School League several years ago, but both here and nationally, there has been some pushback over allowing male-to-female transgendered students from competing on women's and girls' teams.  Needless to say, the debate over the bill was spirited and you can expect this bill to receive more attention as it moves through the process.

So, there it is!  I didn't lose it this time!  The wonders of modern technology even though it is being operated by a Luddite.   

 One Committee Today.  The House Education Finance Committee was the sole education-related committee that held a hearing today.  The hearing was devoted to education reform movements that seek to close the achievement gap and promote social-emotional learning.  The largest segment of the hearing was devoted to Reimagine Minnesota, a project developed by the Association of Metropolitan School Districts.  Drs. Christine Osario and David Law, superintendents of North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale and Anoka-Hennepin respectively, were the presenters and they did a great job describing this ambitious program.  The new realities of Minnesota's student population calls for a wide range of reforms that will recognize this change and there's no question Reimagine Minnesota offers a wide variety of proposed reforms that will see all students, personalize their education, and ensure all students have equitable resources.  Added to these goals are strategies aimed at recruiting and retaining more teachers- and administrators-of-color, which is another aspect of ensuring equity and narrowing the achievement gap.  For more on Reimagine Minnesota, click the link below:

Reimagine Minnesota

The second group before the committee was The Good Trouble Principals.  Formed in 2020, this self-described "loose coalition" of  162 Minnesota school district principals seeks to bring greater racial sensitivity to Minnesota's public school environment and engage in "better, more equitable educational practices."  For more on The Good Trouble Principals (the name draws its inspiration from the late Congressman and civil rights pioneer John Lewis), click the link below:

The Good Trouble Principals

The meeting ended with a presentation from schools associated with the Barr Center, another education reform enterprise with a model that is showing success in the schools that implement practices associated with the program.  32 different schools in Minnesota are involved with the Barr program and a short synopsis of their participation is featured on the Barr website.  For more on Barr:

The Barr Center

Minnesota Schools Participating in Barr 

Spotlight on Equalization.  As reported last week, the Governor's budget calls for a significant increase in equalization by looking at a number of different levies and increasing equalization overall.  The boldest move on this front is bringing greater equalization to the Local Option Revenue.  It is a bit of a shuffle and I have yet to work through all the numbers and it does look a bit confusing.  Currently, the first tier of the Local Option Revenue ($300/PU) has an equalizing factor of $880,000 RMV/PU.  The next $425/PU is equalized at $510,000 RMV/PU.  Under the Governor's plan, the entire $725/PU would be equalized at $844,600 RMV/PU, which would lead to property tax relief for all but about 30 districts in the state.  It does look a bit counter-intuitive because the proposed equalizing factor is lower than the current equalizing factor for the first $300/PU in Local Option Revenue, but the increase in equalization resulting from the significant hike in the equalizing factor for the remaining $425/PU more than makes up for it.  The shift in the equalizing factor for the first $300/PU (a drop of 4.0%) is more than offset by the increase in the equalizing factor for the next $425/PU (an increase of 66.0%).  The equalizing factor would be indexed to statewide property wealth growth, which would prevent erosion in the aid/levy ratio that currently occurs.

As for the operating referendum, a new equalizing factor is set at a slightly lower level than the current equalizing factor--it moves down from $576,000 RMV/PU to $574,300 RMV/PU--but it is set at 85% of the state average so it would be indexed to statewide property wealth growth.

In terms of the debt service program, the local effort threshold of 15.74% remains in place, but a single tier is created and all debt service above the threshold is proposed to be equalized at 100% of the statewide average ANTC/PU.  Currently, the increment of debt service between the 15.74% threshold and 26.24% is equalized at roughly 55% of the statewide average ANTC/PU.  Improvements to the debt service equalization program have been a long time coming and hopefully, this proposal will receive considerable attention during the 2021 session.

Here is the breakdown of the budget amounts for the coming biennium dedicated to these proposals:

Increase in LOR Equalization:  $68.1 million

Increase in Referendum Equalization:  $9.5 million

Increase in Debt Service Equalization:  $17.9 million

I plan on analyzing sections of interest in the Governor's budget over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

It was Tuesday.  So how about some 'til Tuesday, the 1980s band led by Aimee Mann.  Here they are with one of their best.

Round Up from Last Week and Monday Report.  The House Education Finance Committee heard HF 4 (Hassan), the bill that would appropriate $118 million in programs to help make up for the revenue loss resulting from the loss of student enrollment due to COVID-19.  I was a bit surprised that the hold harmless on general education revenue (achieved by allowing districts to use the greater of their 2019-2020 student enrollment pr 2020-2021 student enrollment).  The remainder of the revenue would be dedicated to increased extended time revenue, special education revenue, grants for professional development aimed at reducing student trauma, grants to help establish full-service community schools, and appropriations for the Reading Corps and the Math Corps.  The committee heard the bill, but did not take further action.  There are some adjustments that need to be made to the language, but I expect the bill to be play a role in the House's response to the adverse effects COVID-19 has had on school districts throughout the state.

The House Education Policy Committee devoted its hearing today to the education-related recommendations of last interim's House Select Committee on Racial Justice.  Those recommendations can be found on pages 40 and 41 of the final report of the committee issued in December, 2020.

House Select Committee on Racial Justice Report and Recommendations 

The hearing featured testimony from a variety of interest.  Former Minnesota Court Justice Alan Page was a featured witness and he again stressed his stance that the constitutional amendment that he and Minneapolis Federal Reserve Chairman Neil Kashkari needs to play a central role in any approach to bringing greater racial justice to Minnesota.  While it wasn't discussed today, others believe that while education is important, there are other factors--housing, access to quality medical care, police reform--that loom as large, if not larger, than education if true progress on this issue is to be realized.  The question that arises "Is this an either/or or a both/and proposition?"  My guess is it's more a both/and, but with limited resources the question will be in determining the final mix of proposed solutions.  Working on this issue is one of the House's top--and maybe the top--priority during the 2021 session, so we will likely have a better idea as the session wears on.

The Senate E-12 Finance and Policy Committee tackled four bills today and it flew right through them.  The first was SF 190, which would allow a single district to establish an area learning center instead of being required to form it as a cooperative with other school districts.  Currently, Minneapolis and St. Paul are the only districts that can form an area learning center on their own and SF 190 would expand it to all districts.  It would certainly make sense for large suburban districts to be able to share this ability.  

Senator Clausen's SF 147 was also heard this afternoon.  SF 147 would remove the requirement that school districts annually report information for all probationary teachers in the district who were not renewed including the teacher’s licensure area and the teacher preparation program that prepared the teacher.  There was some pushback on this proposal from groups that believe the requirement provides transparency, but many believe that the report is irrelevant as most probationary teachers are not renewed due to budget constraints and not due to training or performance concerns.

The final bill was Senator Dahms' SF 389.  SF 389 would allow member districts of a cooperative unit to use their long term facilities maintenance revenue for costs associated with facilities maintenance at a cooperative unit.  This change to the law would create greater statewide equity in terms of facilities maintenance.            

 Wall-to-Wall Wednesday.  Wednesday is the day when all of the education-related committees meet.  House Education Funding leads off at 10:30 AM and goes until noon, when it hands it off to the House Education Policy Committee, which starts at 1:00 PM and runs until 2:30.  After that, things get punted across the street to the Senate, with the Senate E-12 Finance and Policy going from 3:00 until 4:30.  It's early in the session, but priorities seem to be shaping up already as witnessed by today's hearings.

The House Education Funding Committee took up testimony from a panel of superintendents--Astein Osei (St. Louis Park), Stephanie Burrage (Robbinsdale), and Dave Krenz (Austin)--and a panel of special education directors--Melissa Schaller (Intermediate 917), Darren Kermes (Intermediate 288), and Deb Marcotte (Hiawatha Valley Education District).  The focus of the hearing was the complications for the delivery of education services due to the pandemic and how these districts were creative in meeting the challenge.  But even with this creativity, funding gaps and uncertainty exist, some of which the House will suggest be mitigated by  HF 4  (Discussed in Yesterday's Blog Entry) that the Committee will hear tomorrow (Thursday) morning.  It is important to note that HF 4 goes further in correcting the funding downturn resulting directly from the reduced pupil count than the Governor's proposed budget.  It is more than a truism that a dollar can only be spent once and that any revenue used to fill the funding deficit resulting from pandemic will not be available for new initiatives in the coming biennium.  With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how the balance is struck between correcting the funding problems caused by the pandemic for the current school year and any proposed new programs that would be established during this session for next school year and beyond.

The House Education Policy Committee heard another bill authored by Representative Hassan today -- HF 217 -- which proposes to spend just under $45 million over the coming biennium for a variety of programs aimed at increasing the number of teachers of color in Minnesota schools.  While we don't know what targets will look like in the House and Senate, it's safe to assume that both sides will propose something on this issue and the House proposal will likely be larger in dollars and scope.  This will be a high priority and it will be interesting to see where the discussion goes this session.

The Senate E-12 Finance and Policy Committee heard Senator Chamberlain's SF 244 , a bill that would create a grant program for licensed teachers to receive training in the Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) program.  LETRS is a scientifically-based reading program that has shown remarkable results in raising the reading scores of elementary school students throughout the country.  Last session, then-Senate Education Chair Carla Nelson proposed re-directing revenue from the Literacy Incentive Aid program into a program that would require all school districts to take the LETRS training.  Senator Chamberlain's bill dials that back and proposes to spend $1 million in each year of the biennium.  Senator Chamberlain has long been a champion of scientifically-based reading instruction, especially through his work with the dyslexia community and this proposal has considerable support among teachers (at both the elementary/secondary and post-secondary levels) and parents.  

As in the case of teachers of color, I believe the other body (in this case, the House in HF 288 authored by Representative Edelson) will also expend effort in this area.  This is another area where interests will likely mesh, but the extent to which they mesh in terms of resources remains the question.

Time to Get Blogging!  It's been a slow start to the 2021 Legislative Session, which was somewhat to be expected given the fact that the Legislature is pretty much meeting in hybrid mode with committee meetings done remotely.  This has slowed down bill introductions and committee hearings have largely dealt with study topics rather than hearing bills to this point.  Much of the discussion has revolved around recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, with assistance to businesses and individuals at the heart of the discourse.  That doesn't mean the committee hearings haven't been interesting.  In education, a lot of attention has been given to the task of opening schools again and with elementary students in most districts attending again in person, the debate is turning to questions surrounding how to help students get back to where they need to be academically and to weave them back into the school environment emotionally.  There is no question that almost a year out of formal classroom education has taken its toll on everyone in the education enterprise, but the starkest loss has likely been felt by students.

One bill with considerable implications for education was heard in the House Education Policy Committee last week and will be heard in the House Education Funding Committee later this week.  HF 4 authored by Minneapolis Representative Hodan Hassan holds school districts harmless for general education revenue losses due to dips in enrollment due to the pandemic by allowing districts to use the greater of their current enrollment or their enrollment numbers from the 2019-2020 school year.

Other items in the bill include:

• Allows districts to expand extended time programs for the coming summer by board action with added hours being reported through the framework of the current extended time program.
• Requires school districts to prioritize students with disabilities, especially those in Level 3 or Level 4 programs, when considering return to in-person instruction.
• $2 million for full service community school grants.
• $6 million for grants for trauma-informed professional development grants.
• $3 million for Math Corps and $2 million for Reading Corps.

Here is a link to the bill summary:  HF 4 Bill Summary 

Governor's Budget Released.  While things have proceeded at a relatively leisurely pace to this point, the release of the Governor's budget in budget session usually marks the point when the action picks up.  The Governor is putting forth an ambitious budget that calls for a biennial increase of approximately $770 million over the base with $300 million of that coming from an increase in the general education formula of 1% for the 21-22 school year and 2.5% for the 22-23 school year.

Here are the other highlights of the bill:

• Increases in equalization for local option revenue, operating referendum revenue, and debt service revenue.
• Dedication of Federal revenue to extended time programs.
• Freezing the special education cross-subsidy at its current level.
• $28 million over the biennium to reduce the English learner cross-subsidy.
• $46 million over the biennium establishing a student support personnel categorial program.  The formula would provide $22 per student with a district minimum of $35,000.  The intent is to increase the presence of school social workers, school psychologists, school counselors and school nurses in school districts throughout the state.
• $5 million in each year of the biennium for full service community schools.
• A strong commitment to American Indian education through the expansion of a variety of programs.
• The creation of an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Office at the Minnesota Department of Education.
• $5 million per year for increased teacher mentorship.

What I've provided is a short synopsis of what is in the Governor's recommendations for the E-12 system.  If you want to digest the whole 417 pages, here is the link:  Governor Walz/Lt. Governor Flanagan E-12 Budget Recommendations

 And here are the Cliff's Notes:  Summary of Governor Walz/Lt. Govnernor Flanagan E-12 Budget Recommendations

And Finally, here is the page on the Minnesota Department of Education website related to the Due North education plan outlined in the budget recommendations.  There is some valuable links that show the background behind a number of the recommendations.

Due North Education Plan 

Reaction to the recommendations has been spirited and below are several links to news stories regarding the Governor's and Lieutenant Governor's budget recommendations.

Star Tribune 

St. Paul Pioneer Press 

Due North Press Conference on You Tube (Governor enters at 5:00 mark)

The Real Reason I Haven't Been Blogging.   It's hard to get on the computer when the dog is surfing the web.  I hope she doesn't have my credit card number.  Mondo dog treats if she does!

 

 Budget Forecast Released.  It's really difficult to call anything that's happened during the pandemic good news (except for the recent news on progress toward a viable vaccination), but the state budget forecast released today qualifies as at least a pleasant surprise.  When the pandemic hit in March, the worst was assumed (and for many Americans, it really has been the worst thing imaginable) and that the economy was going to tank.  The stock market hit a low of 18,541.93 on March 23, but the trendline has been moving steadily upwards since albeit with a few fits-and-starts.  Remember the presentation that Peter Leatherman from Morris-Leatherman gave to SEE membership in September when he pointed out that the responses provided by participants were far more optimistic than the ones provided in April.  While the stock market is not a true measure of what is happening up and down the economy, I think in this instance it showed that the economic prospects of a large portion of the economy were not as adversely affected by the pandemic as once feared.  Please don't take this as a dismissal of the true pain felt by the small business owners and low-wage employees whose lives have been absolutely decimated by the pandemic.  As pointed out last week in the business press, large corporations have done well during the pandemic while small businesses, especially restaurants and service industries, have been crushed.

At any rate, Minnesota's budget situation is actually on the plus side of the ledger for the remainder of this fiscal year (which ends on June 30, 2021).  The February forecast had state revenues at $48.8 billion.  An interim forecast performed in May showed revenues down by $3.7 billion, but that has rebounded since to a loss of just $1.7 billion.  While revenue was down from the February forecast, so was spending to the tune of $1.1 billion.  Adding these--and several other variables together--and the state ends this fiscal year with a surplus of $641 million (see linked document for a more concise description).  It is my guess that a considerable portion of this revenue will go towards a relief package currently being negotiated by Governor Walz and the Legislature which may be taken up at the expected December special session.

The budget picture for the next biennium is less rosy, as the estimates show a looming budget shortfall of nearly $1.3 billion.  This would be reduced by any amount of the current fiscal year surplus that might be carried forward or if economic performance improves to the extent that revenues would exceed current projections.  Given the likelihood of the shortfall remaining in excess of $1.0 billion, frugality may be the order of the session as the Legislature and Governor work to hammer out agreements over the various budget areas.

Link: Budget and Economic Forecast

House Committee Chairs Named.  The House named its committee chairs for the coming biennium last evening and, like the Senate, there will be a change in the chairs of an education-related committee.  Representative Jim Davnie will remain as Chair of the Education Funding Committee and Representative Dave Pinto will remain Chair of the Early Childhood Funding and Policy Committee.  Representative Ruth Richardson will take over as Chair of the Education Policy Committee.  Representative Cheryl Youakim, Chair of the Education Policy Committee the past two sessions, will move over to chair the Property Tax Division of the House Tax Committee.  Representative Paul Marquart will remain Chair of the full Tax Committee.

Link to Story on House Committee Structure/Chairs: House committee, division chairs named for 2021-22 biennium

Membership rosters for the House and Senate committees are in the process of being developed and should be released at some point in December.

Senate Announces New Committee Structure and Chairs.  The Senate majority caucus announced its committee structure and chairs yesterday and there are a couple of surprises.  It wasn't entirely unexpected that there are more committees this year.  With such a large class of freshman elected in 2016, I expected that there would be a bit of restructuring to give as many of them chair responsibilities as could be sensibly managed.  Also, with Senators Tom Bakk and David Tomassoni breaking away from the DFL caucus and forming an independent caucus, the possibility existed that they would somehow be called upon to chair a committee and that did come to fruition with Bakk being named Chair of Capital Investment (Bonding) Committee and Tomassoni being named the Chair of the Higher Education Finance Committee.

While some of that may be surprising, the biggest surprise (at least to me) was the switching of Chairs between Senators Roger Chamberlain and Carla Nelson.  Senator Nelson has been the Chair of the Education Finance and Policy Committee for the past two years (Education Finance solely in 2017-2018) and Senator Chamberlain has been the Chair of the Tax Committee.  They will trade responsibilities in the coming biennium, with Nelson moving to Taxes and Chamberlain to Education Finance and Policy.  Senator Chamberlain has been a member of the education-related committees, but Senator Nelson did not serve on the Tax Committee during the last two biennia, but she did serve on the committee from 2013 to 2016.

Here is a link to the press release outlining the new committee structure and the chairs of each committee and subcommittee:  Senate Republicans Release Committee Structure and Chairs 

Analyzing the Election.    I thought I would let things marinate for a couple of weeks and take a close look at the election results before putting my thoughts into cyberspace.  Once I got through all the national banter, I simply came to the conclusion that this was one very odd election and really, how could it not be.  CoVID-19 has defined American life since March and the ripple effects of the virus clearly affected how Americans voted and, probably more often than not, how they voted.

I am no longer down in the gearbox of political campaigns so my observations are, for the most part, well above the fray, but I did not expect the Blue Wave--either in Minnesota or the United States--that much of the media thought was in the offing given the poll numbers spewed pretty much every day down the stretch during the election season.  Neither was I surprised that the margin between President Trump and President-elect Biden was not close to margin described in many of those polls.  I can't remember which SEE ZOOM event I was speaking at where I predicted there was going to be a lot of ticket-splitting.  While I expected President-elect Biden to prevail both in Minnesota and in the Electoral College, I didn't think he would have significant coattails.  Looking at the presidential numbers in Minnesota, Biden's spread was only one-half percentage point lower than then-President Obama's spread in 2012 (Obama-7.69%/Biden-7.10%) and the 2012 was a big swing election for the DFL in Minnesota that year with the Senate DFL picking up 9 seats and the House DFL picking up 12 to seize the majority in both House of the Legislature.

"How can that be?" one might ask (you might not, but someone might).  The 2012 wave election for the DFL followed the 2010 wave election that put the Republicans in control of both legislative bodies for the first time since the early-1970s.  In between elections, there was a government shutdown as the Legislature did not reach accord with the Governor until July.  Further, new legislative boundaries were drawn after the 2010 census, which always adds an X-factor to election season.  I think the lesson is that one has to look at every election season in the context of what may be happening across-the-board.  Clearly, the pandemic was on the minds of many Minnesotans as they voted, but with a wide variety of opinions about how it should be addressed really prevented a wave from developing on one side or the other on the issue.  I would argue--even though this article from Sunday's StarTribune argues otherwise Democrats debate how Minneapolis' 'defund the police' movement played in elections Centrists contend slogan cost the party House seats in Minnesota, nationally.--that the issues surrounding the discussions regarding public safety in the wake of George Floyd's death also didn't fuel a wave in one direction or the other.  It does appear that messaging surrounding public safety favored Republicans, but it had a greater effect outstate than in the suburbs.  Likewise, the CoVID-19-related issues appear to have had a greater effect in the suburbs than in outstate districts.  For those of you who recall Peter Leatherman's presentation to our September SEE meeting, those were the two issues that were most on the minds of Minnesotans and it appears the clash of those two issues and the partisan divide over them were counterweights that put a ceiling on the other side's gains.

I am not saying that the rhetoric around police reform didn't affect races, but here is an example as to why I don't believe it was as great as stated in the referenced article.  DFL Senator Matt Little lost to Republican Senator-elect Zach Duckworth in a Lakeville area seat, but just to the east Republican Senator Dan Hall was unseated by Senator-elect Lindsay Port.  Just south of the seat where Republican Senator Warren Limmer held off DFL challenger Bonnie Westlin, DFLer Ann Johnson Stewart easily won over Republican Greg Pulles to replace retiring Republican Senator Paul Anderson.  I am probably going to keep hitting this nail until I wreck the board, but each race has to be viewed in its own particular context and the qualities of each candidate often have as much to do with the result as any over-arching theme being promoted.

I was reluctant to make a prediction as to which party, both in Minnesota and nationally, would retain control of the respective legislative bodies.  I remember saying several times that I could envision any combination and I wasn't surprised to see the status quo maintained albeit with tighter margins both in St. Paul and Washington, D.C.  The DFL had a net gain of one seat in the Minnesota Senate, picking up the two suburban seats I mentioned above along with the seat in St. Cloud (more on that later).  The  Republicans picked up five seats in House (with a recount taking place on the Iron Range that could give them one more, although it's unlikely).  The Senate was where most of the attention was placed in media conversations, given the DFL only had to have a net gain of two seats to take control.  They did pick up three seats, but could not hold on to Senator Matt Little's seat in Lakeville or Senator Dan Sparks' seat in the Austin/Albert Lea area, leaving them one short.  The Republican gains in the House were interesting in that three came from outside the metropolitan area and two in the outer ring suburbs.  In many election cycles, close races determine who controls the Legislature and often times, the close races all fall on one side of the political divide.  That was not the case in 2020, each side won its share of close races.

A little bit more about St. Cloud.  In 2006, then-incumbent Tarryl Clark won the seat in a DFL-wave election by over 3,500 votes.  John Pederson won the seat (open after Clark's decision not to seek re-election) by 460 votes during the Republican-wave election of 2010.  Pederson held the seat comfortably by just under 2,000 votes during the 2012 DFL-wave election.  In 2016, the seat was open again after Pederson decided not to run and Republican Jerry Relph defeated DFLer Dan Wolgamott by 142 votes in a year that was kinder to Republicans at the legislative level (though arguably not a wave).  This year, DFLer Aric Putnam defeated Senator Relph by 316 votes.  As I hit the nail once again (I hope it's a sturdy board), one can see from these results that it is often difficult to predict what will happen in individual legislative districts from noise that is happening well above these frays.

My final thought is that Minnesota has seen its share of wave elections over the past twenty-plus years.  I would argue that we first saw this with former Governor Ventura's victory in 1998.  While not a definitive wave, it brought a lot of new voters into the system and that had an effect on legislative control.  Minnesota's elections in 2006, 2010, 2012, 2016 (to a lesser extent as explained above), and 2018 all saw dramatic shifts in legislative composition.  That may be in the offing again depending on how the pandemic plays out and what the new legislative boundaries look like.  With divided government, we may not see a reaction to policies pursued at the legislative level because both sides will own the results of the policy discussions.  One dynamic that I've witnessed over the past decade is that when one party controls the levers of government and moves policy forward aggressively, there is an almost inevitable reaction against those enactments come next election.  Curious to see if divided government forestalls that reaction.

And finally, I do have to say something regarding President Trump.  Everyone has an opinion and here is mine (and I hope people of all stripes find this as measured as I intend it).  I view American democracy as a house and that house is always under renovation.  If anyone has ever ripped up floorboards in a house, you know that you find all kinds of surprises; some pleasant and some otherwise.  I think we have seen both under President Trump.  He has clearly energized a segment of the voting populace that had become disenchanted with the process (Democratic pollsters/consultants Ruy Teixeira and Joel Rogers saw this coming over twenty years ago in their masterful America's Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters).  While some of his policies have not been particularly helpful to the white working class, President Trump has clearly channeled their anxiety and brought them back into the system.  That isn't necessarily the bad thing some think it is if the end result is a system that works better for all Americans.  The work ahead is to make certain that we create a system that sees all people and hears all voices.  That is the responsibility of all of us as participants in our democracy.  Let's keep this house standing.

House Holding Hearings.  With the special session in the rear-view mirror (and perhaps another one on the horizon), the Minnesota House education-related committees are holding hearings to gain perspectives on how schools, students, and families fared during this Spring's distance-learning period.  Today's hearing featured testimony from students, parents, and community groups and centered on the challenges experienced, especially in communities of color and low-income households that characteristically face greater barriers to achievement.  It was a very impressive and impassioned set of witnesses and I urge everyone who has never had the opportunity to listen to Sondra Samuels, the director of the Northside Achievement Zone in Minneapolis, to tune in to the hearing at the link I've provided and listen in.  Samuels always does a wonderful job.

Education committees examine the report card on distance learning

The YouTube episode of the hearing is midway down in the story.  Tomorrow (Thursday), the House Education Finance Division will be hearing from a variety of school support groups (social workers, counselors, transportation providers).

Special Session (Number One) Comes and Goes.  It was a week that really flew by and in the end, major issues fell by the wayside.  The Special Session convened on Friday, June 12, and ran through the early morning hours of Saturday, June 20.  

This special session did not resemble recent special sessions in any way, shape, or form.  It has been the practice of gubernatorial administrations and legislative leadership over the past two decades to have all legislation pre-agreed to prior to a special session being called.  The nature of this session was bound to be different given the on-going debate over how to best address the medical and economic effects of the COVID-19 virus and that certainly turned out to be the case.

The Legislature came in with a healthy to-do list, first of which was to make a determination as to whether to extend Governor Walz' emergency powers that were first invoked with the Executive Orders in reaction to COVID-19.  There was no vote whether to restrict those powers during the regular session, but since the adjournment of the regular session, the Governor must call a special session every 30 days to provide the Legislature with an opportunity to restrict those powers.  That means there will likely be several special sessions between now and the start of the 2021 legislative session next January.  The Senate did vote to cancel the Governor's authority, but that bill did not pass in the House, meaning the Governor's authority remains in place.

StarTribune: Minnesota House blocks bid to end Walz's emergency powers

The political reaction surrounding the killing of George Floyd was unforeseen when the Legislature adjourned in May, but that has certainly taken center stage, even upstaging the bonding bill and COVID-19-related initiatives during the week-long special session.  Both the House and Senate passed comprehensive packages aimed at police reform, but the House proposal was broader and much more aggressive in its initiatives aimed at modifying police behavior.  The House proposal also addressed a number of underlying issues that many believe have contributed to disparities in law enforcement practices.  While hopes ran high that a meaningful compromise could be reached, the reluctance to remain in session by the Senate majority along with the multi-faceted nature of the issues involved, prevented an agreement from being reached.

Star Tribune: Police reform efforts collapse in divided Minnesota Legislature

The bonding bill also fell by the wayside.  There was hope late in the regular session that a compromise on the aggregate size of the bill could be reached and that there would be an accord on the last day of the session, but with a super-majority required to pass the bonding bill and neither minority caucus willing to provide votes for that to happen, the fruits of the serious negotiations being undertaken by the majority caucuses and the Governor never surfaced.

There was also legislation proposed to distribute the Federal dollars being delivered to the state that will be passed through to local units of government that also died.  Both the House and Senate passed legislation that would have accomplished that, but the bills were not identical which would have required a conference committee to work out a final compromise package and there did not seem to be the appetite for that to transpire.  Legislators in both parties are urging Governor Walz to distribute the revenue without legislative approval, which may well happen with the blessing of the Legislative Advisory Commission.  "What is the Legislative Advisory Commission?" you might ask.  Here is a descriptive link:

Minnesota Legislative Advisory Commission

Here is a StarTribune story on the issue:  City, county leaders press Gov. Tim Walz on $841M in COVID-19 aid

Given the inability to find common ground on the larger issues addressed during the special session, it was somewhat surprising that the omnibus education policy bill passed.  The bill was a scaled-down set of proposals that all were agreed upon during the regular session, but time ran out before the bill could pass both bodies.  The bill passed 67-0 in the Senate and 117-9 in the House.  Kudos to both Education Policy chairs, Representative Cheryl Youakim and Senator Carla Nelson for getting this one over the finish line during tense times on other issues.

Here is a link to the bill language:  HF 33--2020 1st Special Session Law Chapter 8

Bill Summary:  HF 33 Bill Summary.  This is the bill summary that went to the House floor.  An amendment was added (Article 1, Section 4) on the House floor last Friday providing the Ogilvie school district with a fund transfer.  That was the only change to the bill.

Stay Tuned.  I am sure many of you are wondering the state's next steps when it comes to how schools will open this fall.  Right now, the Minnesota Department of Education is preparing for three approaches:  (1) school as normal, (2) a continuation of the distance learning model adopted last spring, or (3) a hybrid model that would incorporate both distance and in-person instruction.  Many districts are trying a hybrid model for summer school and it will be interesting to see the results of those trials.  It is interesting that Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers is, at least at this point, leaving the decision on whether to open in a traditional sense up to local school districts.  Wisconsin and Minnesota have taken different approaches to dealing with a variety of issues related to COVID-19 and this may be another instance of that.

Catching Everyone Up.  It has been awhile and there hasn't been a lot to report up until the last week.  Like every other segment of society, it took the Legislature awhile to get its institutional feet underneath it and things are now moving quickly toward next week's constitutionally-mandated adjournment on Monday, May 18, at midnight.  The budget news from earlier this week (more on that later) makes it virtually impossible to see any additional financial investment coming from the state this year with the revenue situation for the next biennium also looking extremely bleak.

On the education front, it appears the House will be moving a very limited amount of revenue around from several budget areas that show a surplus to other areas that only received one-time revenue last year.  This is a miniscule amount of revenue.  The Senate has yet to unveil any spending bill and if there is any spending from that body, it will likely mirror the House in terms of amount.  Even if the economy hadn't fallen as markedly as it has, it was unlikely that there would have been a significant increase in the amount of revenue going out to school districts for next year.  There was hope that the increase in school safety revenue enacted last year could have been extended for another year, but beyond that, there wasn't a lot of buzz surrounding increased funding for K-12.  The House was looking more at early childhood education and the Senate was zeroing in on tax cuts.  While that didn't preclude additional dollars going to K-12, the final pre-pandemic legislation (at least from my vantage) was probably not going to include a significant investment in that area of the budget.

Both the House and Senate are working on policy bills right now.  The House has constructed its omnibus policy bill and the Senate has been hearing individual bills that may be incorporated into an omnibus bill.  What is more likely happening is now that the House has assembled its bill, the Senate may look at the bills it has heard and informally pre-conferee a bill with the House and fashion a final agreement to send back to the House that would include measures that both bodies have agreed upon.  It's not a perfect way of doing business, but I have found the process to be more transparent than I thought possible as the process has morphed from in-person to online.  Below is a link to the House omnibus education policy bill.  It is hoped that agreement on final policy bills can be reached by the end of this weekend and all next week can be used on the floors of the House and Senate to pass the measures.

HF 163 -- Author's Delete-All (There were amendments added to the bill at Wednesday's hearings, but there isn't a document available yet that shows those changes.)

For those of you who don't know what a delete-all is, it is an amendment that strikes the previous language from the bill and inserts an all-new version of the legislation.  Think of the bill number as a vehicle that picks up passengers along its journey through the legislative process.  Sometimes, the original language is retained and individual amendments are added as the bill moves along.  But when a wide range of new proposals are being added to the bill, the cleanest and most efficient way to incorporate these new initiatives is to start over and insert one comprehensive amendment that addresses everything the bill's author--and also that preferences of other legislators--wants to have in the bill going forward.  There may still be language added or subtracted from the bill through the amendment process (as happened in the House Committee on Wednesday), but the bill generally expresses the direction of the committee members that are in the majority. 

As is often the case, this isn't the way the process is described in most civics books, but even in years less confusing than this one has been the process usually unfolds in this manner.  It's a stay-tuned week.  Deb Griffiths has done a great job with her weekly updates describing how things are moving (or not moving) along, so if you haven't subscribed, do so.

State Economic Woes.  We are seeing an economic free fall nationally and no state or locality will be immune to the ripple effects of the slowdown caused by the pandemic and subsequent decisions to slow its spread.  Minnesota's situation mirrors the situation throughout the country. The state went from a projected surplus to end this biennium of about $1.5 billion to a projected deficit of $2.4 billion.  Almost all of the turnaround in the budget forecast comes from a steep drop in the amount of revenue collected by the state through the income and sales taxes.  The losses from are projected to be much lower collections of the income and sales taxes varies by about $300 million with the income tax loss being higher.  Given the fact that income tax plays a much heavier role in Minnesota's revenue collection system, I was somewhat surprised that the gap wasn't greater, but seeing the lines outside of Home Depot, it's obvious that while people are buying less, they are still buying things.  Here is a link to the MMB report.  I don't know if we'll get a clear picture anytime soon, but the June budget forecast should provide a more concise description of what has happened and what likely will happen revenue-wise going forward.

MMB May State Revenue Update

Sad News to Report.  I received sad news last week when I was told former Prior Lake-Savage Superintendent and SEE Executive Board Member Sue Ann Gruver passed away after a long battle with cancer.  Sue Ann was a true educational leader who was also an ardent supporter of educational equity.  Her list of accomplishments as a lifelong educator is extremely impressive and her influence will be felt in the many lives she has touched for years and years.  I know I speak for the entire SEE membership when I express my deepest condolences to the Gruver family.  I cannot say enough how much Sue Ann meant to all of us in the organization.

Sue Ann (Wilkinson) Gruver Obituary

State Starting to Feel Economic Downturn.  The House Ways and Means Committee heard from the Commissioner of Minnesota Management and Budget Myron Frans and State Economist Dr. Laura Kalambokidis gave an update of Minnesota's fiscal situation as the state begins to experience the economic ripple effects resulting from society-wide adjustments to the COVID-19 virus.  Economic activity in Minnesota began to slow as businesses shut down and the shelter-in-place orders were issued by Executive Order.  Revenue collection from three of Minnesota's primary taxes--individual income, corporate income, and sales--were all down.  The corporate franchise tax was up and the net effect of these dynamics is a drop in $103 million off the state's bottom line.  As outlined in the Minnesota Management and Budget Revenue and Economic Update document released last Friday and linked below,  IHS Markit--the firm that provides macroeconomic projections for Minnesota's budget forecasts--predicts a 5.4% decrease in national gross domestic product for 2020 and with Minnesota's economic performance tied very closely to national measures, we can expect the $1.5 billion forecasted budget surplus (much of which has been spent on COVID-19 related interventions and supports) to dwindle dramatically with a deficit looming as the Legislature convenes in 2021.  IHS Markit projects that the national gross domestic product will increase by more than 6% in 2021, but that will not make up for the revenue lost during the downturn.  This all bears watching and the IHS Markit projection is based on a relatively optimistic "V" recovery (rapid slide followed by rapid recovery, hence the V-shape) to which they assign a 45% level of probability.  IHS-Markit assigns a 35% probability to a more pessimistic recovery that would stretch into 2021.  It is difficult to tell how consumers will react even when the shelter-at-home restrictions are lifted, which makes projecting revenue numbers extremely difficult.  In another item, the federal stimulus package (considered modest in IHS-Markit's view) is factored into their economic performance numbers.

While the committee absorbed the troubling economic news, a larger portion of the committee process was dedicated to trying to map where the Legislature and the Governor can, and perhaps will, go from this point forward.  We are closing in on the end of the regular session and there is concern about how a precipitous downturn in revenue collection will be addressed during the interim.  The Governor could call a special session, but he also has the ability to reduce state expenditures in a variety of spending areas and that power has been used in previous times of economic trouble.  While the budget reserve sits at $2.4 billion, keeping that in place until the absolute last minute will be crucial and one legislator urged the administration to use unallotment powers before exhausting the budget reserve.

There will be difficult discussions over the coming months and today offered what will be the first taste of what lies ahead.

Link:  Minnesota Management and Budget Revenue and Economic Update

Breakthrough on Insulin Availability Bill.  In a positive sign that the Legislature is making progress on key issues that were high priorities entering the 2020 legislative session, the conference committee on the insulin availability bill came to agreement yesterday and it is expected that the entire Legislature will vote on the measure when it convenes again next Tuesday.  There were several bills the Legislature deemed necessary to pass this year and the insulin availability bill ranked high on that list, in the eyes of many second only to the bonding bill.  The reaction to COVID-19 has dramatically changed how the Legislature is conducting business and the fact that agreement was reached under these circumstances is clearly a positive sign that necessary items can--and likely will--be addressed as the Legislature continues its work.  

The Legislature must adjourn on Monday, May 19, and it will likely want to pass a bonding bill before it adjourns.  In addition, it will want to put its stamp on policies that have been covered by Governor Walz' Executive Orders.  Both the House and Senate have been working on sets of proposals dealing with education.  As I reported on Tuesday, the House held a remote hearing on its proposal that day and the Senate has also been working on a parallel set of initiatives.  The Senate has been dealing with all COVID-19-related discussions in a working group setting where individual committee chairs are brought into that process to cover issues related to their committees' jurisdiction.  The task force has yet to cover E-12 education issues, but I anticipate that will happen shortly.

Here is a link to the story on the agreement on insulin availability:  House, Senate expected to vote next week on insulin agreement

House Education Funding Division Back in Action.  The House Education Funding Division held its first Zoom meeting today to discuss a funding bill that is taking shape in the House.  While Governor Walz has issued Executive Orders that are governing the funding and delivery of pre-K through 12 grade education, some questions remain and the House bill discussed today--HF 4415 (DE10 Amendment)--aims to answer a number of those questions and address some crucial funding issues.  The bill's chief author, Representative Jim Davnie, outlined these items as the primary goals of the bill:

• Hold districts financially harmless to the extent possible.
• Code employees in the category in which they were originally hired.
• Allow greater flexibility for districts to transfer within district funds.
• Codify the provisions allowing the waiving of achievement testing that were enacted as part of the recent Federal stimulus package.
• Allow high school seniors to graduate on time.
• Adjust deadlines for licensure renewal.
• Allow student teachers who have nearly completed their practicum to gain full credit for their experience.

One item that is in the bill that differs from items on which there is clear guidance is the House bill would require districts to pay their hourly employees for scheduled hours that have been reduced due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus.  The section relating to this issue is found in Section 1, Subdivision 2, on page one and runs on to page two.  Many school districts are following this to the extent possible, but given the likely fiscal challenges that districts will be facing over the next few years, the desire to save dollars where one can is present.  Guidance from the Minnesota Department of Education allows for laying off hourly employees whose employment is not attached to a specific funding stream and the House would like to stem that.  A number of hourly employees and paraprofessionals testified in favor of the House legislation.  MASE Executive Director Gary Amoroso testified on behalf of the management end of the school equation (SEE is included in that set of groups).  It's a very difficult issue.  Everyone understands the value of the hourly employees and they have clearly stepped up as schools have had to convert to distance learning and would like to be in a position to see them made whole, but the looming financial challenges that school districts will be facing may make that difficult.  Hence, the tension.

Representative Ron Kresha asked the question that everyone must ponder as we work through the crisis is (and I paraphrase) "What decisions will need to be made when we are staring at a considerable budget deficit next biennium?"  Minnesota's state budget forecast--like budget forecast everywhere--have gone straight South since the pandemic and the short- and medium-term economic outlooks are troubling.  All indications are that there will be a considerable budget deficit when the Legislature convenes in 2021 and if we turn back the clock a decade, we can all remember the difficulties (with a state shutdown mixed in) in trying to put together state budgets during that stretch.  Stay tuned.  The immediate task is to protect revenues for the remainder of this biennium before we even think about that rocky road.