The Upcoming Special Education Discussion.  The amount of money districts are expending from their general funds to pay for special education costs continues to increase.  There is a new special education formula that is causing consternation.  The number of students identified as needing special education services is rising.  Looks like this calls for an extended legislative discussion and it appears that discussion will take place.

The growing cross-subsidy (currently estimated at $715 million) is of primary concern to districts throughout the state as revenue coming from the general fund to pay for special education costs hamstring what districts can do.  You can only spend a dollar once and a dollar going toward special education can't be used to preserve existing general education programs or create new ones.  This isn't the fault of local districts or special education students and parents.  There simply isn't enough revenue in the special education formula to stem the tide of revenue being drained from district general funds.

There are also concerns with the new special education formula that was established in 2013.  The state is in a period of transition from the cost-based formula to a census-based formula and that has caused changes in the distribution of revenue among school districts.  While nearly all school districts are receiving more revenue, there appear to be some distributional issues and predictability problems for some districts and cooperatives.

The problems related to special education funding have a long history in Minnesota's education funding system and this year, the Legislature appears to be preparing to grapple with a number of these issues.  HF 2846 authored by Representative Drew Christensen aims to tackle several issues related to special education through the creation of a working group comprised of stakeholders.  It is rumored that the Senate will take a different approach and instead of having a stakeholder-centric working group will propose a working group comprised of legislators.

Both approaches have met with success in the past.  The Long Term Facilities Maintenance Revenue program was developed by a working group that was largely made up of stakeholders while the changes in teacher licensure were developed by a working group composed solely of legislators, proving there is no single way to accomplish change legislatively from the composition of working groups.  Those promoting a legislative working group over a stakeholder working group believe there may be a delay in seeing changes enacted if there is not legislative buy-in in the development of a working group's recommendations.  This should be an interesting discussion to follow.

There will also bills introduced to either increase special education funding for all districts or target revenue toward districts with the highest levels of special education cross-subsidy.  I will have my eyes peeled for those introductions early in the legislative session.

A MASBO-initiated working group has been discussing a number of special education-related issues throughout the interim and the viewpoints developed by this group should contribute greatly to the discussion surrounding special education during the 2018 legislative session.

The Problem from the Monticello Perspective.  A district with a very distinct complaint about the new special education funding formula is SEE's own Monticello.  Representative Marion O'Neill has introduced HF 2877 to remedy the funding issue being faced by the Monticello district.  Below is a link to a Fox9 story (starring Monticello Business Manager Tina Burkholder) that describes the issue.

Link:  Special education funding change costs Monticello Schools $1.6 million

School Shooting Concerns.  The horrific shooting in Florida on Wednesday is a sad reminder that we have to re-visit the issue of school security.  I would guess that bills will be introduced in 2018 to increase the safe schools levy and to increase the number of support staff in school districts.  MPR put this story together in the wake of Wednesday's tragedy and it features comments from Faribault superintendent (and SEE Treasurer) Todd Sesker.

Link:  After Florida shooting, Minnesota schools double check security