Full Day of Committees.  Tuesday and Thursday are the days with wall-to-wall education-related committee meetings and thank goodness I can wedge in lunch.  The morning started with the House Education Innovation Policy covering a number of bills.  A fair amount of time was dedicated to bills authored by Representative Brian Daniels and Representative Pat Garofalo that would give priority to local applicants to two charter schools.  Representative Daniels represents the Nerstrand Charter School and Representative Garofalo represents the Castle Rock Charter School.  These two charter schools were established in some sense (but not exclusively) to give local residents an opportunity to have what amounts to a neighborhood school.  However, demand for these schools has increased, which may force some students who hail from Nerstrand or Castle Rock to go to a different school.  These bills would assure that residents of those two small towns would have preferential treatment in placement in the local charter school.

Representative Peggy Bennett presented one of the more interesting bills I have seen yet this session.  Under Representative Bennett's HF 3190, the funding category of extended time revenue could be used to provide career and technical education outside the school day and school year.  Extended time revenue has generally been used to help students who are falling behind academically to get to grade level in reading and math, but the Fairmont School District has established a weekend and summer welding class that gives students an introduction to welding and also provide instruction to adults who are changing careers.  Fairmont Superintendent Joe Brown, his staff, and several students did an excellent job showing how the current school day/school year framework prevents a number of students from taking elective courses.  Using extended time revenue to provide those electives would be a very innovative way of getting more programming (and not just career and technical programming) in front of students.  I have no idea if the Legislature will nod in this direction in 2018, as there is a price tag attached to the bill.  The price would not be prohibitive, but it doesn't appear that the Legislature will be opening the wallet too wide this session.

The Governor's education policy bill--HF 3315--was also presented.  While the bill is non-controversial for the most part, there are a couple of possible problems.  Most notably is language that would prevent school districts from denying lunch to students whose lunch accounts are in arrears.  This is a fairly straightforward goal, but the language as drafted could be interpreted to mean that students who are in arrears in any fee could not be prevented from participating in the activity for which the fees are intended.  More to come on this.  

The House Education Finance Committee also heard Representative Bennett's HF 3190 and Superintendent Brown and company did well in both games of their doubleheader.  Also up in the committee was Representative Urdahl's HF 3093, which would expand the tuition tax credit for teachers to include teachers who were working on a master's level special education license.

The committee day ended with spirited discussion in the Senate Education Policy Committee.  After covering two relatively non-controversial bills, the committee dove into Senator Carla Nelson's SF 2487.  The genesis of this bill seems to stem from the controversy surrounding Edina's "All for All" curriculum that some believe indoctrinates students and is overly centered on the concept of white privilege as the cause of a number of societal ills (although there have been complaints by parents and students from other districts about the nature of similar curricula and how it is delivered).  I have linked Center for the American Experiment Fellow Katherine Kersten's article from last October once again as a frame of reference to one side of the complainants in this debate.

Racial identity policies are ruining Edina's fabled schools

Bill Introductions.

Senate

SF 3026--Goggin--Provides grants for water safety instruction.

SF 3030--Hoffman--Appropriates money for Girls in Action.

SF 3031--Hoffman--Requires child safety instruction.

SF 3038--Kent--Limits length of state assessments.

SF 3040--Housley--Increases transportation revenue.

SF 3049--P. Anderson--Clarifies qualified providers of mental health services for innovative mental health grants to intermediate school districts.

SF 3061--Hall--Requires posting of national motto "In God We Trust" in school buildings.

SF 3068--Ruud--Appropriates money for school safety audits.

SF 3085--Chamberlain--Clarifies responsibility for the transportation of certain homeless students.

SF 3086--Pratt--Governor's Education Policy Bill.

SF 3091--Cwodzinski--Requires reporting on civics test questions.

SF 3125--Dahms--Expands use of extended time revenue to pupils enrolled in career and technical education courses.

House

HF 3529--McDonald--Expands tax exemption for charter school property.

HF 3533--Haley--Amends safe schools revenue to include medication disposal costs.

HF 3540--Sandstede--Addresses school safety and student support.

HF 3544--Theis--Provides grants to water safety instruction.

HF 3545--Sundin--Requires child safety curriculum.

HF 3547--Kresha--Appropriates money for a teacher preparation program leading to a license to teach the blind or visually impaired.

HF 3586--Hamilton--Amends provisions related to absence from school for religious observance.

HF 3587--Peterson--Provides for nonexclusionary pupil disciplinary policies and practices.

HF 3588--Lueck--Appropriates money to the Legislative Coordinating Commission to study feasibility of a program to authorize school districts borrowing from the permanent school fund.

HF 3589--Urdahl--Requires reporting on civics test questions.

HF 3590--Lee--Clarifies definition of a teacher.

HF 3591--Dettmer--Increases transportation revenue for school districts.

HF 3592--Pugh--Authorizes a fund transfer for Minnetonka School District.