First Week in the Books.  The 2020 Legislative Session began on Tuesday, February 11, and while things aren't off to a rollicking start (I expect the rollicking to begin shortly), the differing priorities between the two legislative bodies are taking shape.  It's difficult to know where these lines will land in terms of the K-12 portion of the budget, but the House of Representatives has proposed a significant investment in early childhood education with $190 earmarked for scholarships for children between the ages of 0 and 3 and another $22 million in one-time money for child care provider support.  The proposal also calls for a continuation of the 4,000 pre-kindergarten slots funding through the School Readiness Plus program, which costs an additional $60 million.  There's no word yet on how the Senate will react to this proposal, but there have been no indications that this will be a high priority in the Senate, where the proposed income tax cut on Social Security benefits looks to be taking center stage.

Here are two MPR articles on the House Early Education proposal:

MN House Democrats seek more early childhood funding (MPR, 2/6)

House Democrats want to spend surplus on early childhood (MPR, 2/13)

Here is a link to the Senate's Priority List.  The story is more than a month old and the only education item mentioned is that of Opportunity Scholarships:

Minnesota Senate GOP rolls out its 2020 agenda (StarTribune, 1/13)

Item of Conversation #1.  While talk at the Legislature regarding the proposed constitutional amendment being aggressively advocated by Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neil Kashkari and retired Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page hasn't picked up yet, it will likely enter the debate at some juncture.  As mentioned in the article linked above outlining the priorities of the Minnesota Senate majority, this item was absent from their to-do list.  Majority Leader Gazelka's early skepticism has waned a bit, but it still likely faces an uphill battle on that side of the legislative street (not that it will be any less steep in the House's wing of the Capitol).  But that doesn't mean there hasn't been activity on the part of the proponents.  Both President Kashkari and Justice Page have been making the rounds in the Minnesota Senate Building and the State Office Building and that will likely continue up until the committee deadlines (and perhaps beyond).

Here are links to two recent articles regarding the effort:

Minnesota business leaders launch push for constitutional amendment on education (StarTribune, 2/11)

What’s happening with the Page-Kashkari proposal for a constitutional right to ‘quality public education’ (MinnPost, 2/14)

Stay tuned on this one.

Item of Conversation #2 (Civics, Civics, Civics).  One education area that will be discussed is that of civics.  Much has been said about the lack of basic knowledge of government and political life exhibited by today's high school students and that will also enter into the discussion this session.  The Senate Education Funding and Policy Committee held a hearing the week before session and took testimony from nearly 20 citizen groups outlining their concerns about the state of civics education in Minnesota (and the rest of the country).  Minnesota currently requires that students take the 50 question citizenship test, but passing it is not a requirement for graduation.  Legislation has been introduced that would not change that, but would require districts to report the percentage of students that passed the test.  Senate Education Funding and Policy Chair Carla Nelson is the author of the Senate bill that was introduced on Thursday (Representative Dean Urdahl is the House author of the yet-to-be-introduced bill in the House), so the bill is likely to be heard.

Here is a link to the bill:  SF 2964

Below is an editorial from the StarTribune regarding the bill and their take on the state of civics education in Minnesota.

Legislature should make civics education a priority for schools

Equalization Bill Introduced.  HF 3171--SEE's 2020 Equalization Bill--has been introduced.  The House author is Representative John Huot, who represents the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district.  Senator Carla Nelson will be carrying the Senate companion, which will likely be introduced on Thursday, February 20.

The mechanics of the bill are straightforward.  The equalization factor was increased last session for taxes payable in 2020 and HF 3171 would increase it further and then index the equalizing factor to 125% of the statewide average referendum market value per resident pupil unit.  The cost of the bill is $40 million per year in property tax relief to districts with referendum market value per resident pupil unit of 125% of the statewide average.  Currently, 125% of the statewide average is approximately $750,000 of referendum market value per resident pupil unit.

Here is a link to HF 3171:  HF 3171