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.