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:
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 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:
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.
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