Round Up from Last Week and Monday Report.  The House Education Finance Committee heard HF 4 (Hassan), the bill that would appropriate $118 million in programs to help make up for the revenue loss resulting from the loss of student enrollment due to COVID-19.  I was a bit surprised that the hold harmless on general education revenue (achieved by allowing districts to use the greater of their 2019-2020 student enrollment pr 2020-2021 student enrollment).  The remainder of the revenue would be dedicated to increased extended time revenue, special education revenue, grants for professional development aimed at reducing student trauma, grants to help establish full-service community schools, and appropriations for the Reading Corps and the Math Corps.  The committee heard the bill, but did not take further action.  There are some adjustments that need to be made to the language, but I expect the bill to be play a role in the House's response to the adverse effects COVID-19 has had on school districts throughout the state.

The House Education Policy Committee devoted its hearing today to the education-related recommendations of last interim's House Select Committee on Racial Justice.  Those recommendations can be found on pages 40 and 41 of the final report of the committee issued in December, 2020.

House Select Committee on Racial Justice Report and Recommendations 

The hearing featured testimony from a variety of interest.  Former Minnesota Court Justice Alan Page was a featured witness and he again stressed his stance that the constitutional amendment that he and Minneapolis Federal Reserve Chairman Neil Kashkari needs to play a central role in any approach to bringing greater racial justice to Minnesota.  While it wasn't discussed today, others believe that while education is important, there are other factors--housing, access to quality medical care, police reform--that loom as large, if not larger, than education if true progress on this issue is to be realized.  The question that arises "Is this an either/or or a both/and proposition?"  My guess is it's more a both/and, but with limited resources the question will be in determining the final mix of proposed solutions.  Working on this issue is one of the House's top--and maybe the top--priority during the 2021 session, so we will likely have a better idea as the session wears on.

The Senate E-12 Finance and Policy Committee tackled four bills today and it flew right through them.  The first was SF 190, which would allow a single district to establish an area learning center instead of being required to form it as a cooperative with other school districts.  Currently, Minneapolis and St. Paul are the only districts that can form an area learning center on their own and SF 190 would expand it to all districts.  It would certainly make sense for large suburban districts to be able to share this ability.  

Senator Clausen's SF 147 was also heard this afternoon.  SF 147 would remove the requirement that school districts annually report information for all probationary teachers in the district who were not renewed including the teacher’s licensure area and the teacher preparation program that prepared the teacher.  There was some pushback on this proposal from groups that believe the requirement provides transparency, but many believe that the report is irrelevant as most probationary teachers are not renewed due to budget constraints and not due to training or performance concerns.

The final bill was Senator Dahms' SF 389.  SF 389 would allow member districts of a cooperative unit to use their long term facilities maintenance revenue for costs associated with facilities maintenance at a cooperative unit.  This change to the law would create greater statewide equity in terms of facilities maintenance.