Summer Bill Takes Its Next Step.  HF 1064--Governor Walz' "Summer Bill"--passed on the House floor today by a vote of 69-63.  When the bill was passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee last week on a bipartisan vote, there was conjecture that the floor vote would not be the almost strict party-line vote it turned out to be.  On the final vote, only one Republican--Dakota County Representative Pat Garofalo--crossed party lines by voting for the bill.  No DFLers voted against the bill.

One theme that will be a recurring one as this bill and, most likely, the omnibus education funding bills move forward is the distribution of revenue in the various Federal measures that have aimed to remedy education funding shortfalls resulting from the pandemic.  The Federal revenue is distributed first to states based on their national share of Title I revenue and then to individual districts based on their state share of Title I revenue.  This has led to an uneven distribution of benefits, much of which can be fairly easily justified as districts with higher levels of poverty and language barriers have faced additional challenges.  At the same time, an argument can be made that the fixed costs associated with reacting to the pandemic (delivering meals, building accommodations, personal protective equipment purchases) are similar across all districts and that the Federal dollars are not enough in many cases to fully reimburse districts that receive little Title I revenue for the costs they have incurred.  Two amendments that were offered, but defeated hit at this issue and while the "Summer" bill has moved on, it is likely that the dynamics around the distribution of Federal dollars will be revisited as the session continues.

 Floor Action!  The Senate plowed through four education-related bills today and if today's action is any indication of how things are going to unfold, it might get a little contentious as we wend our way through the remainder of the regular session.  One interesting indication today is that appears the Senate is intent on passing individual education policy bills instead of folding them into an omnibus bill.  There's no reason why the Senate couldn't include the four bills passed today in a later version of their omnibus bill, but passage today firmly states a Senate position on items that may (or may not) be in the House omnibus education funding and policy bill and can conceivably used in negotiations between the House and Senate as they work to reconcile the final education funding and policy package during conference committee.

Two of the bills--SF 710 (Duckworth) and SF 628 (Chamberlain)--had relatively smooth sailing, passing on votes of 65-0 and 57-8 respectively.  SF 710 would extend school districts' ability to move money between funds by board resolution, which is important in times of financial uncertainty for school districts and SF 628 would require the Minnesota Department of Education to develop a plan to administer the Minnesota Comprehensive Achievement tests to students this spring.  The other two bills--SF 819 (Dornink) and SF 438 (Chamberlain)--were subject to protracted debate and had much closer votes.  SF 819 passed on a 36-29 vote and SF 438 on a vote of 37-27.  The spirited debate and close vote on SF 438 were somewhat expected, as the bill seeks to delay the Minnesota Department of Education's standards review process; a process that has taken on heightened attention this year with discussion of new social studies standards.  The close vote on SF 819, while not entirely unexpected, is a bit of a puzzler as the bill simply creates a pilot program for short-call substitute teachers.  This bill was developed by staff in the Austin school district and it's a modest request that could reap big rewards for school districts throughout the state, but especially those in rural areas, where there are often shortages of people with bachelor's degrees.

It is unclear at this juncture if any of these items will appear on the House side.  The House Education Policy Committee did hear the House companion bill to SF 819 (HF 699--Mueller) after the first committee deadline, but given the close vote in the Senate that was along partisan lines, it may not make the cut in the House.

All in all, today was a preview of what should be a spirited sprint once the Legislature returns from its break for religious holiday observances on April 6.

Governor's Summer Bill Takes Another Step.  After passing out of the House Education Finance Committee yesterday, HF 1064--the Governor's "Summer" Bill--cleared another hurdle early this evening when it was passed by the House Ways and Means Committee on a bipartisan vote of 21-7.   The bill contains over $100 million in revenue aimed at providing a partial make-up of lost revenue due to smaller than anticipated enrollments, expanded summer school, early college for 2021 high school graduates, expanded mental health supports for students, and increased early childhood programs to prepare students for kindergarten.  While it has never been stated outwardly as a goal, it is believed that the House would like to pass this bill well before the end of session--hopefully no later than mid-April--to allow districts to implement their planned summer programs.  In my conversations, most districts have the planning process underway, but it is unclear how much revenue may come forth and in what form the revenue will come.  It's an understatement to say that the last two years have been extremely disruptive to the learning process and districts want to get recovery efforts underway and hopefully get everything set for the hoped-for "normal" opening of schools in September.  HF 1064 is expected to pass the House, but it faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, where the companion bill was heard in committee but no action was taken.

Senate Targets Released.  The Senate Majority Caucus released their budget targets for the 2021 session yesterday.  Their total budget comes in $500 million below the Governor Walz' budget recommendations, but one has to remember that the Governor does have tax increases and the Senate majority is seeking to provide tax changes that would exempt PPP loans and enhanced unemployment benefits from state income taxes.  It's difficult to discern the actual increases in some state budget areas because they are used biennium-over-biennium figures in their presentation, but the net increase for E-12 education appears to be in the neighborhood of $150 million.  We have yet to see the House budget targets to complete the three points of the target triangle, but those figures will likely be closer to the Governor's which will set up an interesting end of session.  With all of the Federal money flowing into the state from the various COVID responses, there will be sufficient revenue to meet most needs (and probably a lot of wants) for the immediate future, but trying to balance one-time revenues with on-going commitments is always a challenge even in the best and most predictable times.  Expect a roller coaster from now until the regular session curtain comes down on May 17.

Here is a link to the MPR story on the Republican budget targets:

Minnesota Senate Republicans counter Walz budget proposal

The Early Stages of Gelling.  The omnibus funding bill deadline is still a ways away, but with the passage of the first policy bill deadline, we're starting to see bills take shape, at least on the House side of the equation.  The Senate continues to hear bills that they will consider as part of their combined policy/funding bills that will be issued either right before or right after the religious observance break that takes place from Friday, March 26, through Monday, April 5.  The House Education Policy Committee heard three bills that were heard in the Senate prior to last Friday's first policy bill deadline.  Of the three bills, the ones most interesting to school districts are Representative Patricia Mueller's HF 699 that would create a pilot for short-term substitute teachers.  The bill's genesis is the Austin school district and it was great to see Austin school district staff testifying in favor of the bill.  The other bill of interest was HF 710, a bill authored by Representative Steve Sandell that would require PELSB to work with Minnesota's teacher preparation programs to make sure that all teacher licensure areas are covered.  This will likely require working agreements with teacher preparation programs in other states as not all licensure areas are currently covered by Minnesota teacher preparation programs.

The Senate ran through a series of bills in a rapid-fire fashion.  The highlights (or lowlights depending on your vantage point) were Senator Steve Cwodzinski's SF 240 that would require all Minnesota students to take a civics course in either their 11th or 12th grade years.  The bill was roundly praised and given the fact this provision is in the House omnibus education policy bill, the chances of it surviving the conference committee process and becoming law seem to be increasing.  It was really great to hear Senator Rosen's  SF 789 before the committee.  This bill is the brainchild of Fairmont Area Schools Superintendent Joe Brown who has worked on getting it passed for a number of years.  The bill would allow students to take career-technical courses outside regular school hours through a shared-time arrangements.  Superintendent Brown has consistently made the case that under current school schedules, students' ability to take career-technical courses are often constricted by other commitments.  Other bills included:  SF 1443 (Rosen), SF 1537 (Coleman), SF 1554 (Koran), and SF 1709 (Coleman).

Interesting Editorial.  Former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Eric Magnuson penned a very insightful editorial in this morning's Minneapolis StarTribune.  It's hard to believe that it has been almost 30 years since Skeen was decided and the state's education funding system was upheld.  It also needs to be pointed out that Magnuson was counsel for the intervenors in the case against the plaintiffs.  The plaintiffs, of course, were comprised of parents from SEE (then ASGSD) school districts.  All that said, Magnuson makes a number of strong points while arguing in favor of the proposed Constitutional amendment largely fashioned by former Supreme Court Justice Alan Page.  The piece highlights Page's dissent in Skeen, which in a very large sense underpins the foundation of the proposed amendment.

With no further adieu:  Minnesota schools must aim higher with the Page amendment

 Things are Starting to Heat Up.

With the first committee deadline looming, things have started to move along as committees begin focusing on the first big steps toward honing their legislative statements for the session.  It was a bit of a respite from hearing bills that will be acted upon as on Monday, the House Education Policy Committee heard HF 874 (Hassan), the proposed constitutional amendment that has been promoted by former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page and Minneapolis Federal Reserve Chair Neil Kashkari.  The only real surprise in the testimony came from a number of witnesses who home school their children.  I'm familiar with most of the arguments for and against the amendment, but there were several home school parents who believe that, if passed, the amendment would give the state the power to force their children out of their current home school arrangement and push them into other learning environments.  It's not an argument I had heard before and I'm not a lawyer, so I can't really comment on the validity of their stance.  It just seems very out of the ordinary.

While the constitutional amendment is controversial enough, it was merely a warm-up for the Senate Education Finance and Policy Committee later on Monday where Senator Roger Chamberlain's SF 1525 was heard.  SF 1525 promotes Education Savings Accounts which could be used for private school tuition.  The label on the initiative keeps changing, but the basic direction remains the same and the annual parade of testifiers looks remarkably the same year after year.  It was a spirited discussion and much of that discussion is centered on vastly different approaches to closing the achievement gap between white students and students of color.  Some believe that provide families greater control over their educational choices is the way to go, while others believe that the traditional system has not been given the level of support necessary to get to the heart of the challenges to higher achievement.

In some ways, these two hearings revolved around the same issue of how to close the achievement and opportunity gaps and it it fascinating to see how groups align when confronting these two initiatives.

House Omnibus Policy Bill Posted and Heard.  The House Education Policy Committee heard the committee's omnibus policy bill today.  The bill HF 1081 Delete-all Amendment (Richardson) is quite comprehensive and covers a lot of areas.  The two sets of provisions that are the highest profile are the proposed changes to pupil dismissal and the tiered-licensure program overseen by PELSB.  That wasn't the issue that elicited the greatest reaction from witnesses.  Much of the testimony for or against provisions of the bill came from familiar quarters, but as in the case of the constitutional amendment, there was a stream of home school parents who object to language in the bill that would require home schoolers to report their children's test scores to the state.  About a decade ago, reporting requirements for home schoolers were greatly streamlined and while not marking a full return to the days when home schooling was more carefully monitored, it is a change that is being viewed as an intrusion on the rights of the home school families.  The bill will be fully discussed on Friday and a number of amendments will be offered.  The bill is longer than I anticipated it would be when the session began, but even with the challenges of "virtual" legislating, a number of ambitious proposals came forward on a broad range of education issues--increasing the number of teachers of color, tiered licensure, school discipline--that have been incorporated into this bill.  The Senate omnibus education policy bill, which will be unveiled tomorrow, will also be discussed in committee on Friday.

Equalization Day.  The Senate Education Finance and Policy Committee heard Senator Roger Chamberlain's SF 626 today and along with South St. Paul superintendent Dave Webb, I got to testify in favor of the bill.  While not as big a proposal in terms of size as the Governor's equalization proposal, it does devote $25 million in equalization aid to making the voter-approved referendum levy more fair.  The Governor's primary concentration is on bringing greater equalization to the local option revenue, which is more general property tax relief across a broader set of districts.  Senator Chamberlain wants to target relief to those districts that have already passed voter-approved levies beyond the $724 per pupil unit in local option revenue.  Senator Chamberlain is a strong supporter of property tax fairness and I believe there will be an expression of that support in either the Senate omnibus education bill or the Senate omnibus tax bill.  

The House Education Policy Committee spent most of its hearing on HF 1376, a bill that would overhaul the tiered licensure framework that was passed by the Legislature in 2017 and was phased in over the next year.  There are considerable changes proposed in the bill and there was a considerable amount of pushback from several witnesses--mainly Tier 1 and Tier 2 teachers--who believe the bill would preclude them from continuing to work as a teacher.  It was also argued that the bill could exacerbate the current teacher shortage.  I have posted the summary below.  The teacher licensure changes begin on page 4 (Section 24).

Bill Summary--HF 1376