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