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