Logjam Breaking?  When I was pondering what to photo to post as a description of today's legislative activity, I thought of this:

But then the afternoon came and indications are that there will be movement on the part of the Legislature and it will be coming soon.  At a 4:15 press conference, legislative leadership outlined the framework of their proposal to the Governor and provided a rough vision of how they will be proceeding from this point forward.  Legislative leadership made it clear that negotiations with the Governor are on-going in hopes that agreements can be reached in the next day that will be agreed to by all parties.  The biggest concession made by the Legislature is in their decision to shave their tax cut proposal by nearly half a billion dollars down to $660 million.  The E-12 target mentioned at the press conference was $467 million, $164 million more than what was in the bill vetoed by the Governor earlier in the session.  A target of $467 million would accommodate a 2% increase on the basic formula in each of the next two years with approximately $90 million left for other initiatives.  Hopefully, the Legislature and the Governor will come to an agreement on helping correct the projected problems with the Teacher Retirement Association outside of the education budget, but the Governor did include $69 million in his budget for that purpose.  There wouldn't be room for much more and it would probably mean a stalemate on early education initiatives.  Too early to tell however.

A point of contention--and it's a pretty big point--is how policy will be handled in the coming negotiations.  The Governor has made it clear he is not particularly interested in policy changes and wants to basically stick to numbers.  The Legislature has a number of initiatives--both inside and outside the education realm--they would like to pass before the session ends.  The biggest education policy initiative pushed by the Legislature has been the teacher licensing changes in HF 140, which was vetoed by the Governor on Thursday.  It will be interesting to see how that issue is handled.  It is doubtful that there would be enough votes to override a gubernatorial veto (takes 91 votes in the House and 45 in the Senate), which would mean the language would have to be incorporated into whatever omnibus education bill that the Legislature would fashion.  Word on the street is the Governor would agree to the teacher licensure changes with a couple changes to the bill, but the mechanics could of getting this all to fit in the next three days could be tricky.

For your musical enjoyment, here's an oldie but goody that will describe the next three days because it's going to be a long train runnin'.  Lots of cars and lots of miles to be covered in 72 hours.

Be prepared for updates!

Governor Vetoes Teacher Licensure Bill.  It's hard to say whether it was a surprise or not.  The debate on HF 140--the bill that would create the Professional Educators Licensing and Standards Board and a new tiered-licensure framework for Minnesota teachers--seemed to indicate that there were concerns with the bill from the DFL side and it was never clear if the Commissioner of Education had endorsed the bill.  There will be charges and counter-charges about that, but the bottom line is the Governor vetoed the bill.  Needless to say, the bill's chief authors--Representative Sondra Erickson and Senator Eric Prattt--are not pleased with this outcome and see it as a needless injection of partisan flavor into a non-partisan bill.  The votes in the House have always been pretty much along party lines, but the bill passed the Senate with a number of DFL votes on its original passage prior to the conference committee proceedings.  That number was cut by 5 as the number of DFLers supporting the bill dropped from 7 to 2 on the vote that approved the conference committee report.

Here's the WCCO story on the veto:  Dayton Vetoes Teacher Licensing Overhaul Bill

StarTribune Story:    Education veto, spending disputes mark Legislature's fifth-to-last day

I was trying to a story with quotes from the bill's authors responding to the veto, but the video from the press conference on the House of Representatives media page won't download, so here is a piece from the Senate Republican Caucus homepage that contains quotes from Representative Erickson and Senator Pratt.

Link:  Governor vetoes bipartisan teacher licensure reform bill

Budget Negotiations on a Glacial Pace.  The last few days are looking pretty much like what everyone would have liked to avoid coming into the 2017 session.  With just under 100 hours left before the regular session is required to end, things seem to be at a standstill and it's difficult to know if anyone will blink and if someone blinks, who will blink first.  As in the case of most budget negotiations, the parameters of the discussion are taking up a lot of the discussion.  The Governor contends he is meeting folks halfway; the Legislature disagrees.  The Governor wants bills with little or no policy included; the Legislature disagrees.  One would think there would be a happy (or even an unhappy) medium, but it has yet to be found.  There has been some movement on the second-tier budget bills, but agreement on the big five--taxes, E-12, state departments, transportation, and bonding--likely won't take place until the weekend.

I always like to post a song that describes what's happening in an off-hand (but hopefully respectful) way and the only thing I would come up with today is the Stylistics "Make Up to Break Up," which portrays the yo-yo we are on.  In the morning, there's optimism, but as the day wears on, negotiations seem to break down.  So let's go old school tonight and relax to one of the great Slow Jams of the 1970s (and forget that the special session in 1971--two years before this song was released--last until October).

Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board Conference Committee Report Passes Legislature; On Way to the Governor.  Both the House and Senate passed HF 140 today on almost straight party-line votes.  I haven't seen the actual roll calls, but it appears that no DFLers voted for the conference committee report in the House and only 2 DFLers voted for the bill in the Senate.  The primary complaint of the DFLers centers around the Tier 1 License category in the proposed tiered licensure framework.  While someone with that license needs a bachelor's degree to teach an academic subject and an associate's degree or industry certification (and five years experience) to teach a career and technical education course, the concern expressed by those who oppose the bill believe that this waters down standards.  There is also some concern about the Tier 3 License as it relates to teachers coming from other states.  The final vote in the House was 76-54 and the vote in the Senate was 36-31.  It will now head to the Governor and it is unclear what he will do with the bill.  The administration has voiced concerns at several junctures in the negotiations, but most were under the impression that those concerns had been assuaged with changes made to the bill during the conference committee proceedings.  That assumption may be in error, however, as a number of DFLers pointed out in their comments today that the administration had not signed off on the bill.  I guess we will wait and see.  It could certainly be a bargaining chip of sorts as the big ticket items are discussed in the coming days.

Here is a link to the conference committee language that was passed today:  HF 140

Negotiations are On!  The Agriculture bill has been agreed to by all parties and that will probably be cleared off the floor tomorrow or Thursday, but that was the smallest of the budget bills and is not controversial.  We'll see how things go from here because until the big furniture comes out of the truck, it's anyone guess as to the timeline for finishing.

In the musical vein, let's hope that the negotiations go like this:

And not like this:

Until tomorrow's update, I'll be watching things unfold.

Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board Conference Committee Completed.  The conference committee on HF 140--the bill that would create the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board and implement a tiered-licensure framework for Minnesota teacher licenses--completed its work this morning and will now head to the House floor tomorrow.  There weren't a lot of changes made to the bill.  The House's recommendation of an 11-member board prevailed instead of the Senate's nine-member board, but the board's majority will be composed of teachers.  In addition to the six teachers, there will be one superintendent, one principal, one human resources director, one intermediate district or cooperative director, and one member of the general public.  There was late agreement reached on the definition of the Tier 1 license; the new license category that caused the most consternation.  That amendment was added today, so it is not reflected in the document that I have linked below.

One item that hasn't received a lot of attention but is absolutely crucial is the decision by the conference committee to include language that would eliminate the requirement that teachers holding the Academic and Behavioral Specialist (ABS) special education license return to school to receive an "anchor" license in a specific disability category in order to retain their ABS license.  This unnecessary requirement threatened to chase a lot of young teachers out of the profession as the cost of obtaining an additional license could prove to be prohibitive.  The conference committee report also calls for a study of Minnesota's special education licensure framework in hopes of finding ways to provide districts with greater flexibility while maintaining high quality services to children with disabilities.

Here is a link to the bill's language before four amendments were added today.  The amendment that was most substantive pertains to the Tier 1 license.  I will post the final report when it becomes available.

In the meantime, here is the language for the remainder of the legislation:  HF 140 Base Language

The Big Picture.  The Governor stated today that he wants little, if any, policy in the final budget agreement.  There is not a lot of policy in the E-12 bill, but several other omnibus funding bills have a number of policy changes that the Governor opposes.  Negotiations will be resuming tomorrow as Tim Pugmire has reported on the MPR website.  Here is a link to that article:  Dayton, GOP set to resume budget talks

Here's a story from Brian Bakst on what to look for in the last week of the session:  Big bills, little time: what to watch for in the session's last week

More '80's Music!  There is the dancing of politics, and then there's "The Politics of Dancing" by the band Re-Flex (not to be confused with the song "The Reflex" by Duran Duran) from 1984.  Classic dance groove by a band with some big-time mullets.

196 Hours Left to Go (As I Write This).  We are heading into the home stretch of the 2017 regular legislative session and it's difficult to tell whether a deal will be struck to put the session to bed on schedule.  I think the prospects are actually pretty good that an agreement can be reached on the money side of things.  Most observers believe the tax bill will come down in size and that spending will go up in a number of the budget bills.  Transportation looks to be the biggest hurdle in that department as bridging the funding gap is as much about methods of funding as amount of funding.  Bonding will also present a considerable challenge.  I don't want to make this sound like this is going to be the proverbial walk in the park with everything tied up with a neat bow by next Monday evening, but wider chasms have been closed over the years.  I think the big advantage is that the Legislature did pass its funding bills early this year and even with the expected veto of all of them, there's still a fair amount of time to get things done.  Will everyone be satisfied with the results?  I can't believe I just asked that question.  This could be a session when everyone goes home a bit on the dissatisfied side of things.

TRA Update.  The TRA fix was pulled out of the pension bill on Thursday, but that doesn't mean it is dead by any stretch of the imagination.  Chief author Senator Julie Rosen moved to take the provision out of the omnibus pension bill in the Senate Finance Committee with the intent of working on a solution with Senator Sandy Pappas and attaching that solution to the omnibus pension bill on the Senate floor early in the week.  The provision in the Senate bill called for an increased employee contribution in addition to an increased employer contribution and a permanent downward adjustment in the COLA for TRA pensions.  The recommendation brought forward by TRA had no increase in the employee contribution and a five-year reduction in the COLA after which it would go up again.  One thing to watch on this issue is where the money will come from.  There is concern that the employer share would come from the E-12 target and could possibly impinge on the ability to increase the basic formula any further than it is in the current legislative package (1.5% per year).  The Governor did have $69 million over the biennium to cover a portion of the increased employer share along with a 2% increase in the basic formula over the next two years, but it's important to remember he made those recommendations within a $700 million-plus budget target and we likely won't reach that level of spending for E-12 in the final budget negotiations.  So, 

There Will Be Rumors!  The next week with be a rumor-o-rama and in that spirit, let's go back to the 1980s and listen to that awesome hit by Banarama "I Heard a Rumor."  What a song!  Rest assured, I will keep you in my circle of trust as the rumors began to bounce around.

Teacher Licensure Conference Committee Meets.  The conference committee on HF 140--the bill that would create the new Professional Educators Licensing and Standards Board--met briefly this morning, largely to take testimony from stakeholders on elements in each bill that they either liked or found concerning.  Action on the bill is not imminent and there is concern both from Education Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Education about the proposed Tier 1 license that would open up eligibility to teach for a number of candidates without a teaching license (and in some cases without a baccalaureate degree).  For my part, I voiced support for the provision in the Senate bill that would eliminate the requirement that teachers holding an Academic and Behavioral Strategist (ABS) license obtain an anchor license in a disability category by the five-year mark in their teaching career in order to retain the ABS license.  I also mentioned the Senate provision that would study the Minnesota's current array of special education licenses and find ways to create greater flexibility while ensuring teachers are receiving the training they need to effectively meet the needs of students with barriers to learning.

Not much else happened today.  A member of the Senate majority had a family emergency and with their one-vote margin eliminated, passing any major budget or tax legislation would have been impossible without getting a vote from the minority.  Put bluntly, impossible.  Bills will be moving off the Senate floor shortly and to the Governor for his promised veto.  When the dust settles, we'll have a week to put everything to bed, but there's no assurance that we'll get things to bed or that they won't wake up after they are put there.

Some finger-pointing and invective have made their way into the fray, so I urge everyone to relax and listen to this golden oldie from Kris Kristofferson and his drawling baritone on "Who's to Bless and Who's to Blame."  It kind of sums up the feeling around the Capitol these days and who one blesses or blames will likely depend on the color of your jersey, but just lie back and enjoy.  Anyway, did you know Kristofferson was a Rhodes Scholar, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an Army helicopter pilot who successfully completed Ranger training?  Well, now you do.

We Are At Loggerheads.  Any trace of optimism that was present last week has evaporated over the past 24 hours with the Legislature's decision to pass its conference committee reports and send them to the Governor for what is expected to be a rapid-fire series of vetoes.  

I don't know how many of you follow baseball that closely, but one element of hitting that is now measured is exit velocity, which clocks the speed of the ball off of the bat when a hitter successfully makes contact. In a tortured analogy, the Legislature will be tossing some pitches at the Governor and those pitches will come flying back through the box at record speed when the Governor swings his veto bat.  While that doesn't put us back at square one, it certainly does absorb time (and perhaps good feelings) and with less than two weeks left in the regular session, this development is unfortunate.

So now we enter into the next phase of what was expected all session:  a funding and policy tug-of-war.  It is difficult to know exactly how budget negotiations will ensue.  Some discussions took place over the weekend, but the process obviously didn't go that well, which influenced the Legislature's actions.  If one is dispassionate, it is easy to see where the compromises will be struck.  The size of the Legislature's proposed tax cut will likely come down and the spending for a variety of the budget areas will likely go up.  The pertinent question is to what degree both of those gears will turn as the Legislature and Governor try to come to final agreements prior to the May 22 regular session adjournment date.

As the tax bill was woken up (and quickly put back to bed) this morning, there was a change to the debt service provision that is part of the Legislature's tax proposal.  When the report was first adopted last week, the debt service equalization was a one-year provision that lowered the eligibility threshold for the program to 10% of tax effort and hiked the state participation rate on the first tier of equalization to 87% of the state average ANTC.  The change made to the bill would expand it to a two-year program, with the eligibility threshold staying at 10% of tax effort and the state participation rate set at 75% of the state average ANTC.  The framework in the conference committee report reflects the framework in the Senate bill with an extra year added.  I think I speak for everyone when I say that I hope the provision is made permanent as discussions on the tax bill continue in negotiations with the Governor.  While the legislative approach concentrates on delivering the relief through the first tier of equalization and the Governor targets his relief on the second tier, there is room for an agreement.  What the heck, I say add the two approaches together.  I'll even print the money needed in my basement if it comes to that.  Seriously, we're on the cusp of getting a considerable increase in debt service equalization for the first time in over two decades, so it's up to us to help push it through and make it permanent.

As I am writing this entry, the Senate has passed the E-12 conference committee report on a party-line vote of 34-32.  Earlier in the evening, the House passed the report on a vote of 75-54, which also followed party lines.

I will keep you posted as to what is happening as things unfold.

What is Up at the Legislature Today?  Try to figure this one out.

Stumped?  The Capital Investments (Bonding) conference committee is slated to be approve its "Bond" "ING" "Bill" agreement this afternoon.  Here is the link to the bill for those of you who are interested.  Capital Investment Committee Page.  Documents are in the right-hand column under the upcoming meetings header.

No news on the education front.  I am expecting that the conference committee on the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board will meet later this week to iron out differences that exist between the bills and assuage concerns expressed by the Commissioner of Education.  

Soup's On!

In the spirit of my earlier post today, we have been served our soup.  Some will say it's a delicious potage with an alluring aroma.  Others will say it's pretty thin broth.  What folks think right at this moment doesn't matter a whole lot, because this is what the Legislature has constructed and we now wait upon the Governor's response.

It is unclear what the Legislature's approach will be at this point.  Earlier in the week, it appeared that the Legislature would come together with agreements on the tax and budget bills by today (and for the most part, they have), pass them to the Governor, and await his likely veto.  I don't know how many of you follow the growing deep stats movement in baseball, but there is now a measurement labelled exit velocity, which measures the speed of the ball off the bat.  From all indications, if the Legislature pitched these bills to the Governor, the exit velocity on the veto would approach the speed of light.  Today, it appears the Legislature is trying to engage the Governor in serious budget talks before they pass the bills in hopes of striking a grand bargain that will bring the 2017 regular session to a close by its constitutionally-mandated adjournment date of 11:59:59.99 PM on Monday, March 22, and eliminate the need for a special session.

Here are the highlights (or lowlights depending on your vantage point) of the bill:

• $303 million overall budget target, which is slightly above the Senate's $300 million budget target and the House's target in the $280 million range.
• 1.5% increase in the basic formula in each year of the biennium.  Amounts are $6,158 per pupil unit for 2017-18 and $6,249 per pupil unit for 2018-19.
• Repeal of Governor's voluntary pre-kindergarten program.  Current participants are held harmless permanently with an increase in the school readiness formula attributable to their district to replace loss of revenue due to drop in pupil unit numbers.
• $19 million increase in early childhood scholarship program.
• Closing of Perpich Center for Arts Education.
• $4.9 million biennial cut to the Minnesota Department of Education.
• $3 million cut in ACT reimbursement program.
• Grants, grants, grants, including:

1. $250,000 for summer agricultural education programs.
2. $500,000 for Rock 'n' Read.
3. $500,000 ($250,000 per year) for AP/IB STEM programs.
4. $750,000 for Alternative Teacher Preparation.
5. $3 million for Rural Career and Technical Education Pilot.
6. $1 million for the Sanneh Foundation.
7. $4.9 million for mental health grants to the intermediate districts.
8. $1.1 million for the parent-child home visiting program.
9. $500,000 for teacher shortage loan forgiveness.
10. $960,000 for the expansion of education partnerships.

And more.

More important than what is in the bill is what is missing from the Governor's budget recommendations.  I've already talked about the repeal of the voluntary pre-kindergarten program, but the Governor was asking for an increase of nearly $160 million in the program.

Other Governor's initiatives not pursued include:

• A one-half percentage point difference in the Governor's recommendation for the basic formula increase and what the Legislature is proposing.
• $69 million to school districts to help rectify the shortfall in the Teachers Retirement Association pension fund.
• The $40 million the Governor had added to special education formula.

Here is the link to the House committee page that contains the conference committee report and the spreadsheets associated with the bill.  House Education Funding Committee Page.  The links to the documents are found on the Upcoming Meetings section on the far right column of the page.

Where things go from here is anyone's guess.  Much will depend on if and when the Governor becomes directly involved in the budget negotiations.  That could happen as early as tomorrow.  I will let everyone know as soon as I do.

Still Waiting.

I took this selfie in the committee room waiting for the conference committee to return.  I was clean-shaven this morning.  Man, I'm starting to look like Henrik Ibsen!

Seriously, conference committee is reportedly wrapped up and bill is being constructed.  Having been involved in the construction of a bill of this size earlier in my career, it requires pain-staking attention to detail so it's no surprise that it is taking a bit longer than expected.  Conference committee is slated to convene at 5 PM.  I will report on the contents of the bill as soon as they become available.

Stay tuned.

We're in Line, but . . .

With apologies in advance to the education conference committee members and everyone laboring devotedly on the E-12 funding and policy bill, I couldn't resist putting up this little video.  It won't be a year (as in the video), but it looks like another hour or so before the conference committee will convene and we anxious types get our soup.  Until then, uh, all you Seinfeld fans know the line.

Thanks to the legislators and staff who are working diligently on this bill.

Feats of Daring and Agility.  It's that time of the legislative session when one wonders whether the apt analogy would be:

Balancing Plates

Or

Juggling Chainsaws

There is a lot going on and with three weeks to go in the 2017 regular legislative session there needs to be a lot going on.  The legislature is doing a good job of getting its initial entrees to the Governor ready, but all indications are that the Governor is going to veto almost all, if not all, of the budget-related bills and the tax bill.

Monday began with a discussion of the Senate and House versions of HF 140, the bill that would create the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board and the tiered licensure framework that would clarify the requirements to be a classroom teacher in Minnesota and the training necessary for those who hold a license in one of the tiers to retain a Minnesota teaching license.  Testimony was taken from Minnesota Commissioner of Education Brenda Cassellius, current Board of Teaching Executive Director Erin Doan, and Nels Onsted and Debbie O'Dell from the Minnesota Department of Education Licensing Division.

There is bipartisan support for this bill, but questions remain about tier one licenses, which would not require a bachelor's degree under the bill and the timeline for transferring the current duties split between the Board of Teaching and the Minnesota Department of Education to the new board.

The E-12 budget and policy conference committee was slated to meet this afternoon, but did not meet.  Instead, the conference committee will meet tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 10 AM.

The tax conference committee did meet and they have released the framework of their bill.  The documents can be found here.  Go to the right hand column under attachments to view the spreadsheet and the bill language:  HF 4 Documents

There is good news in the tax bill for low property wealth school districts and districts with high concentrations of agricultural property.  The Ag Bond Credit that has been part of the last two tax bills (both vetoed) is in the bill once again.  Under this provision, 40% of the property taxes on agricultural property attributable to local school district debt service is reduced through a direct-to-taxpayer tax credit.  The other provision that is helpful is an increase in the debt service equalization program.  There is good news and bad news here.  The good news is it provides approximately $30 million in property tax relief to low property wealth school districts.  The bad news is that it is a one-year provision. 

There is a difference between the Governor's approach on debt service and the Legislature's.  The Governor works from the top down by reducing the second tier eligibility level, making more of the debt service levy in districts with high levels of debt service effort subject to the higher second tier equalizing factor and delivering tax relief to those districts.  The legislative approach drops the first tier eligibility threshold and hikes the equalizing factor on the first tier.  This makes more districts eligible to receive assistance through the program while still delivering considerable relief to districts with high levels of tax effort.

I'll be back tomorrow with another update.  Things should be moving fast on the budget bills.  It is still unclear whether the Legislature will send the Governor bills and have them vetoed or if the Governor will enter into direct negotiations this week in hopes of striking a broad agreement on tax and budget issues.  Stay tuned. 

Error!  When I was a mere lad on the baseball field, if I committed a fielding miscue, I would always stare at my glove as if to blame it for my meager abilities on the diamond.  I would blame my calculator for not getting the conference committee E-12 target correct, but I'm afraid it was the operator who was going too fast and not checking his work.  It appears that the E-12 target for the conference committee is the $300 million proposed by the Senate and not the $256 million I stated yesterday.  That target still doesn't get us to 2% and 2% increases on the basic formula and it will be interesting to see how the money shakes out.  We will know later this afternoon when the conference committee meets and it may be that the entire bill is rolled out at that point.  Stay tuned.  In the meantime, here's a video that encapsulates my feelings about my miscue.

Let the Games Begin!  Well, hardly games, but let's say gamesmanship.  The Legislature announced its budget targets on Friday and they are vastly different in terms of amounts and priorities than what the Governor proposed.  The big sticking point will be the amount of revenue the Legislature has earmarked for tax cuts, which is their top priority with a price tag of $1.15 billion.  The E-12 budget target comes in at $1.14 billion, but remember that includes the $884 million that is part of the biennium-to-biennium base increases which are automatic and stem from pupil growth, an increase in the special education base due to the inflator in the formula, and the full phase-in of the Long Term Facilities Maintenance Revenue Program.  From this calculation, it would appear that the "above base" budget target for the E-12 conference committee is $256 million, which is closer to the House target than the Senate's.  What this will mean in actual program changes is anyone's guess, but one cannot get to the 1.5% increase in each year of the coming biennium proposed in the Senate bill with this target without greatly reducing revenue from some other program.

The E-12 conference committee will be meeting tomorrow (Monday) at 3 PM and I would guess that the conference committee will conclude its work in the next day or so.  It is hoped that all of the budget and tax bills will reach the Governor by the end of the week for their likely veto.  If that is indeed the course of events, negotiations with the Governor will begin in earnest by the end of the week and if there is a stare-down, we may be at this beyond the May 22 constitutionally-mandated adjournment date for the regular session.

Here is a story from the House information web site regarding the legislative budget targets.  The article contains links to the press conferences by the majority and minority caucuses:

House, Senate agree to budget targets — now seek common ground with governor

Here is an MPR story that outlines the Governor's concerns over the size of the tax cut:

Politics Friday: Dayton says GOP plan cuts too much in taxes

The conference committee on the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board will begin its proceedings tomorrow (Monday) morning.  There is not a great deal of difference in the versions of the bill and that conference committee may wrap up its work with great dispatch.  One of the reasons (and this is conjecture, but a lot is conjecture at this point so I'm just joining the party) this bill is having a separate conference committee instead of being folded into the E-12 conference committee is that if there is a break down in the budget negotiations, this bill will still be able to pass and (hopefully) become law.

So, in the spirit of the upcoming chain of events, here's some inspiring music for some Olympic-sized negotiations.

Shifting Gears.  No meeting of the E-12 conference committee today, but there has been a bit of a change in how things will unfold from this point forward in the education realm.  HF 140/SF 4--the bill that would establish the Professional Educators Licensing and Standards Board--will now travel separately and will not be a part of the negotiations over the remainder of E-12 funding and policy.  The Senate had folded this legislation into its version of the omnibus E-12 funding and policy bill while the House did not.  Last week, the decision was made for the Senate to pass its version of the bill separately (the House had passed it last month).  There are enough differences in the bills so that there will be a conference committee that will likely begin its work next week.

The E-12 conference committee is slated to meet tomorrow at 1 PM in Room 200 of the State Office Building.

In other news, Representative Jenifer Loon, chair of the House Education Funding Committee, held a press conference today to tout the House's position on early childhood scholarships.

Here is the video of that press conference.

Link:  Representative Loon Early Childhood Scholarship Program

The Race is On.  Conference committee season kicked off today and there was a lot of presentation of side-by-side comparisons between the House and Senate bills across a broad range of tax and budget areas.  The E-12 budget and conference committee included testimony from Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius.  Her main messages were:  (1) the legislative budget target is way too low to provide Minnesota families and school districts what they need, and (2) the decision by the House to repeal the Governor's voluntary all-day pre-kindergarten program is unwise and would unfairly penalize those districts currently participating in the program.  It should make for a spirited discussion as the conference committee puts together its bill to send to the Governor.  It will be interesting to see if the Legislature sends bills to the Governor and have them meet a likely veto or begin their negotiations in earnest with the Governor prior to the bills reaching the legislative floor.

The tax committee did not take testimony, but made it through most of the side-by-side comparison.  The sheer size and scope of the tax bill requires a lot of time to present.

Both conference committees are slated to meet again tomorrow.  The E-12 conference committee will be discussing the teacher licensing changes that emanate from the legislative task force that met last summer while the tax conferees will continue working through their side-by-side comparison.

In keeping with today's title, here's the late great George Jones singing one of his biggest hits:

We Have Lift-Off.  The conference committees for the E-12 and Tax bills have been named and I'm relatively certain that the e-mail inboxes of the members named to these bodies are going to be chock full of messages for the next couple of weeks (including a few from me so I'm hoping their spam filter has been suitably relaxed).  It will likely be a hectic couple of weeks because I'm guessing that the Legislature would like to get all the spending bills to the Governor with at least two weeks left before the regular session's Constitutionally-mandated adjournment date of May 22.

Here are the members of each of the conference committees.  I have made their name into a hyperlink that connects to their legislative page, which includes contact information.

HF 890--Omnibus E-12 Funding and Policy Bill

House Members

Representative Jenifer Loon

Representative Sondra Erickson

Representative Peggy Bennett

Representative Ron Kresha

Representative Mary Murphy

Senate Members

Senator Carla Nelson

Senator Eric Pratt

Senator Justin Eichorn

Senator Bill Weber

Senator Chuck Wiger

HF 4--Omnibus Tax Bill

House Members

Representative Greg Davids

Representative Steve Drazkowski

Representative Joe McDonald

Representative Jerry Hertaus

Representative Paul Marquart

Senate Members

Senator Roger Chamberlain

Senator Gary Dahms

Senator Jeremy Miller

Senator David Senjem

Senator Ann Rest

And so, we have lift-off.  I'll be in my orbiter circling both of these conference committees.  I urge all SEE members to contact the members of these conference committees with polite messages supporting education funding adequacy and taxpayer fairness.  

Legislature Returns.  After a ten-day break, the Legislature will be returning to St. Paul tomorrow and it promises to be a hectic couple of weeks as conference committees will be appointed and convened for the tax bill and all of the budget bills.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes to wrap up the conference committees seeing that there isn't that much difference in the budget targets between the House and the Senate.  I don't have any inside information, but from my vantage point, I think the Legislature would like to get its bills to the Governor by May 1 because it is expected the Governor will be sending most of them back with a veto message attached.  Here's an article from the Minnesota Public Radio web page that provides some insight that would back up that impression.  

Commissioners Set Stakes for Upcoming Budget Battle

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Sit back and enjoy a little bit of Gene Autry with one of his greatest hits (No, not Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) to celebrate the Legislature's return to the saddle.

Governor Goes on Offensive.  In what may well be harbinger of what will be happening for the next month, Governor Dayton released a set of comparative spreadsheets comparing his budget for E-12 education with what has been passed in the Legislature.  Clearly, the revenue going to school districts is much more in the Governor's budget given that his target is more than twice that of either of the legislative targets.  

Neither the House nor Senate named their conferees for the Tax Bill and E-12 budget bill today, but with the Governor's weighing in today on his education budget and the difference between it and what the legislature is considering, it's obvious negotiations are underway.

Here are the links to the information that Governor sent out today:

Funding by District Comparison

Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten Comparison

Governor's Debt Service Equalization

Interactive Map Showing Revenue and Tax Relief Under Governor's Budget

The Legislature will counter the Governor's parry with information of their own and it is likely that the budget target will come up as the session continues, so stay tuned.  Things will undoubtedly get interesting.

Teacher Licensing Article.   This article was in today's edition of MinnPost and it provides a good summary of the effort.  The House passed its version of the bill on the floor today on a vote of 76-55, with one DFLer voting for and one Republican voting against.

Here is the article:  Lawmakers Fine-tune Proposed Overhaul of Teacher Licensing in Minnesota

National Charter/Testing Debate.  It hasn't really shown up in Minnesota yet this year, but with the change in administrations at the Federal level, there's been a lot more talk about charter school performance and testing policy.  Minnesota has hashed out a lot of the issues pertaining to charter schools that seem to be at the heart of much of the national debate, but that doesn't mean that some of the issues relating to testing won't take on increasing attention in the near future, especially in light of the recently-released Legislative Auditor's report on Minnesota's MCA testing.

The left-of-center The American Prospect has been following education policy debates closely the past couple of years and this article about how charter school and testing issues are currently playing out in Maryland.

Maryland Showdown on Testing, Charters, and the Direction of Public Schools

Whirlwind Days.  The education funding and tax bills are off the floor in both the House and the Senate.  Last Friday, the House passed the omnibus education funding and policy bill on a vote of 75-54 with one DFLer voting in favor and no Republicans voting against.  The debate on the House floor took about two hours and wasn't as acrimonious as I expected.  There weren't many amendments.  Part of that is likely due to the small target, which it makes it difficult to move money around in the bill without taking it out of the basic formula.  You may recall that last week the House lowered the annual basic formula increase from 1.5% to 1.25% to move money into school readiness to help those districts that are currently participating in the voluntary pre-kindergarten program a soft landing as the program is repealed.  The DFLers were likely reluctant to move any further dollars out of that program and into anything else.  I should also mention that $11 million was moved into the bill in the Ways and Means Committee to pay for improvements to the transportation sparsity formula.

The discussion of the omnibus education bill took a little longer in the Senate, logging in at about four hours.  As was the case in the House, there were no major amendments added to the bill, which passed on a vote of 38-28 (four DFLers supported the bill).

Both the House and Senate omnibus education bills are less than half of what the Governor has requested.  The Legislature has set its sites on a big tax cut package and in order to do that, they have had to keep spending in the various areas below the Governor's recommendations.  Add to that, the recently-passed and soon-to-become-law health coverage reinsurance plan will take $542 million off the bottom line for the biennium which will make end-of-session negotiations very tight.  That said, here's hoping that more will be added to the E-12 budget target and we can get back to the 2% annual increases that the Governor recommended and some additional assistance with solving the TRA funding problem.  It will be important for the education community to speak loudly and with a unified voice to get the target where it needs to be.

It was on the Senate tax bill that things got exciting.  Senator Matt Klein offered an amendment that would spend $29 million annually on referendum equalization by raising the equalizing factors on the first and second tiers.  At that point, Senator Carla Nelson moved to amend the amendment, designating the source of the revenue needed to fund the amendment as local government aid for the city of Minneapolis.  That obviously picked a scab and the amendment to the amendment passed by a one vote margin on a straight party-line vote with all DFLers in opposition.  The amendment then passed on a 35-32 vote, with three DFLers voting in favor and two Republicans voting against.

The bottom line is that there are now at least place holders for both referendum and debt service equalization in the Senate tax bill.  The House has no such provisions, but the Governor does have debt service equalization in his tax recommendations, so equalization is in play and that's all one can ask for.