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Legislative Update A Communication for Parents and Education Supporters in SEE Districts |
March 5, 2010 |
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If this is your first Legislative Update from SEE - Welcome!
For those who have been with us through the years - Thank you!
SEE publishes this Legislative Update weekly during the legislative session.
Brad Lundell, Executive Director for SEE, writes a blog on almost a daily basis. For up-to-date information about what is happening at the capitol visit Brad's Blog. | |
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What's happening at the Capitol
The February forecast was released and showed a slightly lower budget deficit of $994 million for this session. However, the forecasted deficit for the 2011-12 biennium increased to $5.8 billion. The economic climate in Minnesota continues to be gloomy.
HF3388 (Garafalo) -The Governor's Supplemental K-12 Education bill was heard in the House education committees. Through this bill, the Governor is indicating his priorities and what he wants to see in the final education omnibus bills. It is up to the House and Senate to craft the final bills but the Governor gets the final say through his veto power. Thus, if the DFL controlled House and Senate would like to see some of their priorities put into law, they are going to have to accept some of the republican Governor's initiatives. The Governor's bill is just the beginning of the negotiations. A very simple bill summary from SEE, the House Research Bill Summary and the Bill Text are available. |
The Governor's education funding initiatives
The Governor has prioritized K-12 education as he does not cut education funding and he recommends paying back the education shifts. As Chair Mindy Greiling noted, education fared well with the Governor, especially when compared with other areas of government. The Governor wants the legislature to ratify his unallotment of $1.7 billion dollars in shifts to education spending. The Minnesota Budget Project does a good job explaining exactly what these shifts were and why we would like to see them set in law. | |
The Governor's education policy initiatives
Policy initiatives should be free of any fiscal impact to our schools and looking at some of the proposals, this doesn't appear so. Many of the policy provisions have been proposed in the past by the Governor. In the policy area, the Governor is focusing on teacher and principal quality and effectiveness. The number one indicator of a student's success is the stability and involvement of a child's parents. The next factor to impact student achievement is the quality of the child's teacher.
The Governor has recommended a variety of proposals aimed to increase the quality of people entering the teaching profession and ensuring that their preparation at the teaching colleges produces quality teachers. This is mostly done through the Board of Teaching, the entity that sets the standards for teaching colleges.
He also wants to strengthen the initial three-year probationary period for new teachers by requiring school districts to develop a teacher peer review process to include trained observers to serve as mentors, continuing professional learning, a portfolio system and other criteria. Many school districts do this to some degree. However meeting the new criteria might result in significant costs to a schools district as it manages developing master teachers and having them pulled from their own classrooms to mentor new teachers.
The most controversial part of the Governor's proposal is to establish a tenure renewal system. Teacher tenure would be renewed every five years and re-employment would be based on the academic achievement growth of students and other measures. As one committee member pointed out, this will end tenure for teachers. Overall, the education committees expressed agreement with the Governor's goal to increase teacher and principal effectiveness and a reluctant recognition that eventually measuring teacher quality by student achievement is inevitable. The more difficult conversation will be how do you create a framework and what measurements will be used to tie teacher performance to student achievement?
Another policy area addressed is the amount of instructional time our student's receive. Currently in Minnesota law, the minimum school year is defined as the number of student contact days that a school district offered in the 1996-97 school year. The average school year is 173-174 days, with some districts having 180 days and some offering less than 170 days. The Governor proposes a state-wide minimum school year for public and charter schools of 425 hours for Kindergarteners (equivalent to 2.5 hours per day for 170 days), 935 hours for students in grades 1-6 (equivalent to 5.5 hours per day for 170 days), and 1020 hours for grades 7 - 12 (equivalent to 6 hours per day for 170 days). The state may reduce aid to school districts that do not meet these minimum levels.The shift from hours to days provides more flexibility for school districts and also allows school districts to move to a 4-day week without a waiver from the Commissioner. House Research indicated most elementary schools currently meet the proposed minimum. However, a large number of secondary schools do not. If this were to move forward, teacher contracts would have to be renegotiated and costs would increase.
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| What next?
The Senate plans to produce three major funding bills. The first bill will combine higher education, environment, state departments, agriculture and veterans affairs, public safety and judiciary. The bill should be ready in two weeks and will make reductions equal to the amounts in the Governor's proposals although the exact cuts might differ. The Senate then plans to act on the health and human service bill by the Easter/Passover break. After break, the Senate plans on taking up the K-12 education and local government aids (LGA) bill. It is very interesting that the Senate plans to bundle K-12 and LGA. The Governor spared cuts to education and essentially eliminated LGA. I have heard Senate leadership say that LGA is very important.
I haven't heard what the House plan is yet. |
What You Can Do
Email your state senator and representative and let them know how appreciative you are that K-12 education funding was spared in the Governor's budget reduction recommendations. Also, urge them to speak with their leadership to encourage the legislature not to cut education funding as well. Click here to find out who represents you. In this political arena, it is vital that education advocates speak up for education. A very simple note to your legislators will let them know that their constituents are informed and concerned.
Pass these updates on and ask your friends to sign up to receive SEE's Legislative Updates so they too can be part of our network. Now is the time to build education support networks so that when critical times occur during the legislative session we can respond. In this political world, it is the voice of many that can make a difference. |
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Working together, we can make a difference.
If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Deb Griffiths
Director of Communications and Community Outreach
Schools for Equity in Education
612-309-0089
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Bills heard in committee
House K-12 Education Policy and Oversight
Chair: Rep. Carlos Mariani
Last week:
HF3074 (Slocum) Board of Teaching allowed to approve innovative, research-based teacher and prepar
ation and licensure programs.
HF3093 (Mariani) Alternative teacher preparation program and limited-term teacher license established.
This Week:
HF58(Mullery) Middle school students taught about the juvenile and criminal justice systems and the consequences of delinquent and criminal conduct.
HF2962 (Fritz) Minnesota Academy for the Deaf and Minnesota Academy for the Blind provided trial placement.
HF3115 (Norton) Statewide physical education standards and report required, and a healthy kids awards program established.
HF2106 (Bly) Alternative learning centers and charter schools five-year pilot program established to identify systemic improvement measures to best serve eligible students, and money appropriated.
HF3157 (Mahoney) Parent notification of child maltreatment in a school facility modified, mental health assessment required of teachers disciplined for child maltreatment, teaching license revoked of repeat child maltreatment offenders, and district policy required for educating employees about mandatory child maltreatment reporting.
HF2986 (Hornstein) Responsible family life and sexuality education program created.
HF3163 (Mariani) Prekindergarten through grade 12 funding provided, including general education, education excellence, special programs, and early childhood education.
HF3388 (Garofalo) Governor's supplemental K-12 education funding provisions
House K-12 Education Finance Division
Chair: Rep. Mindy Greiling
Last week:
HF2840 (Swails) Collaborative governance council established. - Information only
HF664 (Welti) Mental health model curriculum created.
HF2814 (Swails) Pupil transportation provisions modified, certain lift buses included in category of revenue authorized reimbursement, and contracted transportation costs included as a method for allocating pupil transportation costs.
HF3022 (Tillberry) Legislative intent clarified, and language added to the collaborative urban educator appropriation.
HF2748 (Bly) Revenue formula allowance modified for extended time programs.
HF3003 (Buesgens) Number of public school pupils covered by the permanent school fund endowment apportionment expanded.
HF2910 (Davnie) School districts authorized to bill nonpublic schools and charter schools for any unreimbursed pupil transportation costs.
This week:
HF2751 (Morgan) Students who do not pass the reading and language arts GRAD allowed to retake the test in paper-and-pencil format.
HF2880 (Kath) Graduation-Required Assessment for Diploma requirement for retakes amended.
HF3123 (Morgan) K-12 special education third-party billing process made more cost effective.
HF3388 (Garofalo) Governor's supplemental K-12 education funding provisions
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/docs/2010GOVERNORSUPPBUDGETBILL.pdf
K-12 Education Finance Division
Chair: Sen. LeRoy Stumpf
Last week:
SF2320 (Dibble) Minneapolis school board member removal authority modification.
SF509(Rosen) School swimming pool levy authority expansion.
SF2776(Lynch) ISD 535 Rochester, building proceeds transfer to general fund.
SF2775 (Lynch) ISD 535 Rochester, debt service fund transfer.
SF2331 (Fobbe) Explosive growth revenue for education establishment.
SF2716 (Saltzman) Charter school provisions modifications; charter schools facilities commission establishment and credit enhancement account creation.
This week:
SF2177 (Rest) School districts safe schools levy increase.
SF2769 (Betzold) School board expiring referendum renewal authority.
SF511 (Rosen) School districts alternative facilities bonding and levy program and deferred maintenance revenue program qualifications modification.
SF433 (Bonoff) School finance alternative facilities bonding and levy program modification.
SF2805 (Bonoff) School district referendum allowance limit increase.
SF2384 (Saltzman) School districts referendum equalizing factor increase; second tier referendum equalization elimination.
SF1531 (Torres Ray) Mental health model curriculum creation.
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| Education Committees
The senate has combined the education policy and education budget committees. That seems wise particularly in these tough economic times since rarely does an education policy or mandate come without any cost to our schools.
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