The education budget bill contained more funding and reform provisions than expected.  On the funding side, the special education growth factors will not be reduced.  Districts will receive $50 per pupil per year increase.  The Governor and the Republicans were able to find common ground on a variety of measures that are promising for our schools.  The mandate relief that was advocated by the education community was included and will be helpful.  Some provisions such as the Literacy Incentive Program and teacher and principal evaluations were included, both were scaled back from original Republican proposals.    Read Brad's Blog for much more detail on the education bill and the final budget agreement. 

I have put a summary of the highlights of HF26/SF11 - the Special Session Education Bill below.  If you want to see the House Research Summary, the bill text and how legislators voted you can go to this page on the SEE website.    I haven't seen the spreadsheet that shows how each district will fare on the revenue side with this bill.  When I do, I will post it here on the SEE website.

As the 2011 legislative session is finally over, this will be the final SEE legislative update for awhile.   The 2012 legislative session begins on January 24, 2012 and you can expect to see updates from SEE then.  Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Funding

·         Delays 40% of school payments until the next fiscal year.  This controversial 60/40 shift results in the State owing schools $2.1 billion.  The school shift has been used in the past to help balance the budget but never to this degree. 

·         The per pupil formula is increased by $50 a year for the next two years to compensate schools for the cost of borrowing money.  Of course with the shift, schools will only receive 60% ($30) of this new funding next year.

·         The current special l education growth factors remain.

·         A 5% reduction in funding for the Minnesota Department of Education.

Reform:

·         Mandate relief includes:

o    Elimination of the $25 per student penalty if contract negotiations are not completed by January 15^th.

o    Elimination of the maintenance of effort requirement for student support services in the Safe Schools Levy.

o    Extends for two years the suspension of the mandatory 2% set aside of education funding for staff development.

o    Districts with populations smaller than 6,000 residents (previously 2,000) do not have to maintain a community education director. 

o    Requires the Commission of Education to approve fund transfers under certain conditions.

·         Integration aid will be eliminated in 2014.  A task force will be convened to determine how to repurpose the $127 million in integration aid.

·         Requires annual evaluations of all teachers and principals beginning in 2014.  35% of the teacher evaluations must be tied to student achievement.  Every three years a teacher must be reviewed by a qualified and trained evaluator otherwise peer reviews are acceptable.  The language in this section is less prescriptive than the original Republican proposed teacher appraisal program.

·         Creates an early graduation program providing up to a $7,500 scholarship for students who graduate early.

·         Provides $4 million in early childhood scholarships.

·         Creates a literacy aid initiative that promotes reading; requiring districts to adopt a plan so every child is reading proficiently by the end of 3^rd grade and provide reading interventions for struggling students.

·         Increases investment in MN Reading Corps.

·         The Board of Teaching and the Education Commissioner must jointly convene an advisory task force to develop a state wide tiered teacher licensure system.

·         Repeals the law that requires the State to borrow from school district reserves during times of State cash flow problems. 

·         *Provides a one-time increase in funding through a compensatory formula adjustment to the largest 20 school districts in the State (excludes Minneapolis and St. Paul)

·         *A small school formula is created to provide more funding for districts with less than 1000 students - does not include charter schools.

·         Increase in the career and technical levy.

*See Brad's Blog entry regarding these provisions.

Not included at all:

·         Florida reforms such as A-F school rating system, vouchers and the end of social promotion in 3^rd grade.

·         Collective bargaining changes including the Qualified Economic offer and the end of tenure.