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  All public school children must have equal access to a high quality education regardless of where they live in Minnesota.
Legislative Update
A Communication for Parents and Education Supporters in SEE Districts		January 27, 2012

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 weekly update during the legislative session to keep you informed on issues surrounding K-12 public schools. The quality of a child's education is highly dependent on the decisions made at the State Capitol.


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.
In This Issue
What's happening at the Capitol
A Serious Concern - Tax and Spending Related Amendments
Reform 2.0
Other resources
What can you do?
Quick Links
Join Our Mailing List

What's happening at the Capitol

The 2012 Legislative Session began on Tuesday.  Most are anticipating a short legislative session. Every state legislator is up for re-election this year and will be anxious to get back to their home district to campaign.

 

The legislature is hoping to end the session by the end of April.  Last, year, the legislature resolved the two year budget. This second year of the biennium is usually considered a bonding session. In November, the State had a forecasted surplus of $876 million for the remaining portion of the biennium. By law, the surplus must go into the state's reserve account to be set aside for fiscal emergencies.

A Serious Concern - Tax and Spending Related Amendments

Governing by constitutional amendments can become attractive in a divided government. The legislature can put amendments on the November ballot by passing them with a simple majority in both the House and Senate. The governor cannot veto a constitutional amendment bill. The legislature is considering several amendments to limit spending and shrink government.

HF1598/SF1384 - the supermajority amendment would require a 3/5 majority in both the House and Senate to increase taxes.  This bill seems to have the most support right now.  

Other bills include

HF1661/SF1378 - would limit spending to 98% of the forecasted biennium revenue.  

HF1612/SF1364 - limits spending to revenue collected in previous biennium.

 

Currently, Minnesota owes public schools approximately $4,200 per student due to delayed payment and property tax shifts along with underfunded special education mandates. Considering this debt to Minnesota's students, limiting a budgeting tool seems premature and creates serious concerns whether the State will ever pay schools the money it owes.

 

In addition, the constitutional amendments would restrict funding for all areas of government including schools. This action would virtually guarantee more pressure on local property taxes. SEE districts, which struggle with higher tax burdens due to their lower property wealth, cannot continue to pass referendums indefinitely so that schools can provide the educational opportunities that children need to succeed.

 

Here is more information plus the status and authors of the proposed constitutional amendments in Minnesota the Minnesota Budget Project.

 

The Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities outlines why the supermajority amendment will hurt the State and hurt Greater Minnesota.

 
Reform 2.0

The Republican majority has ambitious plans for this session outlined in this Reform 2.0 design. The reforms are broken down into these bullet points. Expect to see bills supporting the reforms throughout the session. The bullet points pertaining to education are as follows.

 

Provide Highly-Skilled Work Force. Create High Value

  • Improve urban education and reduce achievement gaps by granting mayors in Minneapolis and St. Paul mayoral control of their city's school districts.
  • Aggressive strategies to turn around the state's lowest achieving schools.
  • Give parents a stronger voice in public education by allowing them to petition to convert their failing public schools into charter schools.
  • Allow aggressive replication of high performing charter schools.
  • Link pay to teacher and student performance
  • Remove barriers to eliminate ineffective teachers including Last IN - First Out
  • Allow referendum funding dollars to follow resident student


The Legislature appears to be focusing on charter schools.  Charter schools are public schools and have been in Minnesota for over 20 years.  The charter school movement was established as an education alternative that would result in higher achievement at a lower cost.  You can read more on charter schools here.

District Referendum Dollars Shifted to Charter Schools 

The House Education Finance Committee kicked off the first day of session by listening to HF1860 (Woodard-R) which would move referendum levy dollars from district schools to charter schools for each resident student who chooses a charter school in that district. After a decade in which public education averaged 1% annual increases in funding, all schools are struggling financially.

 

SEE opposes this bill for the following reasons.

  • If charter schools need additional funding, the STATE should provide new dollars and NOT shift funding from traditional public schools. Charter schools are not alone in their need for additional revenue.
  • When the charter school law was established, a fine balance of funding considerations was taken into account.  In lieu of referendum dollars, charter schools bill traditional school districts for all special education costs. Also, traditional school districts pay all the transportation costs to bus charter students to their charter schools within the school district boundaries.  In addition, charter schools receive $1,200 per pupil to lease facilities and are exempt from many regulation required in traditional public schools.     
  • Even so, in low property wealth districts, the state aid equalization portion of the referendum already goes to charter schools. 
  • School districts usually calculate the total referendum dollars they will need to fund programs and priorities.  Many times, a district will poll residents to determine the level of increased taxes the community will support.  The district then must balance this information.  State law requires the amount to be expressed as dollars per resident pupil.  Thus, the argument that districts are collecting revenue on charter students they are not serving is very misleading. 
For more information, read this St. Paul Pioneer Press story.
 Other Resources

Schedule of education committee meetings - a updated listing of education committee meetings and other committee meetings that are hearing education bills.  

 

To read more details about the activity at the Capitol this week, check out Brad's Blog.

What can you do?
The decisions that will most impact our children and their schools are made at the STATE Capitol.  Since children can't advocate for themselves, it up to us to be their voice.  
       
  • Stay informed.  Take the time to read SEE Legislative Updates. I will work to keep you informed and will suggest ways that you can help.  Be prepared to act at critical times when I send out action alerts.  Action can be as simple as sending an email or making a phone call. 
  • 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 a education supporters network so we can respond when critical times occur during the legislative session.  In this political world, it is the voice of many that 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

    deb.griffiths@schoolsforequity.org

    www.schoolsforequity.org