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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		February 3, 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
Unfair for students and taxpayers
Senate tax committee addresses equalization
Ending last in, first out
Other resources
What can you do?
Quick Links
Join Our Mailing List

What's happening at the Capitol

The legislature has adjourned today through February 8th to participate in precinct caucuses.

Unfair for students and taxpayers

The current school funding system relies heavily on operating referendums to make up for inadequate state funding. Read more on how declining state aid has resulted in inequitable increases in referendum revenue among school districts.

 

The annual cost to the local taxpayer for a referendum dollar varies substantially across the state. School districts with high levels of property wealth have a distinct advantage in passing referendum because the larger property tax base, usually including significant commercial and industrial property, lowers the tax burden for the residential homeowner.

 

When the cost is high, low property wealth communities are unable to support higher value referendum which results in reduced learning opportunities for children in these districts. The current funding system is unfair to both students and local taxpayers. This chart shows how the taxpayers in SEE districts pay more yet generate hundreds of dollars less per pupil for their schools. See similar charts for all SEE districts.

 

The legislature established the equalization program in the early 1990's to make referendums more affordable for residents in property poor districts; so their students can have the same quality educational opportunities as neighboring districts. Unfortunately, the current referendum disparities exist because the legislature has not kept equalization updated. 

 
Senate tax committee addresses equalization

Working to get the equalization program fixed has been difficult. Education committees claim it is a tax issue and previous tax committees claim it is an education issue. On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Taxes invited Eric Nauman, a fiscal analyst from the Senate Education Committee to the committee and he provided this information-rich presentation on Education Finance.

 

Senate members became very interested when the presentation turned to equalization. The committee discussed the purpose for the equalization program - was it to ensure all children have the same educational opportunities or to equalize property tax burdens for local taxpayers? The committee members agreed that this committee has jurisdiction to address the equalization issue. However, time ran out. They will schedule another date for Eric Nauman to return so the committee can continue this very important conversation. Here is the video of the committee meeting. (Fast forward about 60% to get to the education finance portion.)

 

More info here on Brad's Blog

 

SEE thanks Chair Julianne Ortman for holding this hearing to delve into fairness for students and property owners when using property taxes to fund schools. Increasing equalization aid is a major point on SEE's 2012 Legislative Platform.

Ending last in, first out 

HF1870 (Peterson, B,-R)/SF1690 (Wolf-R) was heard in the House Education Reform Committee. The bill would end the practice of laying off teachers based solely on seniority and allow districts to include teacher effectiveness in the decision making. Everyone wants to ensure that the highest quality teachers are in front of the classroom. However, there is no consensus on what is a fair and effective system of teacher evaluation. This bill would base teacher effectiveness on the new teacher performance and evaluation model that was passed by the legislature last year. The model is only in a formative stage, currently being developed by a task force, and will not be fully implemented in school districts until 2014.  Read more in this article. The hearing on this controversial bill will resume on Thursday, February 9th.

Other Resources

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

 

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

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 an 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