All public school children must have equal access to a high quality education regardless of where they live in Minnesota.
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Legislative Update A Communication for Parents and Education Supporters in SEE Districts | February 17, 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. |
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School trust lands need new management
Two Utah experts on school trust lands spoke to the House and Senate education committees. In the 1850's when Minnesota was founded, 2 parcels of land in every township were dedicated to the support of public schools. All revenue generated from these lands is put into a school trust fund. Currently, Minnesota has 2.5 million acres of school trust lands that produce revenue primarily through mining, timber sales and surface leases. Schools receive approximately $28 per pupil a year from the school trust.
The Minnesota DNR manages the lands. This simple chart outlines the flow of dollars. The DNR subtracts all expenses and administration costs associated with managing the school trust lands. The DNR is not efficiently managing the lands. Also, the DNR is criticized for confusing its charge to manage these school lands to generate revenue for school children with how it manages public lands for conservation and preservation. For example, over a 5 year period ending in 2009, the DNR's expenses rose 125% and the administration cost increased by 325%. In another 11 year period, zero dollars from the forestry of trust lands were deposited into the trust.
The same situation existed in Utah until the management of the school trust lands shifted to a newly created Trust Lands Administration, an independent state agency. The agency increased the Utah trust from $18 million in 1994 to $1.3 billion today! The Utah experts contend that aggressively managing trust lands does not have to conflict with conservation. If school lands were not generating an acceptable return, Utah sold or traded them for more productive lands.
Minnesota must repay the $2.1 billion it "borrowed" from schools last session before it can provide new funding for schools to keep up with rising costs. It's time to maximize the potential of the school trust lands for Minnesota's school children and get past the resistance from those wanting to protect the status quo.
HF2244 (O"Driscoll)/SF1889 (Kruse) - creates a new state agency to manage the school trust lands. Email or call your legislators in support of this bill. |
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All things Florida, continued . . .
Last session, we heard about a series of school reforms initiated under former Governor Jeb Bush that dramatically increased the 4th grade reading scores in Florida. Jeb Bush founded the Foundation for Excellence in Education and you can find out more on their website. Supporters want to emulate Florida and brought forward bills to bring these reforms to Minnesota in the last legislative session. On Wednesday, HF638 (Myra) was heard again in committee. The bill requires schools to be graded from A to F based on student achievement. Testifiers credited this reform as instrumental in driving the impressive student achievement in Florida. However, consider the following:
- Florida ended social promotion of third graders if they scored low in reading tests. Thus, low performers have two years of third grade, which is an incredibly expensive approach for remediating struggling students.
- Florida also hired thousands of reading coaches to impart proven reading strategies to staff working with children in elementary schools. This is usually not mentioned by those promoting Florida reforms.
- Minnesota had a 4-star rating system in the past that was discontinued as this policy did not demonstrate any significant increases in student achievement.
- If labeling schools with a grade is so effective, why didn't the policy significantly increase Florida's results in other grades and other subjects? The NAEP test is a national test that allows for direct comparisons between states. This chart compares the NAEP reading and math scores of Florida and Minnesota students. The tests are given to 4th and 8th graders. While Florida 4th graders score higher than Minnesota's, all those gains disappear by 8th grade. Florida 8th grade reading scores are below the national average while Minnesota's reading scores are above average. Switching to math, Minnesota's 4th and 8th graders perform significantly above the national average. Math scores in Florida in both grades are not impressive. This begs the question, why would Minnesota want to emulate Florida? Perhaps the Florida reforms may have merely impacted how well 4th graders take a 4th grade reading test.
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This and that
The courts release the redistricting maps on Tuesday, February 21. Every state legislator is up for reelection in November. With the new lines drawn, challengers will emerge. Legislators will want to spend more time at home to campaign. Read more.
The Senate Tax Committee continues to grapple with the role of the referendum and it's impact on property taxes. Eric Nauman, Senate Education fiscal analyst, was back in committee to continue his presentation on Education Finance. Julianne Ortman, the Tax Committee chair, was shocked when shown this graph provided by Brian Corlett, superintendent from the Nortwood-Young America School District. Residents in both Norwood-Young America and the neighboring Westonka School Districts pay about the same in taxes to support their school's referendum. Yet, because the Central school district has low property wealth, their schools only receive only one third of the referendum dollar amount compared to Westonka. With this disparity, the educational opportunities are more limited in Central. SEE strongly supports HF536 (Runbeck)/SF1752 (Chamberlain) that would make the cost of the referendum more fair. Nauman will be back in the Senate Tax Committee on Thursday, February 23rd at 8:30 in Room 15 so the committee can continue the conversation.
1870 (Peterson, B)/SF1690 (Wolf) allows districts to consider teacher effectiveness rather than just seniority when laying off teachers. The House passed the bill on the floor Thursday. In the Senate, the bill is still in the education committee as the author works to address concerns brought forward. It is unclear whether Governor Mark Dayton would sign the bill if it reaches his desk. Read more.
HF2127 (Myra)/SF1528 (Nelson) -Blended learning is the concept of integrating the online delivery of courses with teacher supervision and interaction. Schools across the nation are experimenting to provide students with new opportunities as explained in this report on The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning. These bills would require all current 9th graders to take at least one online course before they graduate. MDE would also have to speed up its processing of new online providers. Initially, both the House and Senate education committees tried to send these bills directly to the floor. However, the bills have associated costs. The bills were sent back to each body to go through further finance committees. |
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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.
Contact your legislators. A simple email or call from you, a constituient, makes an incredible impact on them. They want to hear from you. Weigh in on the importance of the school trust fund bill, fairness and equity in providing referendum dollars for our schools and whatever else concerns you. If you don't know who represents you, click here.
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. |
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If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact me.
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