The House and Senate Education Committees passed their education finance bills on schedule last week. They neatly bracket the Governor’s target of $60.77 million. The Senate’s budget tops $100.5 million, while the House spends $52 million. Both bodies assume that several districts with Capital loans will repay their loans thus providing the state with an infusion of $52 million. Even … Read More
Education Omnibus Bills Introduced: How They Compare
After three packed weeks of bill introductions and testimony, both the House and Senate Omnibus Education Policy Bills passed out of committee for their first deadline. HF 3066 DE and SF 2744 A5 are designed to include policy changes that do not have state-level cost impacts. View side-by-side comparison of bills. Some of the more significant proposed policy changes include: Personal … Read More
Bills of Interest Moving Through Legislature
MREA, together with its members, has been working to address a series of education issues via several smaller requests during this short session. Here’s a look at the key issues and their progress as the Legislature faces bill deadlines: Concurrent Enrollment The Higher Learning Commission announced last fall it would require concurrent enrollment teachers to have at least 18 graduate credits in their content … Read More
Judge Disapproves Proposed Achievement and Integration Rules
Every part of the Minnesota Department of Education’s proposed Achievement and Integration Rules (A & I) was disapproved by Administrative Law Judge Ann C. O’Reilly in her report issued last week. MDE now needs to decide whether to make changes and resubmit the rule or withdraw it in its entirety. View the full report. The January Hearing for the proposed rule … Read More
Scholarships Available to Summer Humanities Institute
The Minnesota Humanities Center is offering scholarships to a Summer Educators’ Institute in St. Paul the week of June 26-July 1, 2016. Participants from Greater Minnesota are encouraged to apply. Increase Student Engagement The Institute, “Transforming Education Through Absent Narratives,” provides educators with an opportunity to engage with the Humanities Center’s approach to increase student engagement through absent narratives — the … Read More
Budget Forecast Retracts to $900 Million
The updated state budget forecast released today reveals a slight retraction in the $1.2 billion surplus initially projected as of December to $900 million, according to Minnesota Management and Budget. Legislative leaders now have to grapple with the budget news as they head into session on March 8. The competition for tax cuts, transportation spending and early learning funding just got more … Read More
Are Schools Closing the Achievement Gap?
“Minnesota schools not closing the achievement gap” read the front page headline in the Star Tribune last week. The article went on to imply that districts were failing to meet the World’s Best Workforce (WBWF) law and that some districts’ funding could be in jeopardy in the 2017-18 school year. Read the Star Tribune article. MREA Executive Director Fred Nolan … Read More
Proposed Achievement and Integration Rules Drew Two Days of Intense Testimony
Minnesota’s revision of the Integration Rules drew a full house at the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) last week for two days of intense testimony. MREA joined a group of articulate and passionate testifiers ranging from law professors, high school students and advocates to parents, teachers and administrators. Among the issues raised were: Should the primary goal be achievement … Read More
Next Steps Following Passage of ESSA
In several settings Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius has said she will be calling together a broad work group of educational stakeholders to consider changes to Minnesota’s accountability plan given the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). In some conversations, she has talked of large scale changes and at other times about modest changes so things are … Read More
ESEA Rewrite Passes U.S. House
The U.S. House overwhelmingly approved the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), 359 to 64, on Wednesday. The bill, molded out of ESEA, reduces the federal role in education for the first time since the early 1980s, handing greater control over accountability and school improvement back to states, while maintaining and increasing funding important to schools. It keeps in place the NCLB … Read More