The 2013 legislative session will be remembered for a few important education finance and policy reforms. All day kindergarten funding became a reality, the GRAD rule was retired from the statute books, school boards gained some ability to levy operating funds and equalization for operating levies was enhanced. Amidst these changes it was easy to miss another potential game changing … Read More
School Facilities Financing Work Identifies Inequity
By Sam Walseth, MREA Lobbyist The 2013 E-12 bill called on the Minnesota Department of Education to pull together a work group to look at current school facility financing programs. At the first meeting in late August, the work group reviewed the state of the current programs, identified inequity in funding, and outlined a series of issues to consider. Tom … Read More
Unfinished Business: Filling in the Donut Hole
By Sam Walseth, MREA Lobbyist Two “dark of night” decisions created what looks like a glaring inequity in how much money school districts get. School finance is complicated and it was made more so in 2011 with the creation of Small Schools Revenue (SSR) and in the 2013 bill with the creation of Location Equity Revenue (LER). The rational and … Read More
Three State Task Forces Begin Work
Three of the task forces established by the Legislature last session began work this month. They include the Teacher Licensure, Career Pathways & Technical Education and School Facilities. MREA will monitor and regularly report on the work of this task force for our members. Here’s a look at what’s happened so far: Teacher Licensure The 20-member Teacher Licensure Advisory Task Force … Read More
MDE Announces Task Force Appointments
The Minnesota Department of Education has announced appointments to the Schools Facilities Working Group. The members include: Joe Arthurs – Minnesota Educational Facility Management Professionals Earl V. Athman – Minnesota Association of School Business Officials Mark Bollinger – Open Appointment Paul Bourgeois – Minnesota Association of School Business Officials Greg Crowe – Open Appointment Kim Eisenschenk – Minnesota Association of School Business Officials Kevin Hildebrandt … Read More
Summer Session on Storms and More?
Summer storms are nothing new to Minnesota, but the costly damage left in the wake of them has started a new trend in St. Paul. Governor Dayton is again considering calling the legislature into a one day special session on Monday, Sept. 9 to appropriate several million dollars to 18 counties effected by severe rain and wind storms in June. … Read More
Levies: Steps to Take This Summer
By Fred Nolan, MREA Executive Director On May 30, Vernae Hasbargen, a lobbyist with MREA, wrote “The legislature’s game is over and now the ball is in our court.” Here’s a look at what that means and the steps school boards and superintendents should take this summer due to the legislative changes. To close the 5th -95th funding gap and provide … Read More
School Board Levy Authority – We Got it, Now What Do We Do With It?
By Sam Walseth, MREA Lobbyist Governor Ventura’s now infamous “Big Plan” in 2001 included a state takeover of the general education levy whereby school property taxes were reduced and the state promised to pay the difference with new state revenue. The new revenue never materialized. The legislature didn’t adopt Ventura’s sales tax reform and then a decade of recessions, including … Read More
Heroes for Rural Minnesota Last Session
By Sam Walseth, MREA Lobbyist As the dust settles on the 2013, and there’s a lot of dust to settle, it’s clear that several rural legislators played instrumental roles in advancing public education goals supported by Minnesota’s rural education leaders. They deserve a “thank you” from school leaders. Our Requests MREA members developed a state policy platform last fall that … Read More
Initial District Run Available
The 2013 session ended in a flurry of activity as any session usually does. The legislature has always had district runs before final passage of an Omnibus E-12 Finance bill, but not this year. A last minute amendment by Rep. John Benson (DFL Minnetonka) to the omnibus Tax bill is causing a delay in getting final district runs. Here is … Read More