March madness is in full swing at the state Capitol. This Monday marks the beginning of the first bill deadline.

By Friday policy bills must clear their respective policy committees in order to be viable to continue on this session. Traditionally there’s an omnibus education policy bill and that’s true this year as well.

The House and Senate education policy committees will release omnibus policy bills early this week and then take amendments and pass them out to their respective Education Finance committees. The second bill deadline is Friday, March 27.

MREA has reported on many of the individual policy bills that have been reviewed so far this session. This week will tell us much about which policy initiatives will be on the table in conference committee later this session. Here’s a list of education bills, by issue area, that MREA has been tracking and working on to date.