Schools for Equity in Education                                                                          

All public school children must have equal access to a high quality education regardless of where they live in Minnesota.

Legislative Platform



2019 Legislative Platform

SEE MISSION STATEMENT
All public school children must have equal access to a high quality education  
regardless of where they live in Minnesota.

Equity Legislative Priorities

  • Increase state aid in low-property wealth school districts for local school operating levies and building bonds. By increasing the equalizing factors for the referendum, debt service and lease levy equalization programs, the taxpayer cost will be reduced in low-property wealth districts.  

  • Index all tiers of equalization to inflation to prevent the erosion of the program.

  • Funding for school levy equalization must come from the tax committee’s budget target rather than the education target. School levy equalization provides property tax relief and must be part of the overall state tax policy.

Adequacy Legislative Priorities

  • Increase the basic formula by a minimum of $250 per pupil in each of the next two years.  Recent increases in the basic formula have done little to make up for the significant loss of purchasing power due to inflation over the past two decades.

  • Increase the state’s share of special education funding and reexamine the new special education funding formula to address unintended inequities among districts.  The amount of revenue school districts must divert from their general fund to pay for mandated but unreimbursed special education services is not sustainable and jeopardizes the quality of public education in Minnesota.

  • Create a constitutionally-dedicated revenue stream by increasing the sales tax by one cent and reserving the resulting revenue for E-12 public education.  As each district is unique, each school board must have the local control to direct the new resources where most needed.