My How Things Have Changed Over the Years.  The H9use and Senate omnibus education finance bills cleared their respective committees this morning in a remarkably smooth fashion.  I was expecting long and raucous hearing that might have extended into the evening hours, but it didn’t turn out that way.  There were technical amendments offered and accepted in both committees and one substantive amendment voted down in the Senate, but besides that there was mainly a fair

Not the Twilight Zone (but Close).  As reported yesterday, the text of the omnibus education finance bills in both the House and Senate were released yesterday and I posted them along with a spreadsheet showing the change-items in HF 5237.  Below are another set of documents:  summaries of both bills and the change-item spreadsheet from SF 5252. Revising the timeline I posted yesterday, testimony will be taken in both the House and Senate tomorrow (Tuesday) with

Senate Education Finance Bill Posted.  It’s fresh off the press (or whatever the internet equivalent to that is), but here is the text to the Senate omnibus education finance bill:  SF 5252.  No spreadsheet available as yet.  Should be coming tomorrow.

House Education Policy Bill Clears House on Party-Line Vote.  The Minnesota House of Representatives passed SF 3567–the omnibus education policy bill–last Thursday evening on a party-line vote of 69-61 after four hours of deliberation on the bill.  Several amendments went on the bill, most notably an amendment sponsored by Representative Tabke to allow a set of southwest metropolitan school districts to publish their official notices on their district websites due to the closing of rhe local

Senate Education Finance Hears Governor’s Finance Bill (and Others).  The Senate Education Finance Committee wrapped up its week early hearing a slate of bills including the Governor’s education finance bill.  There is very little of note in the Governor’s bill in terms of funding with the sole appropriation 0f $2.8 million to the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board to create an online licensing system, some shuffling in the Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten Program, and movement of some

A Bit of a Slog, but Education Policy Bill Passes in Senate.  It took several hours and the offering of fourteen amendments, but the Senate’s 2024 Omnibus Education Policy bill (SF 3567) passed the full Senate on a party-line vote of 35-31 on Tuesday afternoon.  The fourteen amendments ran the gamut and six were adopted, but mostly centered on creating greater flexibility for school districts in view of the array of new programs that passed last