The Week Ahead

We’re Going to Start Talking Money!  It’s way early and the Governor hasn’t released his biennial budget recommendations at this point, but the Senate is scheduled to hear SF 8 (Kunesh) on Wednesday morning in the Senate Education Finance Committee.  The goal of the bill is to take $267 million of the one-time money in the projected surplus and fill some of the holes in school budgets.  There is no House companion to SF 8, but that doesn’t mean one won’t be coming.  There hasn’t been much mention of whether education would get much in terms of the considerable pile of one-time money that is currently sitting on the state’s bottom line and it never makes much sense to incorporate on-time money into the on-going base.  That doesn’t mean that there aren’t budget areas that wouldn’t welcome a short-term boost.  Here is a link to the appropriations contained in SF 8:  SF 8 Appropriations.  The aid would go toward three purposes:  transportation aid, the special education cross-subsidy, and the English language cross-subsidy.  The aid wouldn’t fall evenly across districts, but I am sure every dollar would be welcome.

The House Education Finance Committee will continue to hear from a variety of stakeholders, but will also be hearing the following bills:

On Wednesday, January 18:  HF 44 (Feist) Requires provision of Menstrual Products and HF 203 (Berg) Grant to the Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs

The House Education Policy Committee will be hearing the following bills:

On Tuesday, January 17:  HF 211 (Keeler) Establishes Indigenous Peoples Day and Eliminates Columbus Day , HF 133 (Becker-Finn) Mandatory Reporting of Test Scores of Tribal and  Descendent Students to Tribes , and HF 170 (Becker-Finn) Expands Interpreter Eligibility

On Wednesday, January 18:  HF 58 (Richardson) Non-exclusionary Discipline and HF 320 (Hassan) Strengthening the Teachers of Color Act

There will only be one Senate Education Policy Committee Meeting this week and it will cover the following bills on Wednesday,, January 18:

SF 13 (Champion) Recognizing Juneteenth

SF 50 (Cwodzinski) Requiring Provision of Menstrual Products–Companion to HF 44

SF 123 (Gustafson) Providing Free Meals in Schools–Companion to HF 5

While we’re still singing “Getting to Know You” with all the new legislators and committee chairs, things are getting underway with alacrity and the pace will really quicken when the Governor’s budget hits everyone’s desk in two weeks.