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Senate Majority Research 651-296-4949 Omnibus E-12 Education funding Bill H.F. 2245 The 2008-2009 Omnibus E-12 Education funding bill appropriates an additional $800 million for early and K-12 education programs in The bulk of the additional funds will pay the special education “cap gap” that has been accumulating the past five years and is owed to school districts by the state. The bill also reinstates the “growth factor” capped in 2003 and provides for a 4.6 percent increase each year to cover regular education costs and provides a 2 percent increase in special education excess costs. All-day kindergarten receives $41 million for all The bill brings stability back to education funding and makes good on the state’s commitment to pay its special education bills. It makes a down-payment on all-day kindergarten and helps prepare schools for a full-blown program for our young learners. Under terms of this bill, schools will see a significant funding increase. Major Funding Provisions Basic Funding Formula: The Basic Education (per pupil) formula will increase by $101 per student in the first year of the biennium, increasing the basic school funding mechanism from $4,974 per student to $5.075 per student. ($198.9 million) Special Education: The bill provides $387 million in additional funding to help retire the debt the state owes for inadequately funding special education since 2003. The bill also reinstates the 2003 funding growth factors and provides for a 4.6 percent increase in regular special education and 2 percent increase per year in excess costs. According to Department of Education estimates, special education costs increase by about 4.5 percent each year. ($387 million) QComp Cap: The bill caps the number of schools allowed to be approved for QComp (Alternative Teacher Pay) and re-directs the money currently lying idle to property tax relief and classroom programs. The 36 school districts that have approved QComp plan will continue to receive their $260 per student. ($62 million in savings) Equity Allowance: The bill provides revenue to hold districts harmless for any losses incurred through the update of the equity revenue calculations. It changes the per pupil amount from $23 to $46. ($248,000) Safe Schools Levy: The safe schools levy has been expanded, and school districts can now levy $30 per student (up from $27) to help defray costs to keep students safe at school. The things the money can be used to pay for has also been expanded. The levy dollars can be used to pay for: voluntary opt-in suicide prevention tools; costs of licensed school counselors, nurses, school social workers, school psychologists and alcohol and chemical dependency counselors. Districts that are also part of Intermediate School districts can also levy an additional $10 per student and pass that money to the intermediates to help pay violence preventions costs. All-Day Kindergarten: $41 million is appropriated to increase kindergarten funding pupil weights for all-day kindergarten programs. ($41 million) Gifted and Talented: Gifted and talented programs received an $8 million increase. ($8 million) Eden Valley-Watkins: A Mercury-spill remediation grant is provided to the Declining Pupil Aid: The School Finance Reform Task Force: The bill provides $75,000 to complete the finance study begun by P.S. Minnesota and establishes a study task force consisting of the Commissioner of Education, four senators and four representatives. The task force must report to the Legislature by Education Excellence (Article 2) Minnesota Reading Corp: The Minnesota Reading Corp is established to provide training for a seamless literacy model to Americorp members working with Head Start, other pre-kindergarten programs and kindergarten to grade 3 schools to increase literacy rates in World language pilot program grants: A pilot program awarding five world languages grants to interested and qualified school sites and school districts is established to help school districts develop and implement sustainable, high-quality model world languages programs and to enhance existing world languages programs at various grade levels for students in kindergarten through grade 12. Program participants must simultaneously support both non-English language learners in maintaining their native language while mastering English and native English speakers in learning other languages. ($500,000) Professional Teaching Standards: The bill appropriates $500,000 for grants to teachers and mentors to participate in the National Board Certification process. ($500,000) Academic Achievement, Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate: Public schools and charter schools must have a three-year school-board approved plan to establish or expand an existing pre-advanced placement, advanced placement or international baccalaureate program and to increase availability of students’ access to and completion of these programs. The bill appropriates $4 million to help enhance and expand advanced placement, International Baccalaureate and concurrent enrollment programs. ($4 million) Statewide Testing: Allows the Commissioner additional time to include a value-added component to Collaborative Urban Educator Program: The Collaborative Urban Educator program will receives just over $1 million to support educator training and recruitment programs for individuals to meet the educational needs of the urban and diverse student populations. ($1.056 million) Math and Science Teacher Academies: Three million dollars is appropriated to set up mathematics and science teacher academies to promote teacher staff development in math and science curriculum areas. ($3 million) After School Community Learning Grants: Provides grants to community non-profit organizations, political subdivisions or school-based programs that serve youth after-school or during non-school hours. ($5.3 million) Comprehensive Sexuality Education: The bill contains provisions that have bipartisan support requiring districts to establish comprehensive sex education curriculum and policies for grades 7 through 12. A district can choose to provide such curriculum in grades kindergarten through 6, but is not required to do so. Districts are required to notify parents of the curriculum and provide parents the opportunity to review the educational materials. If parents aren’t comfortable with the curriculum, their child is not required to participate in the program Educational Accountability: This provision funds the Office of Educational Accountability through the University of Minnesota Board of Regents and directs the office to determine and annually report to the Legislature whether and how effectively: * the Commissioner of Education makes statistical adjustments when reporting student data; * the commissioner uses indicators of student achievement growth over time and a value-added assessment model to measure school performance; * the commissioner makes data available on students who do not pass state GRAD tests and do not receive a diploma and categorizes data based on gender, race, eligibility for free or reduced lunch, and English language proficiency; and * directs the Office of Educational Accountability to convene and facilitate an advisory group of curriculum and measurement experts to consider and recommend how to structure school performance data and school performance report cards to fully, fairly and accurately report student achievement and emphasize school excellence under Minnesota’s educational accountability and public reporting system. School performance report cards: This provision changes the criteria the Commissioner must use to identify high and low performing schools. Includes student-to-teacher ratios and school safety among the criteria the commissioner must use to determine student performance levels. It also requires the commissioner’s report on student performance to indicate a school’s adequate yearly progress but not to set any designations due solely to adequate yearly progress status. The changes were made in order to move away from the punitive nature of the report cards. Special Education (Article 3) Special Education Task Force. The bill sets up a task force to study which state laws and rules exceed federal requirements and how the state should conform to those requirements. The bill appropriates $500,000 to fund the task force work. ($500,000)
Facilities and Technology (Article 4) Telecommunications Access Aid: The bill appropriates $16.3 million to provide telecommunications access aid to provide equity in telecom programs across School Technology Aid: The bill appropriates $150 per student in one-time aid to help districts pay for technology upgrades, textbooks, library media resources and technology and improve or repair school sites. ($150 million) Nutrition and Accounting (Article 5) School Lunch Increase: In an attempt to enhance nutritional quality of school lunches, the bill increases the reimbursement price the state pays to school districts for each school lunch sold by 1.5 cents from 10.5 cents to 12 cents. ($3.02 million) Fund Transfers: The following fund transfers have been approved: Brainerd, Campbell-Tintah, Comfrey, Floodwood (carries $226,500 levy cost), Libraries (Article 6) Basic system support: Grants are increased by $5.18 million. ($5.18 million) Multi-type, Regional Library Telecommunications Aid: Library telecommunications aid is increased. ($2.09 million) Hennepin county/Minneapolis Library System Merger: The merger process receives $4.5 million. ($4.5 million) Pupil Transportation Standards (Article 8) School districts may provide bus transportation for ECFE participants along all bus routes. The requirement that regarding driving near a school bus be taught in drivers’ education must only be taught to students in 9th and 10th grade. A school bus driver may not drive a bus while operating a cell phone for personal use. All school buses and Head Start buses must have driver seat belts and drivers must use them. A class D license holder, without school bus endorsement, may operate a school activity bus under certain conditions. Minimum cushion depth and height are required. Several definitions and standards are conformed to national standards. The problems with these provisions have been worked out with SEIU. Early Childhood and Adult programs (Article 9)
Pre-school allowances: The pre-school education allowances were not included in the final bill. Department of Education Salary and Benefit Adjustment: A 3 percent salary increase for Department personnel is appropriated. Cross Subsidy Report: The Department must report annually to the Legislature the amount each school district is spending to cross-subsidize special education. Controversial: Yes. Although this bill provides a fair amount of new revenue for schools and makes good on our commitment to special education, it doesn’t put much money on the funding formula and GOP members have presented their concerns on this issue. Also, the comprehensive sexuality education provision is controversial and a majority of GOP members have not supported the provision. It also caps QComp (alternative teacher compensation), a pet project of the Governor. This, too, has generated concern from GOP members. This bill CAN be amended on the floor, so expect possible amendments on sex ed, QComp, and a formula increase. Researchers: Danna Elling (296-7089) K-12 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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