Tuesday, March 3, 2009: The next budget projection due out

Monday, March 16, St. Paul
Parents United's Annual Parent Leadership Summit
Register now — First 75 paid registrations eligible for $100 Target gift card!

A complete listing of Events is always available at our website.

In this issue

What is Happening at the Capitol?
The Governor's budget
This week the Senate E-12 Education committee took up SF 836, the Governor's proposed education budget. This bill is presented by the Minnesota Department of Education and represents the Governor's education priorities. Questions of "why and how" are directed to the staff of the MDE.

The Governor proposes adding money to the E-12 budget. With our state's huge budget deficit and the horrendous cuts being felt in all other essential services in the state, this addition is unusual.

Before we talk about the proposed new spending, we need to understand that the budget calls for significant tax shifts from the education budget to fill the state's deficit. This is done through school payment shifts and property tax recognition shifts. In current law, schools are paid 90% of state aid during the current year and the other 10% in the following year.

For the state to recognize a savings in the state budget, they need to shift those payments to 80% in the current year and 20% in the next year. This system has been used in the past. Schools may need to borrow to pay their bills. Another difficulty in using shifts is that in better economic times, if/when the state chooses to revert to a 90%/10% payment schedule, this money can be interpreted as schools receiving "new money".

The Governor concentrates new spending in the mandatory statewide expansion of QComp (alternative compensation for teachers) and with a student "Pay for Progress" model. The Pay for Progress money is tied to the percentage of students making academic growth. Schools receive 1% of the per-pupil formula for students making "expected growth" and 2% of the per-pupil formula for students showing "exceptional growth." This growth is based on MCA test results.

To see the Minnesota Department of Education's Power Point summary of the Governor's education proposals link to Transforming Minnesota's System of Education: Governor Tim Pawlenty's 2009 Education Proposals and to see what the Governor's budget proposal means for your school district link to District Impacts (caution, large Excel file).

In this issue

Correction:
In last week's update, I incorrectly listed the goals of the State Chamber of Commerce as coming from the Itasca Project's collaboration with the Minnesota Business Partnership. I apologize.

Correctly stated: The Itasca Project and Minnesota Business Partnership are pursuing three strategies to elevate Minnesota's school systems to world-class:

• Enhance the teaching pipeline.
• Strengthen principal leadership.
• Use data to drive performance.

It is the goal of the State Chamber of Commerce to have schools:

• Recruit and retain top talent.
• Close the achievement gap.
• Provide world-class standards.
• Hold the line on the GRAD test...remediate!
• Provide financial accountability and efficiencies.

And the Minnesota High Tech Association shared their goals for:

• Rigor
• Relevance
• Relationships

It is apparent from all of these testifiers that the business community in our state is intensely interested in the success of Minnesota's public schools.

Bills are now being heard on a fairly regular basis. A list of bills being heard is below.

A bit about process here: For a bill to become law it needs to be heard in one or more committees, passed out of committee, and then approved on the floor of each body. If a bill has been introduced but not heard in committee, it greatly reduces the possibility that it will become law. However, there are ways to make that happen.

As the Session progresses, many bills are "laid over for possible inclusion in the Education Omnibus Bill." That bill is a compilation of all smaller bills that have been agreed to by both the House and the Senate. The Education Omnibus Bill is then sent to the Governor for his signature or veto.

In this issue