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Senate Majority Research The Minnesota Integration Aid Program has been in place since 1997, providing funds to qualifying school districts, spending about $87 million in aid for 116 school districts. The program has been criticized by the Executive and Legislative branches and some education advocates and, in response to that criticism, the Senate’s Education Subcommittee on Integration Aid met for the first time March 16 to discuss program strategies and to hear an overview of a 2005 Legislative Auditor’s Report. No decisions were made at this first meeting, but members agreed to meet again in the near future. The 2005 OLA Report said that the state needed to clarify the purpose of integration aid, authorize the Department of Education to establish criteria to help districts evaluate their plans, and withhold revenue from districts that fail to meet the criteria, and establish allowable expenditures for integration programs. The report also recommended that the department should oversee the Integration Aid Program, and that the Legislature should revise the integration funding formula. In his 2010-11 budget, the Governor caps integration aid at 2009 base amounts, and no new districts would be eligible for funding in FY 2010. Districts qualify for integration revenue through one or more of the following designations under the Minnesota Desegregation Rule: • The district has a “racially-identifiable” school site(s). • The district is a “racially-isolated” district. • The district adjoins a racially-isolated district(s). • The district has voluntarily joined an existing collaborative to assist in reducing the isolation of a racially-isolated district(s). Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth districts are specifically mentioned in statute and are not controlled explicitly by the above requirements. The subcommittee also heard from Morgan Brown, Department of Education, who spoke in response to the report. When asked about a recent action concerning integration funding by Commissioner Seagren, Brown said that even though Seagren essentially “froze” integration aid at current funding levels for school districts, they are still required to design integration/desegregation plans. The Governor has suggested freezing aid, but that has not been agreed upon by legislators. Brown claimed the commissioner had the authority to do this without legislative approval. | |||||||||||||||||||||
Helping parents have a voice at the places where school policy and funding decisions are made. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
