MASA... "At the Capitol"... Spring Break

A report from the Capitol on the status of the 2008 MN Legislative session to the members of MASA from Charlie Kyte, Executive Director.

The video recording and the audio podcast above are each about 6 minutes long. Each adds to the information printed below.

WE ARE IN A DANGEROUS FINANCIAL TIME

The international financial markets are in disarray and we are on the edge of a national ‘liquidity’ crisis. All this may mean a deep recession or worse. One result will be lower government tax revenues and as a result states will have a harder and harder time meeting their obligations to local units og Government. Looking forward, do not project any more money in your 2008-09 budget than is now promised and hope that those numbers will actually hold up.

Over the longer term we will need a new school funding formula, more adequacy in funding and it may take a lawsuit to get this ball rolling.

OMNIBUS EDUCATION BILLS

There are Omnibus Education Policy Bills in both houses of the legislature. Some of the articles relate to the following:

ACHIEVEMENT GAP REPORTS: Districts will be required to submit a plan/ report next fall on how they plan to close the achievement gap.

SCHOOL REPORT CARDS: The new language proposed is not acceptable to the MDE and it may be modified further. If not, this is a possible reason for a veto of the whole Education Bill

LABOR DAY START: No luck here. The resort industry and the State Fair Board are still blocking pre-labor day school starts even when Labor Day fall late on the calendar. Maybe we should propose legislation to move the State Fair to an earlier date.

READING CERTIFICATION FOR NEW TEACHERS: This language is controversial and requires all new teachers to take a test before licensure to show their competency to teach reading.

PRINCIPAL’S ACADEMY: There is a bit of money designated to fund the Principal Academies over the next year.

STATEWIDE HEALTH INSURANCE: This is a separate Bill that has a few changes from last years Bill. Although this issue will be contested, it will probably pass through the legislature and once again end up on the Governor’s desk. He will need to decide if it should be vetoed once again.

MDE SPECIAL EDUCATION RULES

The MDE Special Education division has continued to pass rules by both formal and informal means over the years. Between these new restrictive rules that push Sp Ed costs higher and the chronic shortage of Sp Ed revenues (including pro-rations) schools are at the breaking point. A Bill to completely curtail the MDE’s abiity to make new regs/ rules was strongly opposed by Commissioner Seagren. A compromise was worked out with a pledge from the MDE to withdraw much of the currently proposed rules, review all MDE pronouncements of the last 10 years that pushed up Sp Ed costs and for the Commissioner to create a new level of oversight over future regulatory memos. In return the language in the Bill was modified to make it acceptable to the MDE. We hope the agreement by MDE will hold so we don’t need to bring this issue back again next year.

VISIT LEGISLATORS AT HOME, AND KEEP COMING TO THE CAPITOL

Keep the needs of the public schools on the radar screens of the legislators. Do this over the next week when they are home and continue your visits to the Capitol.