This is a report to the members of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA) from Charlie Kyte, executive Director.
There is a video and an audio podcast above. Each is about 8 minutes long. Just click on either to view and listen.
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE WORKING THIS WEEK
The K-12 Conference Committee is supposed to finish their work on Thursday and get it moved onto the floors of the Senate and House. Thus we will have very long sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday.
WAITING FOR THE TAX COMMITTEES, FUNDING IN BALANCE:
The Tax Bill needs to come together so that K-12 Education can get a uniform spending target from Senate and House leadership. Thus even though the K-12 Bill needs to be finished on Thursday, the financial piece can’t come together until the spending target is identified. This means that the funding decision will come together at the last moment. A lot is in the balance: the level of your funding as well as the size of the various shifts.
GOVERNOR WEIGHS IN:
The Governor sent a 6 page letter to the K-12 Education Conferees on Monday. He berated them on the level of funding for K-12 and also demanded that a number of his new initiatives for education be included in the Bill. Some we can agree with, but others are not well thought out. He also identifies language in both the Senate and House Bills that he would support or oppose. We suspect that the legislators will include some of his wishes, but certainly not all of them.
EDUCATION ISSUES IN OTHER BILLS:
K-12 education issues also appear in other Bills. There is language in the Health and Human Services Bill that affects schools and there is also troublesome language in the Data Privacy-Public Data Bill. The biggest other Bill is the Statewide Health Insurance Bill, which will probably end up on the Governors desk for his decision.
THE BIGGER POLICY ISSUES:
We mostly settled homeschooling issues on Monday. Today (Tuesday) we are wrestling with ‘self governed’ schools, Charter Schools, Shared Services and Sp Ed rules. Later we will be working on Early Education.
Of note is that the MN Chamber of Commerce sent in a letter supporting the Senate position on Shared Services. Based on our analysis, the Senate position will make it difficult for many local businesses selling supplies to school districts. Go figure!
These issues are important to settle now because once a final agreement on funding is reached, the whole Bill will be adopted into law.
PREDICTION OF HOW THIS MAY PLAY OUT:
We may see the Governor veto most of the Tax Bill and the big Omnibus Bills. The session then concludes and the negotiations between the legislative leadership and the Governor continue. This all drags on for a month or so. Finally there is a one-day session once agreement is reached. In the mean time, Districts won’t know the funding levels for 2009-10 or 2010-11.
H1N1 FLU:
The new guidance from MDH and MDE states that Districts can make their own decisions about closing schools in case of a flu outbreak as long as the sickness is no more severe than we have seen so far.
I sent a communication to MDE that this decision is leaving the Districts hanging without much political cover. We have asked that MDH and MDE issue a media advisory that they are comfortable with schools remaining open and the sick person isolated at home.
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