A report to the members of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA) by Charlie Kyte, Executive Director. This is a report on the concluding days of the 2007 Minnesota Legislative Session.
This audio pod cast is 6 minutes long.
A K-12 EDUCATION FUNDING BILL IS POSSIBLE. NEED A BIT MORE REVENUE:
We need about $200 million more in on-going funding for K-12 education. We feel this may be possible, but will require some NEW revenue to do so. We are hopeful the Governor can find a creative way to help find this money.
STATUS OF THE K-12 BILL ON FRIDAY MORNING:
The K-12 Bill is awaiting action by the House. However the House leadership is appropriately holding it in the hopes that an agreement can be reached with the Governor on the amount of money in the Bill and where the revenue might come from. The present Bill still lacks adequate funding, especially in the second year.
At present the Sp Ed pro-ration is fixed, there is a 2% increase in all the formulas for the first year, there is some money for all-day kindergarten and quite a bit of one-time capitol money in each year. The two missing pieces from our perspective are formula funding in the 2nd year and a bit more money in each year for the formulas.
From the Governors perspective he would like money invested in innovation including the continued expansion of the Q-Comp program. We think that both the Governor and we are correct in what is needed and hope we can all work together to get the Bill finished.
STATEWIDE HEALTH INSURANCE POOL:
The Statewide Health Insurance Bill passed the House last night. The Senate and the House will get their language on this issue to agree (minor changes). Then they will both pass the Bill, and send it to the Governor. We believe the Governor will veto the Bill, but this is not necessarily for certain.
WATCH FOR AN ALERT TO CONTACT THE GOVERNOR LATER TODAY:
We will most likely be asking members to make a direct contact with the Governors office today. Please keep an eye on your e-mails during the day. Yesterday enough Superintendents responded to an alert that I had numerous legislators talk to me about the calls during the day and a couple of staff members were actually upset because they had to spend so much time getting legislators to understand their spreadsheets correctly. It is good to see that your calls/ e-mails can move things here at the Capitol.
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