"At the Capitol"...Still waiting!

This report regards the status of the Minnesota 2007 Legislative Session and is directed to the members of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA)

By: Charlie Kyte

The accompanying audio podcast is 3 minutes long.

STILL WAITING:  "IMMINENT"€ IS STRETCHABLE WORD:

Last Wednesday I indicated that the setting of spending targets for K-12 education were “imminent”.  I really thought they would be set by Saturday with, or without, the Governors agreement.  I was wrong! We are running out of time if we are to see a solution within the regular legislative session.  Perhaps an agreement of some sort will be reached within the next 48 hours.  If so, there is still time to pull an Education Bill together.  If not, we will either see some spending numbers plugged into existing legislation at the last minute, or we will have the figurative ‘train wreck’ that I wrote about 3 weeks ago.

WE BELIEVE THE GOVERNOR UNDERSTANDS THE NEED FOR ADEQUATE K-12 EDUCATION FUNDING:

In our conversations directly with the Governor, and with his representatives, we have had indications that the Governor understands the level of need for funding.  He also continues to want to see K-12 education evolve toward a world class delivery system.  We hope he understands that successful evolution also requires enough basic funding to allow our systems to move forward.

BIG DISAGREEMENT IS NOT SO MUCH ABOUT ‘HOW MUCH’, BUT WHERE THE MONEY IS TO COME FROM:

We don’t believe the Senate, the House and the Governor are all that far apart on the level of need that exists for K-12 education.  The issue is where the money should come from.  The Senate and House indicate that revenues for the state have been short for several years and want to see more revenue via some type of tax increase.

The Governor is just as adamant that the money should come from (1) other areas of government spending, especially by slowing down increases in Health and Human service programs and (2) from stepped up enforcement of tax collections in the state. The legislative leaders can probably agree to # 2 above, but are going to have a hard time with # 1.

STAY TUNED…WE WILL REPORT ANY MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS AS THEY BREAK DURING THE WEEK.