Voice of MN Education

"At the Capitol"....Shipwreck or successful navigation?

This is a report to the members of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA) from Executive Director Charlie Kyte.

This podcast is 7 minutes long.

WHERE IS THIS ALL GOING?  SHIPWRECK OR SUCCESSFUL NAVIGATION?

As I travel about the state, I here more and more people (without a connection to education) saying they are fearful that the Governor and Legislature are headed for a shipwreck.  We have two bright and determined politicians in Gov Pawlenty and Senate Majority Leader Pogemiller.  While they don't make all the decisions on their own, they have great influence in how the final result of the legislative session comes out.

By my estimates, there seems to be about an 80% chance or either a shipwreck that produces no settlement, or one side giving in completely.  Neither of these outcomes would be good.

I see about a 20% chance that these two individuals, and the people around them, will rise to the level of statesmanship and find a mutually acceptable solution. From the perspective of K-12 Education, that solution would end the pro-ration of special education funding by the state, provide a reasonable amount of money for ongoing operations and allow some funding for a couple of breakthrough innovations for educating children.

We at MASA will continue to encourage all parties to rise to the statesman level and do what is right for the future of the state.

FEDERAL ADVOCACY TRIP TO WASHINGTON, DC

This Sunday, 9 of us from MASA will leave for Washington, DC to work on the re-authorization of ESEA/ NCLB.  We will bring one MASA member from each congressional district and we have meetings with all of Minnesota's congresspersons, our two US Senators and officials at the US Department of Education. 

In addition we will meet with Rep. Kildee of Michigan who heads the K-12 sub-committee of the US House Education and Workforce Committee.  We will also meet with education committee staff members of both the House and Senate.

"At the Capitol"...Going into Spring Break

A report to the members of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA) by Charlie Kyte, Executive Director.

This podcast is 11 1/2 minutes long.

THE EDUCATION BILLS HAVE PASSED THE SENATE AND WILL PASS IN THE HOUSE

The House Education Bill will provide about $750 million in permanent funding and about $150 million in one-time funding for schools.  The permanent funding will go primarily to provide a 3% formula increase each year, ratchet up Kindergarten funding to .86FTE and help some with special education funding.  To do this will require more revenue that the House seeks through an income tax increase on high income earnings.

The Senate has two Bills.  The first provides $500 million in Special Education funding that reverses the pro-rations we have been seeing and also provides an inflation factor to each future year.  In addition this Bill provides about $100 million in Property Tax relief.

The second Senate Bill includes another $300 million that provides a 2% formula increase each year, $50 million in new Early Readyness program funding and also about $100 million to control the rate of tuition increases for colleges.  This second Bill would require a tax increase, again on high income tax payers.

These Bills contrast with the Governors initial position which recommended $500 million in permanent funding (2% each year on all formulas) and about $250 million in one time spending for a variety of initiatives.

This is who we are trying to get funding for....our kids!

This is one of the people trying to convince legislators to provide the funding....MASA Lobbyist Valerie Dosland!






EASTER (OR SPRING) BREAK....TIME TO COMMUNICATE

Legislators spend a week in their districts from April 3-April 10.  They will be both listening, and discussing, the legislative issues with citizens.  This is the time for every MASA member to call and arrange to have a cup of coffee with their Senator and Representatives.  If you expect better school funding, you need to make the case this week.  Based on what legislators hear now, they will make hard decisions (one way or the other) in the next 6 weeks of the session.

STATEWIDE HEALTH INSURANCE...A FEW OBSERVATIONS

Health Insurance and Health care are industries undergoing enormous change.  I would argue that smaller groups of insurees will be more adaptable to changing conditions and approaches than very large groups.

A statewide insurance program for educators may prove to be even more expensive than the existing insurance groups because of the need to build up adequate financial reserves to protect the new fund if it is formed.

The Senate did pass the Statewide Health Insurance Bill and it contains what is now referred to as the Scheid Amendment.  This amendment requires a newly forming group to meet the same regulations from the MN Department of Commerce as any other health insurance provider.  These are necessary safeguards if a statewide plan moves forward. 

"At the Capitol"...Omnibus Bills nearing approval

This is a report to the members of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA) from Charlie Kyte, Executive Director

This podcast is 7 minutes long.

By: Charlie Kyte

Senate and House Education Bills

As I am writing this on Monday afternoon, March26 the Senate Education Bill is on the floor of the Senate, and the House Education Bill will be heard in the House Education Finance Committee this later this afternoon. 

The Senate Bill dedicates all of their funding to the Special Education category.  In addition it provides $100 million in property tax relief, but this relief does not get accounted against the education budget.  The House Bill concentrates funding on the Formula (3% each year), some money for Special Ed and All-Day Kindergarten with the weighting Kindergarten funding at .86FTE.

Once both Bills pass their respective bodies, the real negotiations will begin.  Neither Bill is yet 'fair enough' to all districts and there are significant winners and losers.  As a statewide association we will work to try to smooth the level of funding so that all districts get a fair consideration.  We will also work to increase the states revenues so that there is adequate funding for K-12 education.  

Special Education Funding

There was a very well written opinion article in this Sunday's Star-Tribune.  Our Alliance for Student Achievement group was instrumental in getting this hard to understand issue presented to the public.  Two other areas in Special Ed that we need to concentrate on are 1) an early prevention model (like RTI) and 2) an analysis of Minnesota's requirements versus the Federal IDEA law that will address where we exceed the federal law.

We have pasted these articles at the end of this update.

Early Childhood Funding

The Senate has a unique approach to increasing the funding for early childhood school readiness.  Money for childcare has always been provided through the Health & Human Services Committee and has provided direct grants to eligible families.  Early Education has traditionally been provided through the education committees and goes directly to the providers (ECFE, Headstart, etc).

Now the Senate wants to significantly increase the funding, involve early education programs, but flow the money through the families.  To school people this sounds like a voucher.  To the health community it feels like they are giving up some control to the education providers.  Thus this is a difficult walk to make.

Recently a group of Superintendents shared with Senate Ass’t Majority Leader Clark that the important thing is to get more kids 'Kindergarten Ready'.  They want it done with high quality no matter who provides the readiness education.  They also asked that there be a way to lock any parental decision into place early so that we don't have parents jumping from program to program with their scholarship money.  If schools are providing some of these programs we need to develop staff and program stability from year to year.

Charter Schools

The Senate voted to cap the number of Charter Schools at 150.  Presently there are 131 Charter Schools and 17 in the approval process.  Nick Coleman, in the Star-Tribune on Friday, had a column on why we should be capping this program. 

"At the Capitol with MASA"...a rough week but also some hope

This is a report to the membership of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA) by Charlie Kyte, Executive Director

This podcast is 8 minutes long.

By: Charlie Kyte

ROUGH WEEK AT THE CAPITOL (MARCH 12-16)

It was a long and draining week at the Capitol with hearings lasting late into the evening just about every night.  This is part of the rush to get Bills through committees before the deadlines coming up next week. 

Two of MASA’s Bills went down in flames as we were not able to get them past the House Education Policy Committee.  One was the Bill to begin lengthening the school year and the other shifted the responsibility for excess special education charges for Charter School students from the resident school district to the MDE.

MASA does have 3 Bills still moving forward including one that would invest in early (K-2) students so they wouldn’t end up in Special Education in the first place.  A second Bill would allow for schools to use an alternative year calendar on a voluntary basis and some money to offset additional costs are included in this Bill.  Finally we are trying to move a Bill that would allow school districts to hire a security firm to do their pre-employment BCA background checks for them.

HOUSE SETS K-12 EDUCATION BUDGET TARGETS

The House set K-12 spending targets higher than those set earlier by the Senate and the Governor.  This was a bit of good news.  The House target is $919 million with money targeted to the ‘formula’ and to All-Day Kindergarten.

The Senate set their target at $493 million and the Governor was a bit higher in permanent spending.  He had another $275 million in one-time spending for schools.

The House also raises taxes to pay for this increased level of spending by setting a new tier on the state income tax for individuals making over $400,000 a year.  They also provide $535 million in property tax relief with about 1/3 going to schools.

 MORE NEWS FROM NEW ORLEANS

Superintendents Todd Seskar of Cannon Falls and Ted Blaesing from White Bear Lake recently spent a day painting the bathrooms in a refitted school in New Orleans.  Here are a few pictures....positive evidence that these two Superintendents can actually do honest work!

MASA/ MASE SPRING CONFERENCE WAS SUCCESSFUL

The MASA/ MASE Spring Conference was held on March 15-16 with over 300 members attending.  The speakers were very informative; the chance to renew acquaintances was appreciated.  We enjoyed our first ever Spelling Bee in which 10 teams competed for scholarships for their students.  The Queen Bees representing Lakeville, Edina and Wayzata were the winners although all of the teams performed well.

EDUCATION MINNESOTA ELECTS NEW LEADERSHIP

Education Minnesota held their delegate assembly this past weekend and elected new officers for their organization.  Judy Schaubach and Carmen Peters are retiring at the end of this year.

The new president is Tom Dooher of Robbinsdale.  The vice-president is Paul Mueller of Brooklyn Center.  The treasurer is Denise Specht of Centennial.  See the full press release below.

This e-mail is a publication of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA) and may be reproduced.

"At the Capitol with MASA"

A report to the members of the Minnesota Association of School Addministrators about action at the Minnesota State Capitol as of February 14, 2007.

By Charlie Kyte, Executive Director

This audio podcast is 10 minutes long.

GOVERNORS EDUCATION PROPOSAL

The Governors Bill is SF 750. A more complete analysis, and my opinions on parts of the Bill, are available on the audio podcast.

Here are the essential elements: 

2% per year increases in the general foundation formula, special ed formulas and all accompanying formulas.

$75 million for HS Re-design

$15 million to expand AP and IB programs

$2 million to pilot alternative year calendars

$38 million in one time money to reward what the Governor perceives as successful schools

$150 million in one time money for investments in technology

Changes in the graduation requirements, including 4 years of foreign language in grades 7-12

Funding for regional math/ science academy’s for teachers, mentoring for new teachers and pilot programs for Mandarin Chinese language programs

‘KEY’ DATES 

February 28……..The new state budget forecast is revealed

March 7…………..MASA Day @ The Capitol. Be sure to attend!

April 2…………….Deadline for Bills to pass out of at least one committee

CHARLIE’S SPECIAL EDUCATION FUNDING RANT

The shortfall in special education funding must be fixed this year. Districts can not sustain the financial shortfall any longer. Just providing money on the basic formula just perpetuates the BIG LIE if the special education funding isn’t fixed. If districts only receive funding on the basic formulas, the public thinks you have the money needed to operate and then become convinced that you don’t know how to handle the schools money if you continue to make cuts. The public will never understand that the formula money is just being shifted over to cover the special education shortfall.

It might be be better to receive no increases on the foundation formula and come away with full special education funding. At least the public wouldn’t be given a false impression.

PLANNING 2007-08 BUDGETS

 Several of you have called and asked about the revenue numbers you might put into your budget projections for next year. Within the podcast you can here my thoughts on this. You can probably plan for either full funding of the states special education formulas OR 3% on all the formulas. However do not plan at this time to receive the full cross subsidy in special education AND the increases on the general formulas.

MASA LEGISLATIVE UPDATE-May 18, 2006

By: Charlie Kyte, reporting from the Capitol.

  This Audioblog is 5 minutes long. Information about the state budget begins at 3:00 minutes

MINNEAPOLIS PENSION BILL PASSES HOUSE WAYS COMMITTEE:

An amendment to improve post retirement adjustments for teachers in the St. Paul Pension fund was introduced and defeated.  Had it been successfully added we believe the whole Bill would have failed.  In the the Minneapolis Fund 'fix' was passed and now will mostly be adopted into law.

BUDGET AGREEMENT NEARLY SET:

The Senate and House leaders along with the Governor met most of the afternoon and into the early evening.  They are nearly in agreement and it looks like they will agree to spend just over $400 million with this amount to be split between tax relief and new spending.

The new spending will go toward incarcerating sex offenders and within education some will go toward early childhood education.  Expect little or no new money within the K-12 general formulas.

54 HOURS TO GO:

The last moment to conduct business is 7:00 AM on Sunday morning.  That is the official end of Saturday for legislators.  They will do no work on Sunday and Monday is reserved for farewell speaches and end of session activities.  A near record number of Representatives and Senators will not be running for re-election this fall and we will see a host of new faces next year.

While little was done in K-12 Education, the legislature will pass a major bonding bill, fix Emminent Domain statutes and authorize two new stadiums.  K-12 education will at least not be hurt with poor policy and quite a bit of money went into reversing the tax recognition shift that essentially borrowed money from schools to fund other state needs.  This return of the shift will give school districts better cash flow and reserves the money once again to be used as a cushion for a future 'rainy day'.

SPECIAL LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

By: Charlie Kyte

  This audioblog is 6 minutes long.

SPECIAL LATE BREAKING LEGISLATIVE NEWS EDITION:

After weeks of seemingly threading water, the final logjam at the end of the 3006 legislative session is breaking. This report provides an inside perspective on what may be happening.

TAX IMPACT FEE/ TAX UPHELD BY MINNESOTA SUPREME COURT:

Supreme Court Chief Justice Russell Anderson announced the decision of the Minnesota Supreme Court in regard to the Health Impact Fee. The Court ruled that this fee/ tax on tobacco at the wholesale level was constitutional. This allows the state to keep the $340+ million in fees already collected to remain in the states coffers. Even more important, the state will be able to continue to collect this fee/ tax on tobacco in the future. This gives the state a healthy budget cushion going forward and some fiscal maneuvering room at the end of this legislative session.

GOVERNOR AND LEGISLATIVE LEADERS MET. PLAN FOR FINAL DAYS OF LEGISLATIVE ACTION NEGOTIATED:

The Governor, the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House met at 5:00PM on Tuesday to discuss how to bring the session to a close. Don’t expect this to be without a couple of more twists and turns. Although a republican Governor and a republican majority in the House may seem to outweigh the democratic Senate, Senate majority leader Dean Johnson is also notoriously tough in ‘end game’ negotiations. Hope for statesmanship, but expect to see the sparks fly!

MINNEAPOLIS PENSION PLAN SOLUTION BACK IN PLAY:

The House Rules Committee will hear the latest edition of the Minneapolis Teachers Pension solution on Wednesday. Our agents tell us that the Bill will then go to the Ways and Means Committee prior to final action on the House floor. We understand that four (4) amendments will be brought forward by the majority party, but are not clear at the time this is written what those four amendments will be.

NEXT 48 HOURS WILL BE CRITICAL:

As often occurs, the months of a legislative session come down to the last few hours. The legislature and governor must bring all the pieces together by Saturday night. Going into extra innings this year would spell disaster to voters. We hope the appropriate compromises can be reached in a statesman like fashion.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE-10 days to adjournment

By: Charlie Kyte

  This audioblog is 5 1/2 minutes long.

  MINNESOTA'S CAPITOL BUILDING: The capitol, designed by Cass Gilbert, is widely regarded as the finest state capitol building in the nation.

FINANCE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE BEGINS MEETING: Senate proposes $45 million for K-12 schools including about $35/pu of one time money.  The Senate is somewhat in line with the Governors original proposal plus the one time money.  The House proposal is $0.00-no help! Nada! There is a real chance that we will see no additional funding at all this session.  In addition, the Policy Bills are not moving either and may not pass.

STATEWIDE HEALTH INSURANCE AND MINNEAPOLIS PENSION FUND:  Neither of these bills have been moving, but could pass at the last minute.  There was a meeting on Thursday on health insurance, but the parties did not find a way to compromise.

The recent expose by the TV media on public pension funds, and there focus on the Minneapolis Teachers Fund chilled the chances of passage of a solution to this problem.  If the legislature waits another year or two, the problem will be much more expensive to fix, or may simply become unfixable.

It is possible that both the Pension issue and the Mandatory Health Insurance will be traded back and forth with other issues in the closing days of the session.

NEW LEADERSHIP FOR THE MINNEAPOLIS FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: Louise Sundlin has led the Minneapolis Teachers union for 22 years and has had a reputation as a reformer.  In a recent election, she was replaced by Robert Panning-Miller.  He won 56% of the vote with 1/3 of the teachers voting.  The governing board of the federation is dominated by Sundlin supporters, so this may foretell some rough sledding ahead.

MASA LEGISLATIVE UPDATE-Small education policy bills move along. The real focus should be on next year.

By: Charlie Kyte

  This audioblog is 4 1/2 minutes long.

MINOR POLICY BILLS MAY PASS THE HOUSE AND SENATE: There is some attention to enhancing graduation standards and a few enhancements to special education policy.  Most of this is pretty minor stuff.

SENATE TRIES TO PROVIDE SOME ONE-TIME FUNDING: There is $37 million in one-time funding for K-12 schools in the Senates supplementary finance bill.  This equals about $35 per pupil unit.

HOUSE TAX BILL IS DEFEATED, ALONG WITH EDUCATION PROPERTY TAX RELIEF:  They had a very long hearing, but in the end the House Tax Committee Bill failed to pass.  It is unclear if there will even be a tax bill this year.

CONCENTRATE ON NEXT YEAR:  The focus now should be on preparing for next year.  The School Funding Study will be completed along with the policy recommendations of the Superintendents Symposium.  We will want to see new funding, All Day-Every Day Kindergarten and a renewed emphasis on investments in technology all present in next years initiatives.

WEDNESDAY UPDATE WILL REPORT FROM WASHINGTON, DC:  Nine MASA Superintendents will be in Washington, DC meeting with all of our Congresspersons, our Senators and Governor Pawlenty's Washington staff.  We will report on the likelyhood of progress toward the re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act which will most likely happen in 2008 or 2009.

MASA LEGISLATIVE UPDATE-Funding Bills stymied in House Tax Committee, and College Concurrent Enrollment

By: Charlie Kyte

   This audioblog is 6 1/2 minutes long.  Funding of Education at the beginnig.  Comments on Concurrent College Courses at 3:15 minutes.

FUNDING BILLS STYMIED AT THE TAX COMMITTEE LEVEL

Don’t count on much happening at the legislature this year.  Last year it was the House Democrats that couldn’t stick together.  This year it is the House Republicans.  Even though the republicans are in the majority, they have enough members breaking away on  issues, that they don’t have the majority vote in many committees. This is especially true in the tax committee where more democratic initiatives looked like they might pass then republican initiatives.  Thus the Tax Chair pretty much shut the committee down for the time being.

As a consequence, the only K-12 Bill that may come through the House is a simple policy bill that is mostly non-controversial and has no spending or tax consequences attached to it.  Thus while we most likely will not see new funding or tax relief.  We also won’t see harmful policy language.  The axiom ‘do no harm’ comes to mind. 

There is still an opportunity for the Senate and the House to form a conference committee on K-12 education.  If they do, it is possible that some small funding or tax relief could come into a final Bill with a push from the Senate.  However, don’t hold your breath.

It is likely that the session will end a few days early with a Bonding Bill, new laws regarding Eminent Domain, a stadium or two, possibly a Pension Bill and a few lesser policy bills.  Of course anything could still happen, but at this point it does not appear that there will be major education initiatives passed.

MASA SOUGHT INPUT FROM MEMBERS ON CONCURRENT COLLEGE COURSE PRICING

A couple of weeks ago we heard rumors that some colleges were substantially increasing their fees for schools to enter into a concurrent college credit arrangement with them.  We suspected that it might be a way to suppress the growth of college in the High School courses.  Many college instructors feel that students need to be in a college setting to fully experience college level learning.  We disagree!

Thus we sent out an inquiry to MASA’s regional leaders and legislative committee members asking if they were seeing substantial increases in the charges being made by colleges for concurrent enrollment courses.  We have received quite a bit of feedback and overall there doesn’t seem to be too much change.  In the couple of cases that colleges are increasing fees substantially, we would say that K-12 schools should let the market work for them. If districts shop around a bit to seek a better deal, they will be rewarded with strongly mentored programs at reasonable rates.