New Education Laws from the 2012 Legislative Session - A list of all bills that were passed by the legislators and acted on by the governor.
Here is a list of all education related bill heard in committee
BILLS TO WATCH
School Trust Lands
School trust lands have the potential to generate funding for schools. When the state was founded, two parcels of land in every township was set aside as school trust lands. The lands were to be managed to generate revenue for Minnesota's public schools. The DNR manages the lands and has failed to aggressively manage these lands for the benefit of Minnesota school children. HF2244 O'Driscoll/SF1889 Kruse would shift the oversight of the lands over to a school trust lands director and a Permanent School Fund Commission. Read more. The Governor signed the bill into law on 4/28/12.
Control of Staff Development Revenue Given to School Districts
School districts will retain full control of staff development revenue rather than sending 50% to school sites and 25% to special projects in HF2506 Loon/SF2509 Nelson. This will help districts meet increased responsibilities from the new teacher evaluation and the literacy aid laws along with the requirements in the NCLB waiver. The bill also requires school districts to provide one-time CPR and automatic external defibrillator (AED) instruction to secondary students. The Governor signed the bill on 4/23/12.
End of Seniority-Only Based Teacher Layoffs
HF1870 (Peterson, B)/SF1690 (Wolf) allows districts to consider teacher effectiveness first then seniority when laying off teachers. Governor Mark Dayton says he will veto the bill. Read more. The Governor vetoed the bill.
Partial Payback to School of Borrowed Funds
The state borrowed $2.7 billion dollars from schools to balance the state budget mostly by paying only 60% of what the state owes schools this year and delaying 40% to next year. SF2492 (Olson)/HF2083 (Garofalo)would change that delay to 70%/30%. The House version would take $400 million from the recently restocked state budget reserve to make a partial payment to schools (NOTE: this is NOT new money that can be spent to hire back teachers or add programming. It's merely a payment on the loan that the state took from public schools.) However, the House bill also added several policy provisions including ending teacher seniority as the sole determinant in teacher layoffs. The Senate version stripped out the policy provisions but does not specify where the $400 million will come from. Also, the Senate version would freeze teacher pay and benefits (not steps or lanes would be allowed) if contracts are not reached by June 30. The Governor vetoed the bill on 4/5/12.
Equity and Fairness for Children and Taxpayers in Property Poor Districts
The legislature established the equalization program in the early 1990's to make referendums more affordable for residents in property poor districts; so their students can have the same quality educational opportunities as neighboring districts. Equalization has eroded to the point where residents in property poor districts can pay 2 - 4 times more in property taxes to generate the same amount of referendum for their schools. SEE strongly supports HF536 (Runbeck)/SF1752 (Chamberlain) that would make the cost of the referendum more fair. Bill was not heard in committee before deadline.
Budget Constitutional Amendments
No action was taken on these bills in this 2012 Legislative Session.
The legislature is considering several amendments to limit spending and shrink government.
HF1598/SF1384- the supermajority amendment would require a 3/5 majority in both the House and Senate to increase taxes. This bill seems to have the most support right now.
Other bills include
HF1661/SF1378- would limit spending to 98% of the forecasted biennium revenue.
HF1612/SF1364 - limits spending to revenue collected in previous biennium.
Currently, Minnesota owes public schools approximately $4,200 per student due to delayed payment and property tax shifts along with underfunded special education mandates. Considering this debt to Minnesota's students, limiting a budgeting tool seems premature and creates serious concerns whether the State will ever pay schools the money it owes.
In addition, the constitutional amendments would restrict funding for all areas of government including schools. This action would virtually guarantee more pressure on local property taxes. SEE districts, which struggle with higher tax burdens due to their lower property wealth, cannot continue to pass referendums indefinitely so that schools can provide the educational opportunities that children need to succeed.
Here is more information plus the status and authors of the proposed constitutional amendments in Minnesota the Minnesota Budget Project.
The Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities outlines why the supermajority amendment will hurt the State and hurt Greater Minnesota.
None of the budget constitutional amendments were advanced in the 2012 legislative session.
