This session, the House and Senate passed a comprehensive K-12 education budget that reflects Minnesota’s strong commitment to excellence in education. The final K-12 Education Omnibus Bill provides more than the governor’s overall recommendations for K-12 funding, and keeps per pupil funding intact for 2004-05 with a total appropriation of nearly $12 billion. In addition to keeping classroom funding intact, the bill also makes some key reforms to Minnesota public schools. The bill includes funding for several innovative K-12 education programs, including $2.5 million for an online distance-learning initiative and $778,000 for a program to assist “gifted” students who exhibit high academic achievement. The K-12 legislation also repeals the January 15 deadline for teacher contract negotiation for the next two years. In addition, it raises the referendum cap, which gives schools in District 14B more flexibility when it comes to passing future school levies. The bill includes provisions that help schools in both rural and metro Minnesota, and provides a very balanced plan for all Minnesota students. The K-12 education bill restores funding for transportation sparsity to aid rural school districts, and also includes equity revenue and equalization aid. This could benefit our local schools because it allows them to be on a more equitable basis with high-property value schools in wealthier parts of the state. Under current law, there is no time limit on Limited English Proficiency (LEP) funding for students who are in the process of learning English. The K-12 omnibus bill reduces the length of time that an LEP pupil may be counted for funding purposes. The bill also maintains Alternative Compensation Aid to encourage school districts to move away from traditional steps and lanes pay scales to compensation methods that reward teachers for doing their job well. The K-12 bill makes the Career and Technical Levy permanent in order to allow various career and technical programs to continue, and also requires a school district to hold a public hearing before the school board agrees to proposed projects including project labor agreements. Along with the budget plan, the Legislature passed legislation which requires the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in K-12 public and charter schools one or more times each week, unless waived annually by a majority vote of the school board. The school district must also instruct students in the proper etiquette toward, correct display of, and respect for the flag, unless this requirement is also waived annually. One of the most important policy reforms in the area of K-12 education passed this year. After five years of negotiations, a bill that repeals the Profile of Learning and calls for the development and implementation of new academic standards for Minnesota students was passed into law. The new legislation, which goes into effect for the upcoming 2003-04 school year, requires students to earn course credits in the academic areas of language arts; mathematics; science; the arts; and social studies (including geography, economics, government, civics and citizenship). To develop statewide rigorous academic standards in these core areas, the Commiss-ioner of Education has worked with parents, teachers, school principals and local school board members, along with college faculty and members of the Minnesota business community. Unlike profile requirements which were criticized for being unclear and confusing, the new standards are concise, objective and grade-level appropriate. Along with the standards in the core areas of study, school districts will also establish standards for electives to include health and physical education, vocational and technical education and world languages. These standards will be supplemented with grade-level benchmarks that will make it easier to track an individual student’s progress from year-to-year. All of these standards and benchmarks will be reviewed on a regular basis by the Department of Education. Under this bill, new standards in math, English, reading and the arts will be implemented this fall, and standards in science and social studies will follow in 2004. In addition, school districts must adopt graduation requirements that meet or exceed state graduation requirements by the 2007-08 school year. Annual statewide assessment tests are required for all students in grades 3-12. If you have questions or concerns about the K-12 education budget or any of the issues we covered this session, please contact me at (651) 296-4373 or (800) 94-stang or via e-mail at rep.doug.stang@house.mn.
