- The "science of reading" debate continues
- A Singapore school plans a soup-to-nuts curriculum
- Helping students (and teachers) deal with anxiety in the classroom
- How much information on their kids' schoolwork do parents need?
- Do recommendation letters add anything to the hiring process?
- Improving students' oral communication skills
- How to be a hands-on boss without micromanaging
- Helping students become flexible, sophisticated thinkers
- Coherent background knowledge as a key to reading improvement
- "Purpose-first" support for high-school students
- Ending the school year with style
- Books on social justice and tips for making them accessible for ELs
- Math lessons on calculating risk
- Jennifer Gonzalez on helping good teachers hang in there
- Gloria Ladson-Billings on culturally relevant teaching
- The ingredients of successful student collaboration
- Increasing ELs' social interaction and oral language practice
- More on the science of reading
- Building a guiding coalition
- Looking at data on attendance, behavior, and course passing
- Recommended graphic novels
- Developing character strengths that support democracy
- Preparing students for an uncertain future
- More evidence of the ineffectiveness of annual performance evaluations
- A plea for reconnecting with the human and physical world
- Beyond the "science of reading"
- Focusing on the texts students read in ELA classes
- Helping students make wise and ethical use of their cellphones
- Jennifer Gonzalez on working with students with ADHD
- Can school psychologists do their work remotely?
- Getting to the heart of the matter with a troubled colleague or friend
- Coaching teachers on the most effective use of data
- Jay McTighe on supervising for the big picture
- More ideas on dealing with procrastination
- Myths about student motivation
- Resources for AAIP Month
- How writers can grab readers' attention
- The art of delegation
- A strategy for overcoming implicit bias
- Areas where classroom bias can arise
- "Attendance value-added" - a new measure of school quality
- Effective use of peer support groups
- The debate on banning books
- Deconstructing the LGBTQ culture war
- Hallmarks of deep learning
- Your city or town way back in time
The 2022 session closed with the vast majority of legislative promises unfulfilled. The result can be attributed to a number of factors, none of which reflect well on the legislators. The key education function of the legislature is to provide funding for schools. This year a unique opportunity was presented to work on the general education shortfall caused by the demands of special education funding. Sadly, the legislature passed on that opportunity. Whether they come back in the next weeks to finish is unlikely but not impossible. Whether this unique opportunity to make an impact on the “special education cross subsidy” returns next year is unknown.
The legislature knew for months that it had billions in additional revenue. Again, the decision of how much to spend was not made until the remaining days of the session. Even then there was still time. The Republican Senate, Democratic House and the Governor entered into a spending agreement on May 15th. The spending agreement was straightforward:
Education, $1 billion over the next two years
Health & Human Services, $1 billion over the next two years
Public Safety & Judiciary, $450 million
Bonding, $1.4 billion
Higher Education, $50 million
Tax Relief, $4 billion
The agreement, entered into on an early Sunday morning, gave committee chairs 8 full days to work out how to spend the money. (The actual amounts for education were $320 million in 2022- 23 and $680 million for 2023-24.) The deadline for completing the work was midnight, Sunday the 22nd. The first announced agreement was in taxes. The deal included the elimination of the state tax on social security, a very popular provision. Next, Higher Education completed its work and awaited floor action. Four key bills were next. Education, bonding, Health & Human Services and Public Safety were mired in disagreement and never came to any agreement. The agreement was all or nothing. All of the bills had to be passed and taxes would be last. Absent agreement, nothing happened.
It is debatable how far apart the two sides actually were, but no agreement is no agreement.
One the limited positive side, dozens of proposed new mandates were not passed. This is somewhat misleading, since with a few small exceptions, the mandates would not have been included in any final spending bill.
In the end, approximately $8 billion was left unspent, a billion of which was earmarked for education. That money would have been available to schools starting July 1st.
Immediately, talk started that a special session should be called to “finish the work”. Typically, the governor calls a special session after the parties come to an agreement. This group didn’t need more time, it needed an agreement.
Absent any movement toward an agreement, the prospects of a special session are dim. Special sessions require global agreements signed off by everyone, including the minority parties. During the final 8 days of the session three of the biggest committees—Education; Health and Human Services, and Public Safety---were unable to come to agreement. Not much has changed since the adjournment for the committees to come together. The only hope is that leadership would come together and direct an agreement. There is some whispering that leadership is having conversations, so hope is alive.
A few bills were passed:
Mental Health Funding ($92 million) Includes a small amount for school mental health grants.
School Board Member Employment Raises the amount a school board member can earn from the district to $20,000. (The cap had been $8,000.)
Pensions The earnings limitation on return-to-work agreements for retirees was temporarily removed. The earnings limitation resumes in fiscal year 2025. The current limitation is $46,000. The purpose is to allow retirees to help with the teacher shortage.
Student Data Privacy Act This bill involved considerable work by the education lobbyists to get it into acceptable form. The bill is a move to prevent the tracking of student information on school district owned devices. The bill includes significant limitations on selling or using student data for marketing or advertising.
Retirements and Goodbyes
Monday the 23rd was a ceremonial day. (Technically, the Senate adjourned at midnight Saturday while the House adjourned on Monday.) The retirement speeches were the order of business and there were hours of them. Representative Paul Marquart delivered a memorable speech—but of course we all knew he would. The most remembered speech however will be that of Senator David Tomassoni (who suffers from ALS). He delivered his computer assisted remarks to a silent, packed Senate chamber. Senator Tomassoni thrived at the legislature and his reflections underscored his courage, humor, passion and humanity.
Education said goodbye to many key players. Senator Greg Clausen has been a strong advocate for school administrators. He will be sorely missed. Other key education legislators leaving include Representative Sondra Erickson, Representative Jim Davnie, Senator Chuck Wiger, and Representative Paul Marquart, just to name a few.
One retiree quoted Dr. Suess: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”
And of course, we will do it all again in January of 2023 with a new group.
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The 2022 legislative session continues to wind down. The week opened with a press event put together by several education organizations. Parents, board members, school administrators together with advocates spoke about the need for special education funding. The event was generally considered a success with good press coverage and a clear message to all legislators – “increase special education funding”. The coalition includes MSBA, AMSD, SEE, MREA, MASA, MASSP and MESPA as well as other groups. Several education stars testified at the hearing.
Leadership could easily authorize $300-$400 million for special education funding. They have the money. The question will be whether a decision to spend the money will be made in the next 8 days. At this stage of the session, this is largely a leadership decision. Pretty safe to say the Governor would sign a bill with needed special education dollars. Bad news part--if it doesn’t happen now, the issue is basically set aside for another year.
Speaking of leadership—On Wednesday Speaker Hortman, reported on twitter that she tested positive for COVID. Yet another event complicating the session. Wednesday was the annual “I 90” party. This event is hosted by southern Minnesota legislators and obviously named after the interstate highway crossing southern Minnesota. (All of the legislative sponsors were Republicans, another picture of the republican dominance in rural Minnesota.) A portion of the event was spent seeking shelter from the major storms that rumbled through the metro on Wednesday. The Senate passed its omnibus tax bill on Wednesday, setting the stage for the one of the session’s major bills to take center stage for the last week.
The Governor will be on Leech lake for the opening of fishing. Republicans will be at their convention in Rochester.
The Education Conference Committee has a room scheduled for every day from 9:00 to 12:00. The House and Senate have a very different view of how this time should be used. The gavel (symbol of control of the meeting) passes to the other side on a day by day basis with the House starting on Monday. Monday’s hearing was not the typical review of the K12 bill. Instead, the House held a general hearing about mental health. Seventeen witnesses were scheduled to talk about various aspects of school mental health. The committee was unable to get through all of the witnesses which were continued to Wednesday.
The Senate was in charge Tuesday and led a discussion about provisions in the bill. On Wednesday the House came back to the mental health witnesses and witness on special education funding. Thursday the Senate talked about reading. The meeting concluded with some back and forth banter about process but nothing that qualified as fireworks. The Senate forwarded a literacy offer in the afternoon and posted it online.
Basically the Legislature shut down for Friday. The Senate chair had indicated they would be unavailable due to the prior scheduling of the Republican Endorsing Convention in Rochester. The House met anyway, with a virtual hearing on early childhood and discipline. Again, this was public testimony that was presented earlier in the year.
They will be back on Monday with the majority of questions raised in this session still unanswered.
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The Senate took up its education bill on Tuesday. As you know by now, the Senate bill covers one subject, literacy. The Senate Democrats has been frustrated that their bills haven’t been heard in committee and were primed to offer amendments on the floor. Despite good intentions, this strategy doesn’t often work. Rather than vote on the amendments, procedural approaches are used to avoid actually voting on issues that might pose problems for some members in an election.
None of this is surprising. The majority often disposes of amendments by ruling them out or order, non-germane, or violative of budget parameters. The difference on Tuesday was a short loss of decorum during the proceedings. Senator Pappas was going through her amendment to fund English Learners over a 4-year period. She refused to yield the floor when a fellow Senator rose to raise a point of order. Eight resounding bangs of the President Osmek’s gavel did not stop her. A threat from the President to stop “or I will have your microphone turned off” was similarly unsuccessful. Senator Benson patiently rose and requested a recess, resulting in an end to the fracas. (You could hear Senator Osmek say “I think I broke the gavel” as Senators left for the recess.) After recess, the Senators were back to normal.
The House had a similar fight on a procedural motion on the Tuesday. Tempers, yelling, procedural arguments and more were all part of the discussion. It is typical that frustrations start coming out this time of year.
The House and Senate appointed education conferees:
House: Davnie, Sanstede, Richardson, Hassan, Erickson
Senate: Chamberlain, Eichorn, Duckworth, Coleman, Wiger
Each of the committees has one member of the minority. Representative Erickson and Senator Wiger both fill that spot. Both are former chairs of education; both have been on the committee for over two decades and both are retiring this year.
Education conference committee meetings are scheduled every morning next week from 9:00 to 12:00. The House convenes the first meeting. The gavel passes back and forth each day, so the Senate will convene the Tuesday meeting. The technical purpose of a conference committee is to work out differences between the two bills. This purpose was abandoned years ago and now involves putting together a new bill that will ultimately go back to the House and Senate floors. Technically, it’s not even called a bill. The conference committee will issue a “Report” which, upon return to the House and Senate floors, cannot be amended.
The public hearings next week will largely be a dog and pony show. (“dog and pony show”: an elaborate display or presentation, especially as part of a promotional campaign.) Years ago testimony was not permitted in conference committee meetings. Now, the entire week will be filled with testifiers repeating pretty much what was said in committee hearings in February and March. Doubtful that the testimony will change the minds of either side. The final decisions will be made at the leadership level in the last week of the session. But we will go through the testimony, nonetheless.
On Monday, education groups (including MASSP and MESPA) will hold a press conference attempting to influence the legislative leadership and Governor to spend some of the surplus on special education shortfalls. (Monies that go to special education help the general fund as well. It’s complicated, but to put it simply, a dollar is a dollar.)
The importance of deadlines was underscored again. The Legislature continues to delay decisions until the last minute. Over the past two years, the state emptied its unemployment compensation fund. This was a direct result of the pandemic. April 30th was the deadline for putting the money back in the account. If the state didn’t replenish the unemployment trust fund by the 30th, statewide business would bear the burden through significantly increased unemployment taxes. We had the money, but as usual the House and Senate couldn’t agree on a bill until the last minute. On Friday the 29th, the House voted 124-5 and the Senate voted 65-1 authorizing the $2.7 billion payment to the fund. The bill included an additional $500 million for frontline worker bonuses. (The bonus payments will be between $1,000 and $750 depending on how many people apply.) So while there was overwhelming agreement about the bill, the legislation couldn’t be passed until the final day.
The bill was rushed over to the Governor for signature on Friday night. (In fact, he stepped out of his son’s volleyball game to sign the bill.)
The other big event of the week as the K12 bill. The House debated its K12 bill for 6 hours on Wednesday. Two hours of the debate covered Republican amendments, all defeated along party lines. The other 4 hours were spent on speeches.
The bill includes $1.2 billion in funding together with a long slate of mandates and policy initiatives. Most of the discussion was about the policy provisions rather than the money. Unlike the unemployment compensation bill, the vote was largely partisan. The bill passed 69 to 61, far short of what a billion-dollar education bill would typically generate.
The Senate went home at 1:00 on Friday afternoon while the House stayed in session until 10:30 PM. It continues to be the case that the House likes to talk a lot more than the Senate.
The Senate is planning on taking up its education bill this afternoon. As you know, this bill is significantly smaller than the House bill. It will be interesting to see how long the debate will take.
The Education groups are planning a joint press conference to help convince the Legislature to spend additional dollars on special education (the infamous special education--cross subsidy).
Whether money is added to special education funding is up to the leadership of the House and Senate and the Governor. That decision will probably be made in the final days of session. Session ends three weeks from today, so the clock on that is ticking. Last week the Governor made it clear that he would not be calling any special session, so the deadline is set.
Standing committees are done for the year so the entire focus will now be conference committees and floor sessions. Bonding and taxes are pretty sure bets for passing bills. Education and Judiciary are big questions at this point.
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