House Education Finance Omnibus Bill Introduced

Over the weekend, Rep. Jim Davnie released the House Education Finance Omnibus Bill. The committee began a walk-through of the bill Monday morning.

MSBA is very pleased to see increases on the general education formula and in special education. In an effort to begin reforming the current special education formula, special education cross-subsidy aid will be a new category to help slow the growth in the cross-subsidy. Special education costs billed back to resident districts will be reduced from 90 percent to 85 percent in fiscal year 2020 and 80 percent for fiscal years 2021 and later. Another key element of the omnibus bill is the inclusion of all special education paperwork reduction bills brought forth by the New Ulm School District and MSBA.

Other committees have provisions in omnibus bills that impact education:

• Property and Local Tax Division -- Increases the school building bond agricultural credit from 40 percent to 70 percent of the tax on the property attributable to school district bonded debt levies. The credit is available to all property classified as agricultural, excluding the house, garage, and surrounding one acre of land of an agricultural homestead. Effective beginning with property taxes payable in 2020.
• House Energy and Climate Division -- Creates a $16 million grant program to defray the costs of deploying solar energy systems on school buildings. According to Session Daily, "The grant funds a lease purchase project under which an investor pays for the initial deployment of the solar energy system and the school district makes annual payments under a purchase payment agreement.  When the investor has exhausted the financial benefits of the project(tax credits, depreciation, etc.) the school district purchases the investor's remaining financial interest in the system and terminates the agreement."

Governor Walz Signs Snow Days Bill

• The board of a school district or charter
  school that canceled school on one or more days during the 2018-2019 school year due to
  health and safety concerns may count those days as instructional days for purposes of calculating the number of hours and days in the school year.
• If a school district would not have met the required minimum number of days and hours of instruction for students, it must report to the commissioner of education the number of days and hours that the district counted to meet the required days and hours of instruction. A district is also encouraged to adopt an e-learning plan.
• If a school board resolves to count a day that school was canceled as an instructional day , the school district must compensate employees and
  contract employers or allow the day to be made up on a designated day.
• The minimum number of days of teacher service that a probationary teacher must complete equals the difference between 120 days and the number of scheduled instructional days that were canceled due to health and safety concerns and that the school
  board resolved to count as days of instruction. 

Sick and Family Leave Bill Continues to Move in the House

Lengthy debate continues on how to implement and pay for up to 12-weeks sick and family leave.

Both the Jobs and State Government committees heard HF 5 last week.  MSBA testified with concerns to the cost, the impact to collective bargaining and the issue of substitute teachers.