Date to Remember

November 7, 2006
Election Day

At the Capitol
It was a very short but intense legislative session. In the last hours of the session, the legislature decided to spend $21.5 milion on K-12 and $39 million on Early Care and Early Childhood Education. Remember that the K-12 Education policy bill was passed separately from the Supplemental Budget bill.

K-12 Education Policy

• Outlines review process for academic standards in each subject area. The Commissioner of Education must embed technology and information literacy standards into the state’s academic standards and graduation requirements.
• Requires the Department to provide to school districts a crisis-management policy to include strategies for lock-downs, tornado drills and fire drills. The policy must include at least five lock-down drills, five fire drills and one tornado drill.
• Requires the Department of Education to implement a new accounting system for school districts. The Department will convert financial data from school districts into the consolidated financial statement and publish it on the Department website. The consolidated financial statement is designed to make school budgets easier to understand. The bill also repeals school district structural balance requirements.
• Allows agricultural science to satisfy academic standards science requirements.
• Allows students at the Ronald McDonald House in Minneapolis to qualify for the graduation incentives program.
• Any district that receives funding for Pre- K programs must use the money for that purpose, unless the school board votes to spend it in other ways.
• Special education costs for Fiscal Year 2006 are estimated to be $640 million. If the forecast is off Minnesota could lose all federal money. The bill provides that if a small budget amount remains after all special education costs are paid, it will go to the special education account as a cushion.

Supplemental Budget Bill for K-12

• One-time Energy Assistance. $3.67 per student to help school districts pay for heating, fuel, and other energy costs.
• $250,000 for the development of a K-12 Chinese curriculum for Minnesota schools.
• $1 million for Advanced Placement programs.
• One-Time Emergency Aid: Red Lake and Rocori. One-time emergency aid to help schools recover costs after shootings at these schools ($524,000 for Red Lake and $137,000 for Rocori).
• Testing and calibration on existing school ventilation systems are now approved uses of health-and-safety revenue ($14.8 million FY ’07).
• A half-cent per student increase added to school lunch programs to help schools defray costs of providing healthy food to students (an additional $500,000 per year).
• The Northwest Online College in High Schools Program is eligible for $50,000 for professional development and to develop web-based technology.
• $25,000 for continued funding for the Scholars of Distinction Program. Public or private school, as well as home-schooled students, can earn the distinction.
• $36,000 to the Department of Education to pay for lost aid due to a miscalculation of health-and safety revenue in the Waseca School District.
• $1.5 million to fund a character development pilot program. Districts may use the money to purchase character-development curriculum.
• TIMSS participation: $500,000 for the Commissioner of Education to contract to have Minnesota 4th and 8th graders participate in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.

Early Childhood Education Policy

• Head Start changed from grant program to appropriated program to conform to federal guidelines.
• Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) is expanded to include other relatives; current law allows only parents of enrolled children to participate.

Early Childhood Funding

• $2.7 million for an ECFE funding increase ($112 per child, up from $96 in 2005 and $104 in 2006). Restores cuts made in 2003 Session.
• $287,000 for the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment and Intervention Program. The assessment will examine the school readiness of children starting kindergarten and work with children who are identified as not yet ready for school.
• $143,000 for health and developmental screening aids. The bill promotes early screening of children prior to the start of kindergarten by reimbursing school districts $50 for every three year old, $40 for every four year old and $30 for every five or six year old or children screened within 30 days after first enrolling in kindergarten. School districts no longer reimbursed for children screened 30 days after the first day of attendance.
• $400,000 for Early Childhood Part C eligibility to conform to federal law.
• $80,000 for the Educate Parents Partnership to provide resources and information to new parents on child care and early education.
• $2.3 million for self-sufficiency and lifelong learning includes an increase in funding for Adult Basic Education and funding for an intensive English program for refugees.
• $250,000 to create a Legislative Commission to End Poverty by 2020.

Questions? mary@parentsunited.org