House, Senate Diverge on Education Funding
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House, Senate Diverge on Education Funding

By April 13, 2025 No Comments

Last Week in Summary

Last week was the third bill deadline at the state legislature. This is the deadline for major omnibus budget bills needed to be passed out of their committees of origin and advanced to the House Ways & Means committee or the Senate Finance committee. The partisan tie in the House prevented a handful of omnibus budget bills, including the education bill, from advancing in a meaningful manner in that chamber. Instead, placeholder bills were advanced to House Ways & Means and the details will be filled in later, after the legislature returns from their spring break this week. When they return from break, they will have four weeks to negotiate a budget deal and get it passed, en route to the Governor’s desk by the constitutional end of session on May 19.

House Education Finance Bill: HF 2433

The House Ed.Finance committee met last Friday to process a placeholder bill, including what are referred to as the “budget forecast articles” for education finance. The hearing took about 10 minutes and members were on their way. No indications were given as to what the major holdups are for this committee to get their work done, but we suspect a push by the GOP to repeal the Unemployment Insurance mandate is at the core of their differences. DFLers want to pay for the program one more year and then move it to local district levies. 

The irony in the House not getting an education bill put together is this committee has the best budget target between themselves, the Governor’s proposal and the Senate DFL’s highly problematic budget plan. MREA is hopeful that our LTFM “Roofs” bill, HF 51, will be included in the eventual omnibus bill. We know $40 million of the House target will go towards READ Act implementation. 

House Education Policy Bill: HF 1306

The House Ed Policy omnibus bill, HF 1306, included our proposal to make the short call substitute pilot project permanent, while striking the daily rate of pay mandate at $200 that was attached to the original pilot program. 

Flexibility for school districts to set the start of their calendars before Labor Day is rumbling around the House process. HF 1124 would permanently change the earliest school start date to September 1, while still allowing for the construction exemption and Flexibly Learning Year options for different calendars. This bill was sent to the House floor for full debate which might not take place until the last week of April or early May, if at all. 

Senate Education Finance Bill: SF 2255

The Senate’s E-12 Finance omnibus bill, SF 2255, advanced last week and includes the following provisions:

  • Repeals the formula inflator, permanently, in the tails (FY 28-29) 
  • Repeals nonpublic school aids
  • Increases the EL cross subsidy aid from 25-33%
  • Increases the Special Education cross subsidy aid from 50-53%
  • Modifies the Literacy Incentive Aid (attached file)
  • One-tine Compensatory Aid hold harmless (attached file)
  • LTFM Roof “above the line” levy expansion
  • $80k minimum on student support personnel aid for all districts (attached file)
  • New distribution formula for the cooperative student support personnel aid (attached file)
  • School board authority to renew a capital levy
  • Consolidation transition aid increase

MREA’s Advocacy Director, Sam Walseth, was the closing testifier during committee discussion on the bill, noting that the historic funding was missing in the Senate’s bill, but the historic policies and mandates remain. MREA urges members to contact your Senators to put the formula inflator back into its rightful place in this omnibus bill. Read the Inflationary Adjustment article for more information on the formula inflator and how to articulate the need to your Senators.

Senate Ed. Policy Bill: SF 1740

SF 1740 is now awaiting debate in the full Senate. That debate could be weeks away. The bill is significantly scaled back. Proposals to allow schools to start on August 30th, repeal Algebra II, allow K-6 suspensions if negotiated in IEPs, teacher licensure flexibility, were all dropped from the Senate’s Education omnibus policy bill. There will be amendments debated on the Senate floor. We’ll report on those when that time comes. 

Education Committees & Schedules

Defending the Historic Part of Historic Funding
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