While most Minnesota students and their families were tucked snug into their beds the past two nights, the Minnesota legislature has been pulling all-nighters to complete their work.
On Wednesday, May 17, 2011, The House took up the K-12 Education Finance Conference Committee Report at about 2 a.m.??Chair Garofalo outlined the adopted provisions and in response to a question about missing early childhood provisions, Garofalo told the chamber, ?One of the disappointing aspects is that in the House we had passed the provisions that were being championed by Rep. Loon, early childhood scholarship program but the Senate did not agree to that and it was just an item we didn?t take back.?
Rep. Greiling questioned the decision to continue into the evening, ?I want to lament for the second time, we are doing the education finance bill in the middle of the night.??Three of our members have had to go home. We should be ashamed of ourselves doing this bill in the middle of the night at 2am when members to maintain their health or to be with their families have to go home.??Tragedy that we have our marquee issue that we all campaigned on in this body and for the second time with this majority, we are doing it in the middle of the night.??But I can see why we would be doing it in the middle of the night. This is only the second time in history that we?ve actually cut K-12 education.?
Rep. Tillberry suggested that the bill was brought up in the early hours because it wasn?t ready for ?primetime.? Rep. Tillberry questioned how the ?winners and losers? were calculated and pointed out the winners and losers throughout the metro area.??Rep. Garofalo defended his numbers and said that the agreement was ?99.5% of the governor?s recommendation.???Garofalo pointed out that he is increasing education funding if you look at general education revenue.??Garofalo called it a ?pretty good deal.?
Rep. Mariani continued the discussion about winners and losers, ?A tragic thing did happen with the K-12 Bill and it is about that thing that binds us together, forget the State Fair as the great Minnesota get together, the true, deep great Minnesota get together is our K-12 Public Education system.??The greatest natural resource our state has is our young people.?
Rep. Davnie talked about the impact that hurting one side of the state has on another, saying, ?This bill fails the students of Minnesota, it fails the families of Minnesota, it fails the businesses of Minnesota, it fails the future of Minnesota.?
Rep. Moran talked about the voucher provisions and asked Rep. Woodard, ?Why do you feel that we need to add another option that takes money from the public schools that doesn?t create better options????Rep. Woodard answered by saying it was the right time and that we need additional choices and it doesn?t take money from pubic schools.
Members also shared concerns about class size, special education funding and early childhood.??The House passed the HF 934 Conference Committee Report on a near party line vote of 70-55.?
The Senate took the conference committee report up at about 1 a.m. on Thursday, May 19, 2011.??Even Chair Olson wasn?t keen on the all-night session taking place, saying, ?I know its past midnight and I haven?t turned into a pumpkin but I?m on the way to turning into a vegetable.??Bit of a sorry state that we are at this hour taking up a bill that represents 41% of the state budget but it needs to happen.?
Sen. Olson gave the members an overview of the new provisions included in the report.??Olson commented about the approach to education funding, ?Challenge but also an opportunity to say what are we getting for the money we are investing.???Olson said that more spending wasn?t the answer and she compared changes in revenue to weaning calves and the difficulties felt by all involved with the change.
Sen. Stumpf mentioned several problems he saw with the bill including expectations and demands placed on the Minnesota Department of Education, the lack of early childhood provisions, special education, educator evaluation and school counselors.??Stumpf asked Olson why all five conferees did not sign the conference committee report and Olson said she would allow those members to speak for themselves.
Sen. Wolf, a conference committee conferee and educator, responded to Sen. Stumpf?s question, by saying, ?I wanted to see some differences happen.? Specifically she said the teacher evaluation provision was ?sticky? for her.??Concluding that she did in fact later support the report, Wolf said, ?I see change and I am excited about the stuff in here; change isn?t always easy.?
Sen. Bonoff, an ex-officio member of the conference committee said, ?The bill does contain much needed reform.? Bonoff also commented about her concerns with the teacher evaluation provisions, saying that the proposal should come from the bottom up and not be so prescriptive.?During Sen. Bonoff?s comments, Sen. Wolf could be seen in the background nodding in agreement.??Bonoff outlined her concerns with the bill including the school grading system and the exclusion of the early childhood scholarships.??Bonoff concluded her statements by talking about equality for all kids, and said, ?It is not about taking anything away from districts, the bigger picture is shifting from a policy that doesn?t focus on achievement to what is going to make the most difference to our children.?
Sen. Kruse, a conference committee conferee, commented about the funding levels in the report, ?There is not cuts in funding to education, funding education above and beyond what we have ever done before-it just looks a little different.???Kruse spoke about reforms included in the report including, Olson?s literacy initiative and the changes to integration and compensatory aid, ?Its time to change, time to take another direction, that will yield true results.?
Sen. Nelson a conference committee conferee and educator, commented about the Governor?s involvement in the conference committee process and according to her, the Commissioner attended one meeting and asked to not be called on.??Nelson commented about the staff development set aside and that the bill removed the mandate, ?Districts are in the best position to make that decision. Now up to the districts not 201 legislators telling them up here how to spend their money.?
Sen. Sieben discussed her concerns with the bill, ?Way too many provisions in the bill that are attacks on our teachers.??It is clear no one wants incompetent teachers in our classroom, especially our teachers.???Sieben called the voucher proposal ?disturbing? and said that she would dispute that vouchers are reforms and cited that the ?outcomes are unclear and constitutionality is questionable.?
Sen. Hann commented about the voucher proposal, ?Who decides? Who gets to decide which schools my children get to attend? Should it be the legislature???A bureaucracy? A school district map? Or should it be the family of the children?? Hann concluded that vouchers were an extension of parental choice and a method of engaging parents. Sen. Latz disputed comments supporting vouchers saying, ?Defunding the public schools is not a way to fund public education.?
Sen. Torres Ray also was agitated by the time in which the bill was brought up, saying, ?We are discussing the future of our children at 2:35 in the morning.???Torres Ray commented about the uncontrollable costs impacting school districts and how the bill ?did nothing? to help districts deal with the growing costs of education, concluding, ?Adding money to the formula means nothing.???Sen. Torres Ray also expressed concerns with the way in which money is distributed to districts under the literacy initiatives.
?Sen. Olson concluded the discussion on the report by talking about her work on literacy with former Senator Kathy Saltzman.??Saying that they explored why the state wasn?t making progress with literacy and found that teachers were not being prepared with all the tools they needed in reading, ?teachers are the key.???Olson concluded by saying, ?This is a very small step.?
The Senate passed the HF 934 Conference Committee Report on a near party line vote of 37-26.??The bill now heads to Governor Dayton and an expected veto.
Source: http://amsdmn.blogspot.com/2011/05/mn-legislature-101-while-you-were.html
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