Minnesota schools will see a surge in state funding, along with new course requirements, teacher diversity grants and changes to reading instruction, under legislation that will become law with Gov. Tim Walz’s signature.
The compromise education budget that passed the House on Tuesday and the Senate early Wednesday morning will increase school funding by $2.26 billion, or 10.8 percent over the current biennium.
Much of that comes through 4 percent and 2 percent increases to the per-student state aid formula and extra money to close the gap between revenue and spending on students with disabilities and those learning English.
Schools also won ongoing increases to the per-student formula with a new provision that will tie future funding hikes to inflation, subject to a 2 percent floor and 3 percent ceiling.
“This is going to provide funding stability for Minnesota schools,” education finance committee chair Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, said before dawn Wednesday, as her party worked around a conflict in one lawmaker’s schedule in order to get the bill passed on a 35-32 vote.
Republican opposition
All but one Republican in the House and Senate voted against the bill as members complained of new mandates for schools that will consume some of their new funding.
Those include the removal of statutory language that has made hourly school workers ineligible for unemployment benefits during the summer; although lawmakers set aside $135 million to cover those new payments, that left less money for other education priorities.
Sen. Andrew Mathews, R-Princeton, was among the Republicans voting to send the bill back to the conference committee that found a compromise between the House and Senate education plans.
“This bill has come back with less money per pupil and more mandates,” he said.
Sen. Zach Duckworth, R-Lakeville, was among those complaining of a provision that will make it harder for certain teachers to get a permanent license, saying it would hurt efforts to increase teacher diversity.
Money for mandates
However, the bill does include some $50 million for recruiting and retaining teachers of color, said Rep. Cheryl Youakim, DFL-Hopkins, House education finance chair.
Kunesh dismissed the notion that the bill’s unfunded mandates will harm schools.
“This is an increase like we have never seen before,” with $2.26 billion in new money in the next biennium and another $3.2 billion in the two years that follow, she said. Given all that money, “I don’t believe there are any unfunded mandates in this bill.”
Education Minnesota President Denise Specht said the bill “contains funding and policy that will be life-changing for students and educators — if the money is spent correctly at the district level.”
Funding details
Specific provisions in the bill include:
- $663 million to reduce the gap between special-education revenues and spending. State aid for that purpose would grow from 6.4 percent of each district’s special-education cross-subsidy today to 44 percent next biennium and 50 percent in fiscal year 2027.
- $87 million in the next biennium and $171 million after that to close the English learner cross-subsidy as per-student aid grows from $704 to $1,775.
- $75 million to improve reading instruction, mainly through teacher training and new instructional materials.
- $64 million for school support personnel, such as nurses, counselors, social workers and psychologists, and double that amount in future bienniums.
- $45 million in dedicated funding for school libraries, which is a first for the state.
- $30 million to prepare more special-education teachers, where a shortage has left schools using hundreds of teachers whose licenses don’t comply with federal disabilities laws.
- Continued funding for 4,000 preschool seats that were due to expire, plus an additional 3,000 seats in fiscal year 2025 and 2,200 more the following biennium.
Policy changes
Schools also must contend with a flurry of policy changes in the new legislation, including:
- Students entering high school in 2024 and later will have to pass classes in civics and personal finance in order to graduate.
- School districts must begin offering courses in ethnic studies by 2026, first in high schools, and a year later in elementary and middle schools.
- Schools are not to use exclusionary discipline unless the student presents an immediate danger or the school already has tried an alternative.
- Schools can’t use American Indian symbols or names as mascots without permission from the state’s 11 tribal nations.
- In a welcome policy change for districts, school boards will be allowed to renew their existing operating referenda – which increase property taxes to boost local school funding – one time without going to voters.
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