Important Education Conference Committee Information

The Education Conference Committee has been meeting to discuss the financial and policy provisions of the two versions of the large (omnibus) education finance bill (HF 934/SF 1030) to see where there are differences and similarities.  There have been no real decisions made so far, only discussions regarding what is in each bill, literacy programs, and teacher evaluations.

The reasons for the leisurely pace on the conference committee meetings are both because of differences between the House and the Senate and because the governor is not actively involved in negotiations regarding either the budget or policy.  The governor needs to stop standing on the sidelines and actively engage in the process.  Contact information for the conferees and the governor are as follows:

SENATE:

Senator Gen Olson (Chairwoman) 651-296-1282 sen.gen.olson@senate.mn

Senator Carla Nelson 651-296-4848 sen.carla.nelson@senate.mn

Senator Benjamin Kruse 651-296-4154 sen.benjamin.kruse@senate.mn

Senator Dave Thompson 651-296-5252 sen.dave.thompson@senate.mn

Senator Pam Wolfe   651-296-2556 sen.pam.wolf@senate.mn

HOUSE:

Representative Pat Garofalo (Chairman) 651-296-1069 rep.pat.garofalo@house.mn

Representative Connie Doepke   651-296-4315 rep.connie.doepke@house.mn

Representative Sondra Erickson 651-296-6746 rep.sondra.erickson@house.mn

Representative Dan Fabian 651-296-9635 rep.dan.fabian@house.mn

Representative Tim Kelly 651-296-8635 rep.tim.kelly@house.mn

GOVERNOR MARK DAYTON:  651-201-3400 or http://mn.gov/governor/contact-us/form/

Please consider asking these legislators and the governor to:

1)  Do not spend anything new on education and if possible cut the budget. When every other area of life in Minnesota inside and outside of government has to deal with cuts there is no reason to be adding one BILLION more to the education budget.  Especially in light of the facts that achievement is stagnant and there will have to be more negotiation on other areas of the budget and with the governor.

2) Support the Senate position on early childhood spending. Ask them to not spend another $10 million on early childhood.  Even the scholarships for poor children give parents incentive to have someone else raise and educate their children when these programs at best do not work and at worst cause academic and emotional harm. If they insist on doing this spending for scholarships, at least have them take the funds from already existing, but ineffective programs like Head Start or ECFE.

3) Beware the Senate Language on early childhood quality rating systems (QRS). There is language in the Senate bill that requires new early childhood spending to be research based and implemented based on the quality rating system framework already in statute, which would be a back door way of taking this bureaucratic, small business hampering QRS statewide.  This language should be modified to just say research based programs or removed altogether.

4)  Preserve the autonomy of private schools. Either the mandates in the House voucher provision should be removed or the voucher language should be taken out of the bill altogether and the tuition tax credits in the Senate tax bill should move forward.

5) Not implement the new social studies standards or the common core national standards.  The social studies standards are revisionist, anti-American, and anti-capitalist. The national standards are an unconstitutional, one-size-fits all means of eventual federal control of curriculum.  There is language that prevents implementation of both that should be supported.