MN Legislature Schools Dayton DOE on Separation of Powers

Karen R. Effrem, MD – President

In answer to our March 9th query,” How Will Legislature Deal with Dayton DOE Lawlessness on QRS??,” both the House and Senate education committees have responded forcefully and well. On March 27th, the House Education Finance Committee passed their omnibus education bill, HF 2949, containing language that deals specifically with the issue of the Department of Education’s efforts to implement the early childhood scholarships by requiring that recipients attend a program that has been rated by the quality rating system (QRS). (Audio is available here).

The provision contains language from two different bills. One, HF 1828, by Rep. Paul Anderson (R-Starbuck) requires the scholarship funds to be evenly divided between metro and rural recipients. The other, HF 2729, by Rep. Jennifer Loon (R-Eden Prairie) after an excellent amendment by Rep. Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton), makes sure that parents can use the scholarship to attend the program of their choice and takes $250,000 of the scholarship funds for a voluntary, parent-involved, home-based literacy-only program that does not use or require the use of a QRS.  Education Liberty Watch was willing to suspend its usual skepticism of home visiting programs for this one based on the facts that it was not a typical home visiting program and that it was accomplishing other important purposes.

The Senate bill, SF 2107, is authored by Senator Terri Bonoff (DFL-Minnetonka) and contains only the funding for the home based program without any other changes. The bill passed unanimously out of committee after some minor amendments and awaits action on the Senate floor.

During the committee process, both the House and Senate firmly instructed the Department of Education on the separation of powers when they objected to the funding and other changes in the scholarship program. House Education Finance Committee Chairman Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington) said during the initial March 14th hearing on the Loon bill:

“I stand up for the legislative branch as a coequal partner in government. If the department is of the opinion that they can get out the truck and drive over us on this issue, they are sadly mistaken and in a bad place to be”

Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Gen Olson (R-Minnetrista) made similar comments during the March 13th hearing (here at 52:13) on the Bonoff bill after the Department’s director of government relations, Kevin McHenry objected to the expenditure:

“Well, Mr. McHenry, the legislature passed the scholarships and if the legislature passed this as effectively being an effective use and application of that scholarship money, I think that is a prerogative of the legislative branch, which the executive branch in this case is expected to carry out.”

A transcript of Dr. Karen Effrem’s testimony for the House hearing is available here with audio available here. The audio of the Senate hearing is here with her testimony at about 46:50. Relevant testimony to this discussion is the following:

Despite our usual concerns about the data collection and parental autonomy in home visiting programs, we want to thank Rep. Loon for bringing forth this bill. We enthusiastically support a program that is voluntary, private, free-market, faith and home based, literacy focused, and does not require the top-down, one size fits all, government mandated program or curriculum standards without statutory authority…

…Again, we thank Rep. Loon for authoring this bill and look forward to this committee asserting its proper authority under separation of powers doctrine, as well as protecting parental and provider authority and autonomy.

There was some written whining about the Loon bill by secular, leftist activist Beth Hawkins at MinnPost who wrote inaccurately (again) that $500,000 instead of the actual $250,000 was being used for the literacy program.  Although there were some continued objections by DFL members  and Mr. McHenry to the Loon/Anderson provision in the House omnibus bill hearing, the scholarship provision passed unscathed.

In other important and related early childhood news, Rep. Mary Franson (R-Alexandria) has introduced a bill, HF 2964, that prohibits union dues or fair share fees from being taken from these early childhood scholarships. It is analogous to legislation that has already passed both the full House (HF 1766 by Rep. Kathy Lohmer, Rep. Franson, and twelve others) and Senate (SF 1630 by Senator Ted Lillie) but applies specifically to the early childhood scholarship funds instead of the childcare subsidies in the Dept. of Human Services. This legislation deals with the ongoing fight between the Dayton administration coupled with union allies to force a unionization election for some childcare providers, again without statutory authority, that is currently being waged in the courts. More details on this battle and Rep. Franson’s brave stands for both welfare reform and employee freedom will be coming shortly.

The authors of these bills, the supportive committee members, and the committee chairpersons should be heartily thanked and these bills supported as the end of session crunch may be more rapidly approaching than previously thought amidst rumors of efforts to adjourn by April 5th.

Please thank and encourage the committee chairpersons,legislative leadership, and your individual legislators to keep these bills moving. Contact information for the House is here and the same information for the Senate is available here.

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

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

House Speaker Kurt Zellers  (651-296-5502  rep.kurt.zellers@house.mn)

House Majority Leader Matt Dean (651-296-3018 rep.matt.dean@house.mn)

Senate Majority Leader Dave Senjem (651-296-3903 sen.dave.senjem@senate.mn)