Base per pupil funding formula
This provides a substantial portion of the funding from the state for K-12 public school students.  For fiscal year 2007, it is budgeted at $4,974 per student.  With the two per cent increase in each of the next two years of the biennium, the base funding would rise 2% to $5,074 in fiscal year (FY) ’08 and to $5,176 in FY ’09.  The fiscal year runs from July 1^st to June 30, roughly coinciding with the school year.  According to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) this 2% increase is very close to the expected rise in the CPI during that same time period.  Legislators, in hearings, have raised the question whether or not that is a good measure of the actual inflation in public school costs. 

High School Reform
Commissioner of Education, Alice Seagren, in her testimony before this senate committee, highlighted numerous high school reform initiatives contained in the governor’s bill.  These are:  the 3R high schools and “successful schools”, additional funding for the Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, various pilot programs, teacher academies and technology funding.

3R High Schools- Rigor, Relevance, and Results
For schools that implement the governor’s “3R” high school reforms, a total of $75 million would be available for FY ’08 and ’09, with 25% of that becoming available in the first year of the program and the remaining 75% becoming available to high schools in the second year...  It amounts to $68 per pupil in ’08 and $200 per pupil in ’09. 

One of the requirements of the governor’s “3R” proposal is that every high school student would complete one year of college or a career preparation program while in high school.  Senators raised questions about this plan, such as:  how can we control whether or not the private colleges, and out state colleges actually give credit for a year of coursework that high schools would deem college level.  Also, one senator suggested maybe we should wait until we control the achievement in the earlier years, before embarking on this effort. Senators seemed cool to the idea of requiring students to complete a year of college or career and technical work in high school.   Minnesota PTA also has concerns about the one size fits all nature of this proposal, as we mentioned in our earlier article on the governor’s budget.  We think that there are higher priority areas of focus, such as closing the achievement gap, taking the pressure off of the general ed budget by reducing the special education cross subsidy. There will be more discussion on this in upcoming hearings. 

Successful Schools
The governor’s bill calls for $75 million in one-time funding in both FY 2008 and 2009 for schools that maintain a three star rating in reading or math, based on the NCLB report card, or their performance on the MCA II tests. It can be used only in the school that met the criteria and can not be used for permanent staff salary increases.   Minnesota PTA is concerned that this use of money will not help to reduce the achievement gap and will not put the funds in schools where they are most needed.  Schools with high numbers of recent immigrants, who don’t have an adequate mastery of the English language, or students living in poverty, require more resources to meet the goals set by NCLB.

Special Education Funding
The governor’s proposal would increase special education appropriation 2% per year in FY 2008 and 2009.  While an increase is very important, the 2% does not come close to meeting the on going needs of special education, which is growing at a rate of 4 ½% per year.   Clearly, senators are concerned about addressing the special education cross subsidy.  One positive change that the governor is proposing, is reimbursement to school districts based on the current year’s special education population in the current year, as opposed to compensating districts two years after those students are enrolled in the district.  This will accelerate receipt of some special education funding to districts.

Minnesota PTA is supporting the P.S. Minnesota funding framework proposed by a coalition of most of the state’s major education organizations.  The framework contains a number of funding changes. One component of this framework would change the state level of reimbursement for funding a district’s special education costs. Reimbursement from the state for a special education teacher’s salaries and benefits would be set at 65% of the total cost to a district. 

Also, districts would receive 50% of their costs for special education supplies and equipment and 50% of contract expenses.  Currently, the state will reimburse districts up to 68% of teachers’ salaries only.  However, the special education appropriation does not come near that amount because the inflationary growth factor for special education  was eliminated in 2003 by the governor and legislature.  The formula proposed in the P.S. Minnesota proposal  would come much closer to adequately funding special education and free up millions of dollars for regular education by reducing the special education cross subsidy.  The bottom line is funding special education adequately will mean millions more for public school funding of regular education students, as well.      

Action: 
The P.S. Minnesota legislation is currently being drafted and we will have a bill number shortly.  As soon as we do, we’ll pass that information along to you and ask you to call or write or e-mail your representatives and ask them to support it.    In the meantime, to become more familiar with other key provisions in this initiative, check out the P.S. Minnesota.