On Saturday, PTA members from across the state of Minnesota are meeting and learning at the 2026 Leadershp Summit. So we are replacing our regular update with the slide deck from the Advocacy Update that was presented at the convention, where you can get a comprehensive update on the status of our MN PTA 2026 Legislative Agenda and Priorities.

Action Alert - You can action on these priorities today! Contact your Minnesota Representative and Senator this week and ask them to support three key school funding issues:

• Maintaining current levels of compensatory revenue for one additional year

• Repealing reductions in automatic special education funding 

• Amending the Minnesota Constitution to increase Permanent School Fund payments to school districts.

https://www.votervoice.net/MNPTA/campaigns/136385/respond

The Minnesota PTA Advocacy Team will continue to follow bills as they move through committees and will provide testimony or letters of support as needed. Watch for future Action Alerts for PTA members to voice support to your legislators.
Sign up for alert notifications at http://www.votervoice.net/MNPTA/register.

We have reached the March 27 deadline for policy bills in the Minnesota Legislature - if these were not passed through their House and Senate committees by March 27, then they are not continued for consideration this session (unless they are included in end of session negotiations between legislative leaders and the Governor or other introductions on the House or Senate floor).

The Senate Education Policy Committee passed an omnibus bill and sent it to the Senate floor to be scheduled for a vote. The House Education Policy Committee failed to pass an omnibus bill, so the pathway for the policy omnibus bills is currently unclear. This may need to be resolved through end of session negotiations.

Most of the issues on our 2026 MNPTA Legislative and Policy Agenda are related to education funding bills, which will be the focus beginning April 7 (after next week's legislative break). As for policy issues, MN PTA supported using a nationally recognized college entrance exam (like the ACT) to replace the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, but unfortunately no language related to that issue was included in either Education Omnibus Bill.

MN PTA also has been supporting a number of bills related to limiting access to school sites by immigration and law enforcement agents and reaffirming the right of all children to free public education. These bills were not taken up in the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee omnibus or House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law omnibus bills, so their future is uncertain. During the House Session on March 26, a motion was made by Rep. Sydney Jordan to bring HF3435 directly to the House Floor for consideration (a bill supported by MN PTA), but the motion failed as all Republican House members voted against it, including four who had previously sent a letter to the Federal government asking for almost the exact same thing as the bill would have accomplished.

What's coming up? The next deadline is April 17 for finance bills. Education finance omnibus bills should be introduced the week of April 7, and we will see how issues like the Permanent School Fund constitutional amendment, opting in to the Federal tax credit program for education, and compensatory and special education funding will be addressed.

Education omnibus bills are often guided by the Governor's supplemental budget recommendations, which were released on March 17, and are disappointing. The proposal includes no supplemental funding for school districts (including compensatory funding), and would increase the proposed $250 million cut to special education beginning in 2028 by $50 million, for a total of $300 million. The proposal also clarifies that the Blue Ribbon Commission on Special Education must identify $300 million in reductions, and not shift state special education aid expenditures to the general fund.

There will be additional debate on opting into the Federal tax credit program for education. The Governor reiterated this week that he would never opt Minnesota in to the program. Senator Ron Kresha, who supports opting into the Federal program, made a motion to adjourn the House "sine die" until the Governor was ready to negotiate over state participation in the program. The motion failed, but this would have essentially ended the legislative session for the year unless the Governor called a Special Session, but the issue will still be active after the break.

The Minnesota PTA Advocacy Team will continue to follow bills as they move through committees and will provide testimony or letters of support as needed. As we get closer to the May 17 deadline for adjournment, legislation will soon be coming to the floor of the House and Senate for votes, so watch for Action Alerts for PTA members to voice support to your legislators. Sign up for alert notifications at http://www.votervoice.net/MNPTA/register.

It has been a busy week for Minnesota PTA advocacy in the Minnesota Legislature. The first deadline for policy bills is March 27 - if policy bills are not passed through their respective committees in the House and Senate by that date, then they cannot continue for consideration this session - so the clock is ticking. (The deadline for finance bills is April 17).

Here is what happened with bills on our MNPTA radar this week (read about our priorities in the 2026 MNPTA Legislative and Policy Agenda):

• Permanent School Fund legislation to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot (which if passed, would result in increased revenues for school districts) was heard in the House Education Finance Committee. HF 3900 (MN PTA testimony HF3900) was adopted as amended and sent to the Committee on Rules. The Senate companion bill SF 3593 was heard in the Senate State and Local Government Committee and it was adopted as amended (with an increase in the amount that would be distributed to school districts) and sent to the Committee on Finance.

• Compensatory revenue legislation SF 4368 which would extend the hold harmless for compensatory revenue for one more year (meaning most schoo districts would not lose this revenue) was considered in the Senate Education Finance Committee on Wednesday (MNPTA testimony SF 4368) and was approved as amended and sent to the Committee on Finance. See how much money your school district could lose if the hold harmless legislation does not pass.

• Immigration related bills - a number of bills are being considered to limit access to school sites by immigration and law enforcement agents and to reaffirm the right of all children to free public education. SF3611 and SF 3803 were heard in the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety (MN PTA testimony SF3611 and MNPTA testimony SF3803) and both were laid over to be considered for inclusion in a policy omnibus bill. SF 4176 was heard in the Committee on State and Local Government (MN PTA testimony SF4176) and was approved as amended and sent to the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety.

Next week, the House and Senate education policy omnibus bills are expected to be introduced. The Minnesota PTA  Advocacy Team will continue to follow bills as they move through committees and will provide testimony or letters of support as needed. As we get closer to the May 17 deadline for adjournment, legislation will soon be coming to the floor of the House and Senate for votes, so watch for Action Alerts for PTA members to voice support to your legislators. Sign up for alert notifications at http://www.votervoice.net/MNPTA/register.

The 2026 MNPTA Legislative and Policy Agenda opposes legislation or policy that uses scholarships, tax credits, or vouchers to subsidize private education. On March 10 in the House Education Finance Committee, HF3490 was heard that would allow Minnesota to participate in a federal program allowing taxpayers to receive federal tax credits up to $1,700 if they donate to a tax exempt 501(c)(3) scholarship-granting organization, such as a non-private educational foundation, serving any Minnesota K-12 school.  You can read a great summary of the hearing here. 

Advocates of this program at the national and state level have stated over and over again that the federal program is primarily designed to fund private school choices through tax credit scholarships, funded from federal tax dollars; Opponents are concerned that there is no federal spending cap for the program, and initial estimates of the national cost range from $8 to $51 billion per year. This could further divert federal dollars to fund private school choices instead of, for example, spending federal dollars to meet unfunded federal mandates for special education services (which has been estimated at $38 billion per year). In addition, the federal government has not issued regulations regarding the program, so claims that public schools could also benefit from these tax credit scholarships cannot be assured.

You can read the letter that the Minnesota PTA signed on to in May 2025 (along with the National PTA, 32 state PTAs and many local PTAs) opposing the "One Big Beautiful Bill" Federal legislation that established the federal tax credit program. The concerns shared in that letter still stand regarding Minnesota's participation in the program.

It should be noted that House Republicans held a press conference on March 10 and stated that they would hold up key legislation on funding for special education and compensatory funding (two other Minnesota PTA priorities) if the Governor did not support Minnesota participation in the federal program. MPR wrote a good story on the press conference. 

No vote on the bill was taken and it was laid over for further consideration. The Minnesota PTA Advocacy Team did not submit written testimony for this initial hearing, but will continue to follow this bill when it returns to committee and as it moves through the legislature, and will provide testimony or letters of support as needed. Watch for potential Action Alerts for PTA members to voice support to your legislators - sign up for alert notifications at http://www.votervoice.net/MNPTA/register.

The 2026 MNPTA Legislative and Policy Agenda supports a constitutional amendment that would modernize the allocation of funding from the Permanent School Fund. Every Minnesota public school district receives funding annually from the Permanent School Fund based on student enrollment and current size of the fund. SF 3593 would put a question on the ballot in the November 2026 election: “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to modify the permanent school fund to calculate the distributable amount and to maintain the fund as a perpetual financial resource for Minnesota schools, effective July 1, 2027?” 

MN PTA provided written testimony in support of SF 3593 to the Senate Education Finance committee on March 4. Our testimony cited the findings of the Permanent School Task Force Report from January 2026 which concluded that changing the distribution method to 4.5% of the three-year rolling average market value of the PSF could “nearly double near-term distributions while also achieving long-term growth of the fund.” Our testimony pointed out that school districts continue to face significant funding challenges, and changing the distribution method and amount would make more dollars available to today’s students to face today’s mounting challenges without raising taxes or diverting revenues from other state programs. 

The bill was passed as amended and sent to the Committee on State and Local Government. The Minnesota PTA Advocacy Team will continue to follow this bill as it moves through the legislature and will provide testimony or letters of support as needed. Watch for potential Action Alerts for PTA members to voice support to your legislators - sign up for alert notifications at http://www.votervoice.net/MNPTA/register

Legislation to restrict access to school sites for immigration enforcement activities continues to move through the Minnesota Legislature. The Senate Education Policy committee considered SF 3611- School sites access limitation, authored by Senator Kunesh. After hearing testimony, the committee approved the A-1 Authors Amendment version of the bill on a 10-0 vote, which will move on to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety. The Minnesota PTA supports this bill and is one of 12 education organizations who submitted a letter of support to the committee. 

A second bill, SF 3803 - Mann: Denial of education based on immigration status prohibition provision, authored by Senator Mann and Senator Boldon, was also considered and the A-2 Authors Amendment was approved on a 6-4 vote. This bill will also move on to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety. The Minnesota PTA supports this bill, which follows the provisions of the National PTA Position Statement "Rights and Services for Children in Immigrant & Mixed-Status Families" 

The Minnesota PTA Advocacy Team will continue to follow these bills as they move through the legislature and provide testimony or letters of support as needed. Watch for potential Action Alerts for PTA members to voice support to your legislators - sign up for alert notifications at http://www.votervoice.net/MNPTA/register

Minnesota PTA submitted written testimony to the House Education Policy Committee hearing on 2/17/26 in support of HF3435. This bill would limit access by federal immigration agents to school areas where students are not present, unless they provided valid identification, a written statement of purpose, and a valid judicial warrant, in addition to receiving approval from a district superintendent or charter school administrator.

In a 7-7 vote along party lines, the bill was not approved to move out of this committee to the next step, which could have been another committee or to a vote in the MN House. (House Session Daily article: Education panel fails to approve bill that’d keep ICE away from schools, students). Testifiers spoke for almost two hours, sharing story after story of the distress, disruption and long-term impacts of recent immigration enforcement on Minnesota students, staff, families and schools. 

The Senate Education Finance Committee held their own hearing earlier in the day which also provided an opportunity for immigration enforcement effects to be shared. While there was no specific legislation being considered, testifiers asked that future legislation be passed to give schools additional funds to address the financial impacts of student absences, resources for mental health professionals, and to maintain or increase services for low-income and special education students. Members of the Committee also shared perspectives about the impacts of immigration enforcement that, like in the House Education Policy Committee, also differed along party lines.

The House Education Policy Committee held a hearing on 2/19 about "Presentations on the Impact of Operation Metro Surge on Minnesota's Students and School Communities". Past Minnesota PTA President Heather Starks testified at the hearing from her perspective as a Bloomington School Board member.