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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Jennifer Schultz (DFL)

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RELEASE: Minn. House Passes E-12/Higher Ed. Finance Bill

Monday, April 25, 2016

St. Paul, Minn. – Tonight the Minnesota House passed a combined E-12 and Higher Education Omnibus Bill tonight on a vote of 84-46. While the bill contained a small bump in funding for Greater Minnesota schools and some teacher retention strategies, among other things, it provided no new funding for E-12 and higher education despite a $900 million state budget surplus.

“Based on the opportunity our current budget outlook gives us, this bill is a profound letdown for Minnesota students at all levels,” said Rep. Jennifer Schultz (DFL – Duluth). “With a $900 million surplus, I don’t know how my colleagues in the House Majority can justify doing nothing. This bill does nothing to close the achievement gap, it does nothing to make college more affordable, and does nothing to get more key support personnel like counselors and psychologists in schools. I simply cannot support a bill that does nothing.”

Both the Higher Education and Education Finance Committees were given targets of $0 in new money by the House Republican Leadership. The bill does have modest one-time spending in the E-12 area – paid for by a projected $55 million of early repayments of loans by school districts – but provides nothing in the way of new funding for higher education.

Rep. Schultz, a college educator, cited her deepest disappointment in the bill as the lack of funding toward relief for either college tuition or student loan debt relief.

“Minnesota college graduates experience the fifth-highest average student debt loads in the nation, and our inaction is complicating their efforts to become full participants in our economy,” Schultz said. “We’ve put forth some good ideas to get ahold of this out-of-control problem, but they were unfortunately ignored by the House Majority. Instead of funding these initiatives to help ordinary Minnesotans, the House Majority is holding money from the surplus for tax cuts, mostly for corporate special interests. We can do so much better than this for Minnesota families.”