Bipartisan bill funds school security improvements, addresses student mental health, and brings more transparency to education
Saint Paul, MINN—On Thursday, April 26, 2018, the House passed bipartisan education legislation on a vote of 94-29 that puts students first. House File 4328 prioritizes school and student safety, increases transparency in a number of areas, and helps prepare kids for a bright and successful future.
“Every student in Minnesota deserves to have access to a world-class education and to be safe at school. Our bill strives to do just that by providing critical resources and flexibility for our schools to address student safety and mental health, while also proposing innovative solutions that will make a meaningful impact on education in our state,” said Rep. Drew Christensen, R - Savage. “I am particularly pleased my proposal to ban teachers from engaging in sexual relations with high school students, no matter the age, was included in the bill. No parent should worry their student will be taken advantage of by adults they trusted. Those teachers who do this should go to jail. Period.”
Christensen continued, "School safety audits will allow schools to identify vulnerabilities and invest their resources properly to make our students safe and I am glad my proposal to make grants available to schools across the state was included in the bill."
Highlights in the education portion of the bill include:
- Championing a multifaceted approach to give school districts the resources and flexibility they need to address student safety and security. That includes expanding the use of long-term facilities maintenance revenue for facility security upgrades, strengthening the state’s commitment to school-linked mental health grants, supporting suicide prevention training for teachers, increasing funding for Safe Schools Revenue, and more
- Strengthening and clarifying state law to address teacher misconduct and teacher licensure including prohibiting sexual relationships between educators and students, even if that student is 18; requiring periodic teacher background checks, and prohibiting the issuance or renewal of a teacher/administrative license or bus driver endorsement for certain felonies or gross misdemeanors involving a minor
- Requiring the Minnesota Department of Education to create a School Report Card —a one-stop-spot for summative and easily accessible school and district ratings that will provide families with a place to research, compare and help determine which school will work best for their child
- Enhancing the transparency of school funding and our commitment to tackling our state’s achievement gap by doubling the number of school audits each year. These audits will discern whether or not education dollars allocated to school districts and dedicated to special education, English-learner and low-income students are reaching the students intended
- Ensuring students are exposed to a wide variety of post-secondary options including the trades and branches of the military
- Strengthening laws that protect kids from school lunch shaming
- Creating a Special Education Working Group to engage stakeholders and examine the factors that are driving rising costs
"The creation of a Special Education Working Group was another proposal I carried this session. It will examine what is working and what is not working to make sure we are giving every student requiring special education the best possible educational opportunities," Christensen added.
A number of higher education provisions are also included in the package. Highlights include measures to fund student loan debt counseling, bring new sexual harassment reporting requirements and policies to the University of Minnesota, and to back a textbook affordability initiative. Overall, $4 million in supplemental funding is appropriated to state colleges and universities, along with $1 million to Metro State for cybersecurity programming, and $500,000 to each the University of Minnesota and the Office of Higher Education.
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