Dear neighbor,
Minnesota schools will be receiving $463 million in repayments due to our recently passed legislation to accelerate the school shift payback. At the start of the 2013 session, we owed over $800 million to the schools due to borrowing by the previous legislature to patch up their budget deficit.
Minnesota Management and Budget recently announced that the state has $463 million in unaccounted revenue collected during the past budget cycle. This is good news for both our economy and our schools. Due to the accelerated repayment plan, that money will go directly to Minnesota schools in an effort to repay them, and they will be fully repaid by 2014 so they can move forward on stable financial ground.
Our kids are our future and this session one of my main priorities was continuing to provide a world-class education to Minnesota students. In addition to accelerating the school shift payback, we passed several new measures and reforms to improve education from early childhood through college and ensure that our state is economically competitive for years to come. Along with settling our debts, the following education measures were passed this session:
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Stable Funding for Schools: The budget invests in the school funding formula, providing schools with an increase in per student funding in each of the next two years. This money will help schools to pay for classroom and building expenses, many of which have been neglected in recent years.
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All Day Kindergarten for Every Child: We will provide optional All-Day K to every Minnesota student, starting in the fall of 2014. Currently, only 54 percent of Minnesota’s Kindergarten students have access to free all-day Kindergarten, and thousands of local families pay for kindergarten out of pocket.
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Reform to the Special Education Formula: We provided needed funding reform and greater funding equity for special education in Minnesota.
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Early Learning Scholarships: I supported early childhood learning scholarships that will help thousands more children attend high quality child care and preschool, which have proven to increase test scores and academic achievement.
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Higher Education Tuition Freeze and Reforms: We froze tuition for undergraduates at the U of MN and MnSCU for the next two years, and also implemented new reforms to prevent administrative waste and ongoing increases.
If you have any questions about these education issues, or any other matter, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Paul Rosenthal