Teacher layoff reform bill headed back to House Floor

The last-minute addition of a fiscal note kept the House last Thursday from voting on a Republican-backed bill to, in part, reform teacher layoffs by including consideration of merit-based evaluations along with tenure.

After reviewing the potential price tag Monday, the House Ways and Means Committee sent the bill back to the full body.

Sponsored by Rep. Jenifer Loon (R-Eden Prairie), HF2 is estimated, according to the fiscal note, to cost $895,000 over the next two years. Its companion, SF473, sponsored by Sen. Teri Bonoff (DFL-Minnetonka), awaits action by the Senate Education Committee.

Rep. Jenifer Loon

Loon said the proposed legislation — one that party leaders have said is a top legislative priority — will help ensure that schools can attract and retain quality teachers. It also contains several provisions that would make it easier for out-of-state teachers to obtain Minnesota licenses.

The bill is backed by the Minnesota School Boards Association, the Minnesota School Administrators Association and other education-based advocacy organizations that have focused on reform of the teaching licensure process. Education Minnesota – the state’s predominant teachers union – opposes it.

DFLers have criticized many of the provisions contained in the mostly policy-oriented bill. But they also criticized a Republican push in recent weeks to move it onto the House Floor without closer consideration of its fiscal implications.

Republicans maintain that the Department of Education and Board of Teaching can absorb any costs related to the reform without asking for additional appropriations. The fiscal note, prepared by the department with oversight from Minnesota Management & Budget states each agency will need additional full-time employee support to implement the proposed changes.

But conversation among committee members also centered on the timing of the fiscal note, which arrived just hours before the bill was scheduled to be heard on the House Floor last week.

“If we had had that fiscal note a few weeks earlier we wouldn’t have been in the situation we have been in with this bill,” said Rep. Jim Knoblach (R-St. Cloud), who chairs the committee.

Legislators were set to debate the bill on the floor Thursday, but voted to approve a motion by Loon to pull the bill from the General Register and re-refer it to Ways and Means, the committee that typically serves as the last stop for bills that have significant fiscal impacts.

Knoblach said he expects House fiscal staff in the coming days to engage in discussions with Minnesota Management & Budget, Department of Education and the Board of Teaching staff to come to an agreement on what if any fiscal costs should be assigned to the bill.