Legislators look toward next year

A bill that would drastically change the way schools are funded has a long way to go before it could emerge as a new proposal next year.

Rep. Mindy Greiling (DFL-Roseville), who sponsors HF4178, hopes a similar proposal will be considered first thing when session convenes next year.

It was heard, but not acted upon, April 10 by the House K-12 Finance Division, which Greiling chairs. A companion bill, SF3828, sponsored by Sen. Terri Bonoff (DFL-Minnetonka), awaits action by the Senate E-12 Education Budget Division.

The bill would change the way school districts are funded, simplify the pupil count for schools, eliminate teacher performance pay and, in effect, fund all-day kindergarten. The bill would also eliminate property tax levies for general education revenue so that it would be provided through state aid and establish an agriculture credit for school bonds. She said districts now get so much of their money from property taxes that they have trouble passing referendums.

“It’s a dynamic process and we want people’s input,” she said.

Greiling said the bill could be scalable, depending on the amount of funding that was available.

Rep. Randy Demmer (R-Hayfield) questioned how the bill would handle declining enrollment. “We don’t want to be in a position of punishing schools for growing.”

Rep. Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton) said some programs weren’t represented in information supplied about funding. Because the information did not address certain areas, such as special education funding, the bill could lead to “a huge amount of misunderstanding” among the public.

Greiling said removing teacher performance pay, also known as Q-Comp, could be controversial, but the reason was that some schools got it and some do not.