Work group finishes what it started

An E-12 working group charged with coming up with recommendations for the Omnibus Supplemental Budget Bill Conference Committee completed its work April 15.

The group, chaired by Rep. Mindy Greiling (DFL-Roseville) and Sen. LeRoy Stumpf (DFL-Plummer), pulled pure policy out of the deficit-reduction bill (HF1812/SF3813) with plans to include it in another bill.

In addition, the group recommended adding a rider to the budget-balancing bill to fund $188,000 in value-added improvements to the state’s school system. This language was originally carried in both the omnibus House K-12 bill (HF2475), sponsored by Greiling, and the omnibus E-12 education policy bill (HF3316), sponsored by Rep. Carlos Mariani (DFL-St. Paul).

Mariani was concerned that if too much policy was taken out of bills, then policy would effectively be decided by state departments.

“I think it’s very much up to the legislative branch to do that,” Mariani said.

Some legislators brought concerns about how this session is going.

“I have a concern as a legislator and a citizen,” Rep. Kathy Brynaert (DFL-Mankato) said on taking the policy out of the bill. She called it a Catch-22, where segments were previously removed because they had a fiscal impact, now parts were taken out because they not have a fiscal impact.

In other sections, the group recommended that a virtual education program be dropped from the Senate deficit-reduction proposal, and an amendment that would end participation in No Child Left Behind be dropped from the House offer.

The group also recommended eliminating the General Fund offset for the Permanent School Fund. Instead of getting money directly from school fund lands, the money would come out of the General Fund. Supporters said if the offset is eliminated, districts would get the same appropriation, plus money from the Permanent School Fund, starting in 2011.