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Safe schools mandate lifted

Published (3/4/2011)
By Kris Berggren
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A $30 per pupil Safe Schools Levy would remain intact, but a mandate that districts use a $3 portion of it to fund licensed school counselors and other student support service staff could be lifted.

Sponsored by Rep. Connie Doepke (R-Orono), the House passed HF88, 75-54. It now moves to the Senate where a sponsor will be needed.

The levy is a property tax assessment that funds non-classroom support personnel and programs such as violence prevention, drug awareness and intervention, licensed psychologists, counselors, school nurses and others. The bill would remove a “maintenance of effort” provision requiring districts to maintain the same funding level or the same number of those positions from year to year.

“This mandate was one of the top mandates the schools came to us and asked us to repeal,” said Doepke, of a mandate reduction task force she served on last session. “What it did was tie the districts’ hands to make decisions about what the needs of their particular community were.”

Other lawmakers said the bill would jeopardize students’ access to personnel who help with emotional and psychological needs. Several made emotional appeals based on their experiences as teachers or school board members.

“Unfortunately what we have here today is we are being asked to erase a safeguard designed to ensure students access to counseling and other student support personnel does not get worse than it already is,” said Rep. Tom Tilberry (DFL-Fridley) referring to the state’s rank of 49th in ratio of students to counselors.

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