Sweet Thursday.  I bet you don't remember that rock band from the late-1960s led by the late keyboardist extraordinaire Nicky Hopkins (It's important to remember all this rock and roll trivia.  You may be on Jeopardy someday.).  Anyway, three hearings today starting with the House Education Innovation Policy Committee, which spent its time listening to presentations from a number of career and technical programs.  One of the barriers to providing career and technical programs is the inability to find licensed instructors.  Here is a link to the report of the Career and Technical Educator Licensing Task Force:

Career and Technical Educator Licensure Task Force Report

The House Education Finance Committee devoted its time slot to continuing its review of the Governor's budget proposal with special attention given to special education funding.  The committee spent Wednesday's hearing listening to perspectives on special education funding and policy and it took the next step today in dissecting Minnesota's special education funding formula.  Minnesota's special education funding formula is fairly complex due to the fact it's a combination of the "old" cost-reimbursement formula and the "new" pupil-weighting formula.

The Senate Education Policy Committee split its time between Representative Paul Utke's SF 468, a bill that requires a personal learning plan for students who are not reading at grade level by 3rd grade.  Reaction to the bill is a bit mixed.  No one objects to the goal of having all students reading at grade level by third grade and the bill's language mirrors the compromise that was struck between the legislators and the school community last spring.  This provision was not contained in the final bill last year so it is being run up the flag pole again.  This was the bill's initial hearing and Chair Eric Pratt promised that there will be ample opportunity for all viewpoints to be heard before the bill moves forward.

SF 468

The committee then turned to the report of the Student Discipline Working Group.  Convened over the summer, the group tussled with a number of difficult issues.  For those who were hoping for earth-shattering recommendations, there aren't any here, but that doesn't mean that the work isn't impressive.  There is a call for more support staff (social workers, psychologists, counselors, and nurses) and continued work on the concept of "willful" when determining student behavior that merits suspension.

Here is a link to the working group report.

Student Discipline Working Group Report

BILL INTRODUCTIONS

House-Wednesday

HF 675-Quam-Allows School Districts from Maintaining Supply of Asthma Inhalers

HF 689-Erickson-STEM Grants

HF 719-Peterson-Funding for Minnesota Math Corps

HF 731-Erickson-Adding Civics Testing to the Required Curriculum

HF 734-Haley-Funding for the Education Partnerships Coaltion Fund

House-Thursday

HF 751-Kresha-Funding for African-American Registry (Teacher Funding)

HF 775-Pierson-Capital Funding for Dyslexia Institute of Minnesota (Proposed Bonding Project)

HF 786-Davids-Allows for Early Repayment of Maximum Effort Loans

Senate-Thursday

SF 504-Clausen-Licensure for Concurrent Enrollment Teachers

SF 517-Senjem-Amends Definition of Public Employee to Include Replacement Employees who Serve more than 60 Days as a Replacement Teacher or Faculty Member

SF 535-Wicklund-Funding for Voluntary School Social Worker Program

SF 552-Chamberlain-Regulating Disposition of Schoolhouses and School Sites Following Schoolhouse Closings

SF 558=Cwodzinski-Increasing Funding for School Readiness

SF 570-Nelson-Modifying PSEO Policy

SF 574-Senjem-Allowing School Districts to Maintain a Supply of Asthma Inhalers

SF 587-Dahms-Allows School District to Renew Food Services Contract Three Additional Times