Major Education Reform Passed in Minnesota Legislature
State GOP passes sweeping education overhaul
The sweeping bill, which must also be passed by the Senate, faces a near certain veto by Gov. Mark Dayton.
Republican legislators in the Minnesota House passed a sweeping education bill early Wednesday that challenges core principles of how the state funds schools and treats teachers.
Lawmakers debated the bill for about six hours on the House floor Tuesday night and into the wee hours of Wednesday, before passing it on a 68-59 vote at 2:45 a.m. today.
The Senate still needs to pass its version -- and the two versions need to be reconciled -- before the legislation goes to the governor.
Lawmakers largely sidestepped many of the major provisions of the bill during the first three hours of debate, focusing their attention on a voucher program for poor families.
Few other budget bills winding through the Legislature pack such an aggressive policy punch.
"About a year ago I stood on the House floor and said, 'Change is coming and you can't stop it,' " said Education Finance Committee Chair Rep. Pat Garofalo. "And I'm here to tell you today, change is here."
The measure would eliminate tenure in favor of five-year contracts under a broad new system to evaluate teachers. Student test scores would weigh heavily in whether teachers get a raise or get the boot. Democrats, including the governor, say student testing should be given less weight.
The legislation also stokes a controversial debate by granting low-income families at failing public schools money vouchers to pay for a private education. GOP lawmakers say it will help close the achievement gap, while Democrats argued for more than two hours Tuesday night that such programs are ineffective.
In addition, the state would begin grading schools on an A through F scale, awarding extra funding to top performers.
DFLers called the proposed changes "ugly and mean." Rep. Mindy Greiling, the leading Democrat on the Education Committee, said the legislation was "a Republican ideologue's dream bill."
Among the bill's most contentious policy provisions are multiple sections limiting collective bargaining rights for teachers. The bill would prohibit teachers from striking, restrict when they can negotiate contracts and repeal a penalty on school districts if they are late in reaching a contract agreement.
GOP lawmakers argue that those changes are necessary to stop teachers' unions from negotiating wage increases that school districts can't afford.
A chunk of the bill's cuts come from eliminating funding that went to promote integration at Twin Cities schools with large minority populations. The legislative auditor and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree that program is flawed, but DFLers say it should not be scrapped outright.
"We've been spending this money for a long time, and Minnesota has one of the worst achievement gaps in the nation," Garofalo said recently. "We have to come up with better ways to spend these dollars."
Charter schools, many of which are in the metro area, would see an increase in funding under a change in law that lets them benefit from government-owned land proceeds.
Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius sent Garofalo a pointed letter last week noting that "this bill makes it very difficult to find ... common ground." She said the cuts to integration funding would disproportionately affect inner-city schools, while the special education freeze would lead to either higher property taxes or reduced general education programs.
But on Tuesday, Garofalo still seemed confident that a compromise could be reached. He noted that the two sides came together earlier this session when they passed new rules governing alternative teacher licenses.
"Clearly [Dayton] can't be that bad of a guy," Garofalo said. "He signed the alternative pathways bill."
Before the House voted on the education measure, Dayton teed up his criticism. He said he didn't know if the bill would be "redeemable" in his eyes.
He criticized the move to de-fund integration and special education programs and objected to legislators inserting an entirely new teacher-evaluation system into a budget bill intended to fund the K-12 system for the next two years.
"It definitely should be out of the budget consideration," Dayton said of the policy provision.
He also said that the proposed changes to tamp down the power of teachers' unions "really goes right to the soul of what collective bargaining is about.
Information Copied from http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/118888994.html
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