Greetings,

3/2 - 3/6 Legislative Summary

Both K-12 and Early Ed committees are working through the intricacies of the federal stimulus package to determine how this will interact with budget proposals.  Early education must do this with both the education funding and the childcare portions which come through health and human services budgets.

The House began testimony on the Charter school bill that will continue into the following week.  They are currently going through the bill section by section.

A bill regarding background checks (HF 195) for school district employees passed out of committee directly to the House floor for a vote.  The bill deals with how information is given to districts by the Board of Teaching regarding previous disciplinary actions of a prospective employee.

This week, on March 3, the new state forecast was released.  The deficit increased substantially to $6.3 billion.  However, with the use of the one-time Federal money the state will have a $4.57 billion deficit for this biennium. This will be the new base for an amended budget from the Governor.  The House and Senate will also have budget proposals based on the new information in the coming weeks.

MFT Lobbyists Rose and Julie will continue meeting individually with Legislators from the House and Senate this week to articulate the specific needs of the Minneapolis teachers and district.  In the House, we will meet with Representatives Doepke, Buesgens, McFarlane, Swails, Ward, Tillberry, and Garafalo.  In the Senate, we will be meeting with Senators Stumpf, Olson, Hann, Clark, Skogen, Koch, Gerlach, and Pogemiller.