E-12 Education Funding at Stake with No Budget Deal in Sight
Second Leadership deadline for budget bills has passed
As of last Friday, the E-12 bill was not finalized and no documents were posted for this budget area. A $525 million increase for education for the next two years, which can grow to $675M in the two years after that, is at stake.
While there is no reported agreement on an increase for the general education formula, MREA continues to advocate for 2% annual increases on the general education formula be included in the final bill.
May 28 and June 7 were the two deadlines for respective committee chairs to finalize budget bills ahead of an anticipated June 14 special session. As of last Friday, only three budget spreadsheets and the Legacy bill were posted. There are 14 budget work groups working on the various areas of the state budget. The three spreadsheets that have been posted are for Legacy, Commerce-Energy, and Higher Education.
You can track posted documents for the 14 budget work groups at this website: Working Groups – Minnesota House of Representatives (state.mn.us)
It’s anticipated that the June 14 special session will run right up to the June 30 state fiscal year deadline and that some of the budget bills could drift into July, causing shutdowns of state governments services in some areas. The House DFL continues to call for police reform in the Public Safety bill, which is a major source of division between the House DFL and Senate GOP majorities. The Governor’s continued use of peacetime emergency powers is another major source of division for the two political camps.
