The House Education Policy Committee on Friday afternoon advanced HF 1081, which serves as the vehicle for the House omnibus educational policy bill.
The language won’t be loaded into the electronic record until after Monday’s House floor session. (Therefore the link to the bill will not be readily available).
MREA has concerns about some of the graduation requirements in the bill. However, the requirement for a specific ‘earth science’ course was dropped. There are several PELSB related changes. MREA maintains concerns about limits on Tier 2 candidates advancing to Tier 3 licensure.
Here’s a look at other key actions in the House and Senate related to E-12 education in the past week:
Discipline Legislation
Eliminating K-3 suspensions is advancing in the House as part of the omnibus education policy bill. The Senate gave the companion bill (SF 1048, Torres Ray) a hearing to better understand the pros and cons of this approach.
This topic continues to be divisive, some testifiers arguing that teachers have little rights against students who are violent, and others claiming that suspensions are integral to systemic racism and the school-to-prison pipeline and virtually ineffective at such a young age.
The Senate likely will bring a different approach on K-3 discipline to conference committee.
Student Support Services
Responding to the need for mental health support in schools, Rep. Kaela Berg (DFL—Burnsville) introduced HF 1742. The bill, reviewed by the Education Finance Committee, would grant each school at least $35,000 to hire a mental health professional, licensed school nurse or school counselor in order to support the needs of students. View HF 1742.
Innovation
The past year has brought with it the need to become more creative in the ways in which we educate our children. One idea is to create the space for schools to be more flexible in their start dates, weekdays and delivery methods of instruction, in order for schools to better innovate their modules and train their staff.
This is one goal behind SF 1441 (Chamberlain), which was heard Wednesday by the Education Committee. This bill was met with concerns from community stakeholders like the Community of Minnesota Resorts and the Minnesota State Fair. Both worry that earlier start dates for schools would have a negative impact on businesses that depend on traffic from those on summer vacation.
