This landmark legislative session came to a close this week with some major wins for Greater Minnesota education. The K-12 Omnibus Bill is packed with changes that will affect school districts in Greater Minnesota. MREA dissected the bill that awaits the governor’s final sign off and outlined highlights related to:
- Funding
13 major highlights, from the 1.5&1.5 formula with a statewide impact of $234 million to All Day Kindergarten with a $134 million statewide impact. Read more … - Taxes
Six major highlights, from establishment of General Education Levy (GEL) to raise $20 million beginning FY ’15 to $60 million in FY ’15 for Operating Referendum Equalization and related changes in tax bill. Read more … - Policies
10 major highlights, from GRAD Rule repealed to establishment of World’s Best Workforce and Regional Centers of Excellence Read more …
Get All the Highlights
View, print and share K-12 Omnibus Bill Highlights.
How will it impact your district?
The usual “back of the envelope” calculation of revenue for FY ’15 does NOT work. If you take the new Adjusted Pupil Units X $5,806, you will not see the 1.5% in FY ‘15 from FY ’14. That is because the Pension Subtraction has been eliminated, which is a change MREA has been advocating for.
MREA modeled this for four districts from 400 to 5,000 students and the pupil unit simplification does work when the pension subtraction line item is eliminated. View the spreadsheets for these four districts at $5,687 in basic aid, which was the Senate aid number at the zero percent increase for FY ’15 they kept until the House and Chairman Marquart moved them to 1.5%.
You can find the pension subtract number for your district in the Senate look-up table, but do NOT take the bottom line. The Pension Subtraction elimination is unique to your district and not on a per pupil basis.