Legislation is advancing that would require the freshman class of 2022-23 to take a course for credit in government and citizenship as 11th and 12th graders.
Sen. Steve Cwodzinski (DFL-Eden Prairie) firmly believes that it would better prepare graduates to engage in government and become active citizens.
To accompany this bill and others, Sen. Jeff Howe (GOP-Rockville) introduced SF 2042. This proposal would allocate $150,000 to the Minnesota Council on Economic Education (MCEE) for the next two years to expand professional development programs in economic education for newly developed teachers. Receiving bipartisan support in committee, the bill was referred to the Senate Commerce Committee.
In others news in the Senate this week:
World’s Best Workforce
Legislation modifying the World’s Best Workforce report to require performance measures on students taking rigorous courses is moving forward. This bill would allow for early gaps in achievement to be assessed and addressed earlier to improve graduation outcomes.
It advanced in both the House and Senate education committees ad was laid over for possible inclusion in an Omnibus Bill by Chair Roger Chamberlain.
Suicide Prevention Training
Covering a topic that the Sen. Julia Coleman on Monday introduced a bill on a topic that she is particularly passionate about: suicide prevention. SF 1709 would implement student suicide prevention training for teachers.
The pilot program has already had over 6,000 activations of the online, interactive training.
This bill and its companion bill in the House have received bi-partisan support in addition to wide-approval by teachers. HF 486 already moved through education committees in the House.
Chair Roger Chamberlain (GOP-Anoka) shared his favoritism of his bill by saying that “there is a high possibility that this will be in the Omnibus bill”.
