Week 9 – Safety Stalemate Dominates as Finance Deadline Arrives
The Week in Review
Eight months after a gunman opened fire at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, killing two children and wounding several others, Minnesota lawmakers remain unable to agree on how to respond. Two competing school safety funding packages, one from Republicans, one from Democrats, each failed this week on tied votes in the House Education Finance Committee, leaving the Capitol’s most emotionally charged education debate unresolved with five weeks left in the session.
The double defeat came as education committees on both sides of the Capitol operated under the Legislature’s third and final committee deadline, which required major appropriation and finance bills to clear committee by 5 p.m. Friday. Beyond school safety, the week brought progress on the Permanent School Fund constitutional amendment and the Senate’s ongoing work assembling its omnibus education finance package.
The session must conclude by May 18.
Senate Education Policy
The Senate Education Policy Committee, chaired by Sen. Steve Cwodzinski, DFL-Eden Prairie, did not hold formal hearings this week. Having completed its policy bill work ahead of the earlier March 27 deadline, the committee’s omnibus education policy vehicle, SF 3870, has moved on to the Senate floor where it awaits debate by the full body. That bill consolidated provisions heard throughout the session, including READ Act implementation updates, paraprofessional qualification standards, site-governed school modifications, grooming offense definitions and mandatory reporting requirements for teachers, and anonymous threat reporting system requirements.
Gun-related measures advanced separately in the Senate, though their path to a floor vote remains uncertain. Gun control bills have moved through Senate committees this session, but Democratic leaders have not yet scheduled them for a floor vote, and whether they could pass the full chamber is unclear.
Senate Education Finance
Senate Education Finance continued working through individual bills and assembled an omnibus supplemental education finance bill. The focus of the bill is a one-time infusion of $35 million for Compensatory Aid, aimed at softening the losses many districts are facing as enrollments decline when compared to 2022 enrollments, the baseline year being used for Compensatory Aid, and paper forms for low-income verification fall out of the calculation for this revenue. $40 million in funding is allocated to public, charter, tribal and non-public schools for school safety grants.
A proposal to expand operating capital revenue to include utility costs and several ISD specific fund transfers were also included in the bill. All told, the bill spends $75 million in one-time money, and it now awaits action by the full Senate Finance committee.
House Education Policy
House Education Policy held no formal hearings this week. The committee has no meetings currently scheduled, consistent with the shift in legislative focus toward finance committee action and the House floor.
One education policy bill, HF 3489 (Bennett), is scheduled for House Ways & Means today. The bill would establish the criminal offense of grooming and set field trip reporting requirements.
House Education Finance
The House Education Finance Committee met twice last week. On Tuesday the House GOP members presented a bill to fund school safety grants. On Thursday the House DFL members presented a bill to require schools to either develop their own anonymous reporting system for suspected violent behavior or provide families with information about a state run system that has been built. Neither proposal advanced amidst partisan bickering in the tied chamber.
Tuesday, April 14 — Republican School Safety Package Fails
Rep. Kresha held the gavel for Tuesday’s hearing. The committee considered HF 3493, authored by Rep. Bryan Lawrence, R-Princeton, a Republican school safety package that had been previously heard and laid over in February. The bill carried a net annual cost of $52 million and would have:
- Set the safe school revenue amount at $68 per pupil and expanded availability to nonpublic, charter and Tribal contract schools;
- Required the Minnesota School Safety Center to create a model school safety plan districts could adopt;
- Directed the Department of Education to create a list of third-party anonymous reporting system providers and encouraged schools to implement them;
- Allowed districts to suspend students in kindergarten through third grade for up to three days with superintendent approval; and
- Created a school safety facility grant program of up to $500,000 per school for facility improvements.
DFL members raised several objections. The anonymous threat reporting provision drew criticism for using “encourage” rather than “require” language. “I feel like when we’re just encouraging something, that to me doesn’t necessarily mean it is law,” said Rep. Julie Greene, DFL-Edina.
Democrats also objected to the K-3 dismissal provision. Erin Sandsmark, executive director of Solutions Not Suspensions, testified against the rollback, arguing that Minnesota’s existing ban on K-3 suspensions is “a research-backed measure designed to maximize instructional time and prevent the disproportionate disciplining of young children.”
DFL members also opposed language allowing districts to reallocate funding for counselors and psychologists toward security purposes and criticized Republicans for refusing to link the safety package to any gun control provisions. “I really don’t think we can be having this conversation about school safety and the hardening of our schools without being really direct about what we are hardening our schools against,” said Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura, DFL-Minneapolis. “And it is guns.”
At a press conference before the hearing, Republicans declined to state their position on gun restrictions when asked repeatedly. Rep. Kresha said he would feel “a great sense of sadness” if the session ended without a school safety package. The bill failed to advance on a tied vote. The committee also heard HF 4114 (Bakeberg), a bill to repeal a contingent reduction in special education aid appropriations, which the House Session Daily reported advanced out of committee. Members also received a presentation on Education Savings Accounts.
Thursday, April 16 — DFL Safety Package Also Fails; Special Education Presentation; Governor’s Budget
Rep. Youakim held the gavel Thursday and brought her own school safety package, HF 4893, offered as a delete-all amendment, to the committee. The DFL bill would have:
- Required school districts and charter schools to implement anonymous reporting systems;
- Required firearm storage on school property for those authorized to carry when not on duty or in an authorized activity;
- Directed the School Safety Center to develop an evidence-based school safety plan;
- Required school boards to adopt evidence-based safety plans; and
- Increased student support personnel aid by $4.27 per student, to $34.32 per student, beginning in Fiscal Year 2027.
Republicans countered that the DFL bill excluded too many students. “The biggest difference, I think, from what I presented on Tuesday is it leaves out a lot of kids,” said Rep. Lawrence. “We continue to use the same scenarios of Red Lake and Annunciation and yet this bill has no money for Red Lake or Annunciation because it doesn’t go to nonpublic, it doesn’t go to tribal schools,” said Rep. Patricia Mueller, R-Austin. Rep. Ben Bakeberg, R-Jordan, called the DFL approach “more mandates and less money.”
The DFL package failed on a tied vote, mirroring Tuesday’s outcome. The frustration was bipartisan.
The committee also received a presentation on special education evaluation and identification, followed by testimony on Gov. Tim Walz’s K-12 education budget proposal. Walz has said he would not sign a school safety bill without gun restrictions included.
Permanent School Fund Amendment Advances
HF 3900, authored by Rep. Spencer Igo, R-Grand Rapids, which would modify the Permanent School Fund’s investment and distribution policy and propose a related constitutional amendment to voters, advanced to the House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee and is now eligible for debate during a House floor session.
The Senate companion, SF 3593 authored by Mary Kunesh DFL New Brighton, cleared the full Senate Finance committee last week and is also available for full Senate floor debate.
The legislation, if enacted by voters, would shift the fund to a 4.5% distribution rate based on a three-year rolling average, increasing per-pupil distributions from $68 to approximately $95. Proponents note the change would deliver more funding to schools without raising taxes.
The Week Ahead
Senate Education Policy
Senate Education Policy has no formal hearings scheduled for the week of April 20.
Senate Education Finance
Senate Education Finance has no formal hearings scheduled for the week of April 20.
House Education Policy
House Education Policy has no formal hearings scheduled for the week of April 20.
House Education Finance
House Education Finance has no formal hearings scheduled for the week of April 20.