On Tuesday, March 19, Senate Republicans presented a bill to give local school districts more options with state funding. Many schools across the state are facing budget shortfalls since the funding passed last year simply did not keep up with the cost of more than 60 new mandates.
“We warned Democrats last year that the mandates and the spending directives would create significant problems for schools. With every mandate, or every time you tie dollars to a specific purpose, you remove the flexibility that our schools, teachers, and most importantly, our students, need,” Sen. Rarick (R-Pine City) said. “We are hearing from districts across the state they are struggling to balance their budgets under the cost of these mandates. This bill gives that flexibility back. It doesn’t reduce the funding; it just allows local school boards to decide through a public process what the money should be used for.” Rarick is the Lead Republican on the Senate Education Finance Committee.
Senate File 5025 allows school boards to transfer the new funding from one use to another by passing a resolution indicating the amount and purpose of the funds they want to transfer. It is similar to temporary fund transfer authority previously enacted in 2020. A locally approved fund transfer cannot take away from salaries or benefits, increase state aid obligations, or result in a property tax increase.
These relief measures will be in place for the next three school years and only applies to mandates in the 2023 education omnibus bills plus any new mandates that are anticipated in 2024 education legislation. A letter on March 14 from various education groups requested the legislature refrain from passing new mandates in 2024, citing the negative impacts to their budget, workforce, local control, and innovation efforts.
“Our students and schools need help, not red tape,” Sen. Julia Coleman said. “We offered a bill last year that put students, their needs, and their funding, first. What schools ended up with is a convoluted mess of rules and regulations. Our bill to repair school funding is a welcome reprieve to every school across that state. Our priority is and always will be students and their academic achievement. Flexible dollars and local priorities are a crucial part of making sure student are meeting their goals.” Coleman is the Lead Republican on Senate Education Policy Committee.
Last year, Senate Republicans proposed a locally-controlled 5% per pupil increase for each year. Democrats only passed 4% and 2% increases each year, but mandates, even before they were passed, were worrying schools. One suburban superintendent told his school board a month before the bill passed, “This is potentially one of the most damaging sessions I’ve seen since I’ve been a superintendent.”
“We warned Democrats last year that the mandates would create significant problems for schools. I serve on the education finance committee where we saw dozens of new mandates and billions in new funding, but I knew the math didn’t add up. Most schools are now facing a budget shortfall,” Sen. Rob Farnsworth (R- Hibbing) said. “Despite $2.2 billion in new spending, compliance with statewide mandates took local control out of their hands. This bill repairs the damage done by the mandates and gives local control back to school boards and districts.” Farnsworth works as a teacher in the Hibbing, MN school district.
More recent reporting shows that roughly half of the $2.2 billion in new funding was already earmarked for mandates. The report also states that many schools need to adjust budgets due to declining enrollment and the loss of federal covid funding.