On Tuesday, March 19, Minnesota 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.

“Last session, we warned Democrats that their many education mandates would lead to problems for our schools,” Senator Gary Dahms (R ‒ Redwood Falls) said. “That is why we are proposing legislation to give schools a reprieve and return local control to our school boards and communities. Our schools deserve flexibility, not more government red tape.”

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 the temporary fund transfer authority 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 apply 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.

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. 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.

Senator Dahms is in his fifth term representing Senate District 15 which includes communities in Blue Earth, Brown, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Lyon, Redwood, and Yellow Medicine counties. He also serves as the Republican Lead on the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee and is a member of the Agriculture, Broadband, and Rural Development Committee and Finance Committee.