K-12 bill clears Senate; House debates safety bill

By PATRICK CONDON and MARTIGA LOHN

ST. PAUL, Minn.

The Minnesota Senate passed a public school funding bill Thursday that takes a new approach to tackling the state's racial achievement gap, shifting money away from integration aid to several large districts in favor of financial incentives for any district that can improve student literacy.

With Republicans supporting it, the bill passed on a 36-25 party-line vote. But Gov. Mark Dayton's education commissioner said the Democratic governor doesn't support the bill. Critics in that party said the proposed "literacy incentive aid" is untested and that ending integration aid in the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth districts would gut racial desegregation efforts and penalize poor and minority students the most.

The bill also freezes state spending on special education, but its lead sponsor said she hoped a new focus on improving literacy would result in fewer students needing to be enrolled in special education programs.

"If we can be successful in increasing reading proficiency by third grade, we will have less students having to take the special education label," said Sen. Gen Olson, R-Minnetrista. "We need to win that one for the sake of the children. Ultimately, I hope our costs in special education might be decreased by this effort."

The bill would increase the per-pupil payments to school districts by $100 over the next two years. It freezes pay for public school employees for the next two years, limits teacher strikes and would tie future teacher pay increases in part to student performance. It also caps or freezes several aid streams to school districts: compensatory aid to districts based on the number of children they have getting free and reduced lunches, as well as aid to isolated rural districts.

Democrats took issue with a number of pieces of the bill, particularly the shift away from racial integration aid toward literacy improvement.

"We have been doing integration aid for decades, and to say that within one year we should dismantle that for a brand-new process seems to me short-sighted," said Sen. John Harrington, DFL-St. Paul. He later added, "Have we really made the decision that desegregation and integration isn't a laudable goal for our schools?"

The literacy incentive aid would be doled out based on how a given district's third-graders tested on reading exams, and reward those that show improvements. Olson said the years of integration aid have done little to close Minnesota's racial achievement gap, which studies have shown are among the worst in the nation.

"Lack of reading proficiency can be traced to poor achievement in all academic endeavors beyond third grade," Olson said. "It contributes to dropouts. It may not be the cause of crime, but there is more likelihood of poor moral choices. Between 60-70 percent of our prison population is illiterate."

Dayton's education commissioner, Brenda Cassellius, wrote in a letter to Olson that the cuts in the bill seem targeted most toward "programs that directly support children with disabilities, poor children and children of color." She said the cap on special education funding would force school districts required to provide special education services to tap general education dollars in order to keep up with the costs -- with ensuing pressure on local property taxpayers.

Democrats also criticized the school employee pay freeze and the strike limits, which would prohibit teachers from striking over pay if their local school boards make a contract offer that's proportional to the district's state budget appropriation that year. It would not prohibit strikes over non-economic issues.

"Wisconsin-style proposals that undermine collective bargaining do not belong in Minnesota," said Sen. Charles Wiger, DFL-St. Paul.

But Sen. Dave Thompson, R-Lakeville, said the pay freeze would free up funds that help local districts avoid teacher layoffs.

The Senate education bill differs significantly from a House bill that passed that chamber on Wednesday; both contain changes to teacher bargaining rights, but not all match up. The House bill also eliminates integration aid, but not in favor of literacy aid like the Senate bill. Dayton has indicated he will not sign any budget bills until he and Republican legislative leaders strike an overall deal on a state budget framework that erases the state's projected $5 billion shortfall.

The state House on Thursday was debating a budget measure for prisons, courts and public safety programs.