Minn. House OKs K-12 Bill Without Dayton Agreement

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- The Republican-controlled Legislature has proposed allowing students in low-performing big city schools to take state-funded vouchers to private schools in a sweeping education bill largely opposed by Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and his education commissioner.

The vouchers proposal is part of a combined House and Senate education bill that would spend about $14 billion, or about 40 percent of the state's two-year budget. Dayton had asked for a bill that contained only budget items, but the House and Senate included several changes to education policy.

The House voted 70-55 on Wednesday to pass the combined bill, which reconciled differences between House and Senate education bills passed earlier in the session. The Senate was expected to pass it later in the day.

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Dayton is expected to veto the bill, and it's unlikely its legislative backers would have the votes to override it. An override would require 90 votes in the House and 45 in the Senate, which has 37 Republican members.

The current session must end by Monday, and Dayton and Republican legislative leaders remained far apart on an overall budget deal that would eliminate a projected $5 billion deficit.

Still, House Education Finance Chairman Patrick Garofalo, R-Farmington, said he hoped the two sides could reach an agreement on education. "I'm very optimistic that this governor and this Legislature will do great things for education," Garofalo said.

The Legislature's budget bill would increase the state's spending per-pupil by about $20 a year over the next two years and would create a new statewide literacy program. It would also eliminate a multi-million dollar program for racial integration in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth.

School leaders in the Twin Cities and Duluth estimate they will lose more than $18 million over the next two years, which could trigger larger class sizes and big reductions in all-day kindergarten.

The bill would create an A to F grading system for schools, based mostly on how well students do on their math and reading tests, and a rating system for individual teachers based largely on their students' standardized test scores.

Teachers would lose some of their leverage in contract negotiations with districts and see many job protections based on seniority stripped away and replaced by privileges based on their performance in the new teacher evaluation system. They would also be barred from striking.

Expanding voucher programs, which allow parents to use some of the tax dollars that would normally be sent to public schools to send their children to private or religious schools, has long been a top priority for conservatives, and momentum for voucher programs has grown since the 2010 election, which produced major Republican gains in many statehouses.

Those opposed to large-scale voucher programs, including public school advocates and many Democrats, say the programs could siphon tax money from local districts, potentially leading to a steep decline in the quality of education.

The Legislature's bill would create a program in which students who attend persistently low-performing schools in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth and Rochester and have a family income less than 175 percent of the federal poverty level can get a taxpayer-funded voucher.

That voucher would be worth the amount the state would send to the public school to educate the student or the private school's tuition, whichever is less. The public school district would be responsible for busing the student, although the bill sets aside $264,000 to reimburse transportation costs.

The program is budgeted for $17.4 million over two years.

Garofalo compared the vouchers to the Post-Secondary Education Opportunities program, which allows high school juniors and seniors to use state per-pupil money to earn college credits.

"We already do this for two of the grades, and it's been pretty universally successful," he said. "As much as people would try to create a perpetual anger machine, it really isn't that controversial."

However, it would be the first time in Minnesota that per-pupil money for elementary-age students went to private schools, including religious-affiliated schools. Charlene Briner, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Education, said Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius opposes it.

"She believes this is not the time to be expanding funding for private schools when public schools are arguably not receiving the resources they need for the 850,000 kids they serve," Briner said.

The voucher concept has been supported by the state's religious-affiliated schools for years, said Peter Noll, education director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference. He said there were 32 such schools in the affected cities, although they may not all participate in the program.

That's because the state voucher -- which he estimated was worth about $7,500 -- won't pay the full costs of student's tuition, leaving the parents or individual schools to come up with the rest, he said. The test requirement won't be a problem for many of the schools because they already give it.

"It really is for the common good of all Minnesota that these kids find success, regardless of their school," Noll said.

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