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District monitors E–12 bill as Hillman flags special-education and screening changes
Summary
Superintendent Tim Hillman told the Northfield Public School Board on June 9 that recent E–12 bill developments preserved inflation indexing and secured state help for summer unemployment costs, but he warned of future pressure on special-education funding and a new unfunded literacy-screening requirement for dual-language programs.
Superintendent Tim Hillman briefed the Northfield Public School Board on developments in the Minnesota E–12 education bill during the June 9 meeting, describing elements the district supports and areas of concern.
Hillman said local advocacy helped avert a proposal in the Senate bill to dial back inflationary indexing in the per‑pupil formula. The superintendent also reported that the legislature allocated $100 million to reimburse districts for summer unemployment costs for hourly school workers, relieving districts from covering those benefits from general funds for the near term.
Hillman highlighted a growing funding pressure for special education. He said the district calculates its special-education cross-subsidy — the amount the district covers from the general fund to meet mandated services — as roughly the equivalent of about 33–34 full-time teaching positions. The bill includes a proposed Blue Ribbon Commission on Special Education tasked with identifying $250 million in savings; Hillman warned that if the commission’s recommendations do not materialize as expected in future budget cycles, districts could face reductions in cross-subsidy aid in later biennia.
Hillman also flagged program reductions elsewhere in the bill: decreased student-support personnel aid, lower library aid and phased reductions to supplemental meal reimbursements, and an expected cut to special education transportation revenue (reported to drop to 95% and later to 90% of prior levels). He said the district is watching these line items closely.
A new operational requirement Hillman identified would require some literacy screeners to be administered in a dual-language immersion partner language (for example, Spanish) if a suitable screener is available. He noted that the bill contains no additional funding to purchase such screeners and said the district would appreciate funding to match the new requirement.
Hillman closed the update by saying the district’s legislative-action team and volunteers have been active in advocacy. “We think that the federal government should fund special education as it said it would over 50 years ago,” Hillman said during the update, adding that federal and state funding levels remain an outstanding concern for the district.
What’s next: staff will continue monitoring final bill language as the legislature completes debate and will report back on direct fiscal impacts to the district once the final version is available.
