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Duluth officials ask Legislature to correct 2016 special‑education funding error
Summary
Superintendent John Magus and Duluth school board member Jill Lofeld told the committee Senate File 1594 seeks to correct a Department of Education billing anomaly that left Duluth Public Schools with a multi‑million dollar special‑education funding shortfall. The committee laid the bill over for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill.
Superintendent John Magus and school board member Jill Lofeld of Duluth Public Schools told the Minnesota Senate Education Finance Committee on Feb. 26 that Senate File 1594 would correct a multiyear funding shortfall in special education that the district says stems from a state billing anomaly in 2016.
Magus said the district traced a funding gap of roughly $5.8 million to a 2016 calculation error acknowledged by the Minnesota Department of Education. “That shortfall stems from that critical error that was made by the Minnesota Department of Education... between fiscal year 2016 and 2019, causing Duluth Public Schools to have a $5,800,000 funding gap,” Magus said. He told the committee the anomaly forced the district to use reserves and delayed hiring and services.
The district requested a base adjustment and a one‑time supplemental payment. Magus and other district witnesses characterized the request variously during the hearing: Magus described seeking a partial correction of “about $3,000,000” to restore ongoing funding, and later described the bill’s funding package as including a one‑time payment of $1,000,000 plus additional base funding in subsequent years. When asked for specifics about timing and amounts, Magus said the proposed structure would include both one‑time and base adjustments and that the legislation in past sessions had included similar requests.
Committee members questioned whether the Department of Education could remedy the error administratively. Ado Shuni, director of government relations for MDE, told the committee he would need to consult staff on the legal authorities available to the agency and suggested the department may lack statutory authority to reallocate past payments or make retroactive adjustments without legislative action.
Senators asked whether charter school billing was the source of the miscalculation; Magus said a charter‑billing anomaly produced an artificially low revenue base that carried forward for about three years and contributed to Duluth’s lost funding. The superintendent said the district had repaid charter tuition from reserves and come close to operating debt as a result.
After testimony and questions, the committee laid Senate File 1594 over for possible inclusion in a future omnibus education finance bill.
Votes and formal actions taken in the committee affecting the bill are summarized below.
