House education committee adopts technical amendment to bill merging Safe Schools and student-support aid; lays bill over

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota House Education Finance Committee on Feb. 20 considered House File 56, legislation that would combine two K–12 funding streams — the Safe Schools Revenue Program and the Student Support Personnel Aid — into a single Safe Schools Revenue Program while leaving total funding unchanged.

Supporters, including the bill sponsor and two school superintendents, said the change would give districts more flexibility in spending restricted state dollars. Opponents and several student and mental-health advocates warned the consolidation could weaken dedicated funding for counselors, social workers and other school-based mental-health supports unless statutory protections were preserved. The committee adopted a technical A1 amendment and laid the bill over for possible inclusion in a later omnibus bill.

Nonpartisan staff described the bill’s mechanics to the committee. Tim Strom, a nonpartisan committee staffer, said the bill "combines 2 programs" and that total funding would remain the same, showing a current district-level safe schools levy authority of $36 per pupil and an overall combined per-pupil amount of $48.73 under the proposal. Strom told the committee that the existing minimum payments in the student-support program — $40,000 for small districts and $20,000 for charter schools — remain part of the distribution in practice and that districts that participate in cooperatives have separate cooperative allocations.

Representative Shane Lawrence, the bill’s sponsor, moved House File 56 and…