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Board adopts 2026 legislative platform calling for end to special-education cross-subsidy and charter accountability
Summary
The board approved a legislative platform urging the state to eliminate the special education cross-subsidy, strengthen charter-school fiscal and operational oversight, seek better measures than MCAs for accountability, and fund mandated programs such as paid family leave and unemployment changes for school support staff.
The St. Cloud Area School District Board of Education adopted its 2026 legislative platform during the work session, directing the district's legislative priorities to state policymakers.
Al Dahlgren, chair of the legislative committee, presented the platform and its rationale, citing district demographics that show higher-than-average needs: the presentation noted the district's free and reduced-price lunch rate (69.9%), share of students with IEPs (22.9%), and English learner population (22.5%). Dahlgren proposed clarifying language that tied the special-education cross-subsidy to district finances: "In Saint Cloud, the special education budget is $48,700,000 with a cross subsidy of approximately $9,200,000. This unfunded mandate amounts to $996 per student and is funded by reducing the general education budget by that same amount," Dahlgren said, adding that the board seeks state action so general-education programs do not subsidize mandated special-education costs.
Other priorities in the platform include stronger oversight and fiscal transparency for charter schools (with attention to facilities ownership and private profit), a push to find assessment and accountability measures less correlated with socioeconomic status than the MCA tests, support for full funding of recently mandated employment policies (including paid family and medical leave and unemployment changes affecting educational support staff), and protection of compensatory funding and the inflation factor for public education.
Natalie Copeland moved to adopt the platform; Diana Fenton seconded. The board recorded a unanimous yes vote among members present.
