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Sen. Kunesh, Rep. Feist outline compensatory aid changes and proposed school trust fund amendment
Summary
Sen. Mary Kunesh and Rep. Sandra Feist briefed the Columbia Heights school board on 2026 education legislation: a $10 million compensatory revenue supplement, new threat‑reporting grant funding, an 'anti‑grooming' statute, and a proposed constitutional amendment to raise school trust fund distributions from 2.5% to 4.5%.
Sen. Mary Kunesh told the Columbia Heights Public Schools board on June 16 that the 2026 supplemental Omnibus for K–12 includes a $10 million adjustment for compensatory revenue intended to blunt cuts tied to falling enrollment and post‑COVID funding changes. “We did provide $10 million for compensatory revenue,” Kunesh said, adding the package will provide each school site at least “65.9% of the compensatory revenue that the building generated in fiscal year 26.”
The senator said the legislation also allows districts flexibility to move up to 40% of compensatory revenue between school buildings through fiscal 2028, and creates state-level grants and staffing for anonymous threat‑reporting systems. “We appropriated $1 million to DPS for that… and another $4 million… to manage grants to schools to develop and purchase, implement, operate, and maintain local anonymous threat reporting systems,” she said.
Kunesh outlined a proposed constitutional amendment to increase the Permanent School Fund distribution. “We would increase that from the 2.5% to 4.5%,” she said, describing the school trust as a long‑term corpus currently generating interest, dividends and capital gains. She emphasized that the amendment would require voter approval this November and said campaign efforts to educate voters were underway.
Rep. Sandra Feist, who represents the district in the state House, echoed the focus on compensatory aid and described a task force she helped form to examine how compensatory dollars are targeted and measured. Feist said one proposal discussed in the Legislature would have prorated compensatory aid at roughly 96.184% of pre‑2026 levels but that political constraints prevented that approach. “I was glad that we got 10 million,” she said, calling the funding a partial but meaningful relief.
Board members asked detailed follow‑up questions about the school trust proposal and financial mechanics. When asked whether capital‑gains‑driven distributions could force districts to return money in market downturns, Kunesh said the proposal includes three‑year lookbacks and the ability to adjust the distribution rate if market returns decline.
Both legislators also described other enacted measures: an anti‑grooming law extending investigatory lookback for the Department of Education, technical updates to the READ Act, and a new annual survey of district health‑insurance costs for a legislative budget office report due each December.
What happens next: Kunesh and Feist urged districts to watch implementation details and noted some programs will require administrative rule‑making or grant processes before funds reach schools. The board thanked them and invited them to stay for the rest of the meeting.
Ending: The legislative briefing closed with a reminder that some measures, including the Permanent School Fund constitutional amendment, require further action (voter approval for the amendment, and administrative rollout for grants and allocations).
