ST. PAUL – In an effort to improve student performance throughout the state, State Representative Peggy Bennett (R-Albert Lea) is championing legislation that will raise education standards and reduce cumbersome mandates on schools.
Bennett’s bill was approved by the Minnesota House Education Policy committee on Wednesday.
“Minnesota’s results are extremely concerning,” Bennett said. “Reading proficiency for fourth graders, according to national assessments, is now at 31% and eighth graders at 28%. Though proficiency scores went up very slightly in math, those scores remain well below 50%. This just isn’t good enough, and we need to move forward quickly so our struggling students don’t slip through the cracks.”
There are three main provisions to Bennett’s legislation. The first addresses literacy by improving the recently enacted READ Act, which she said is over regulated and underfunded. This includes a solid commitment to the Science of Reading; a repeal of some of the 2024 requirements that have political or ideological purposes that distract from the core mission of education; and renew the expectation that teachers are not only properly prepared to provide reading instruction grounded in the science of reading, but that ability is verified by teacher assessment.
The second point empowers schools to be innovative. Proposed revisions include trusting locally elected school boards, educators, and parents to act in the best interests of the school rather than always forcing them to seek permission from the state; converting the current Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Center within the Department of Education to be the Office of Achievement and Innovation; and directing the Department of Education to create an online school performance report that is user friendly for parents.
Finally, the bill provides additional temporary options for school boards in both funding flexibility and relief from the more than 65 new mandates imposed on our schools in the previous biennium. School boards would have the flexibility to transfer dollars between many different funds at their discretion through fiscal year 2029. Additionally, school boards would be allowed to delay implementation of many of the new mandates imposed during the 2023-24 legislative biennium through the 2028-29 school year.
“The bill addresses Minnesota’s learning crisis by enabling our schools to prioritize literacy, increasing local control and innovation, and empowering parents,” Bennett said.
The bill now heads to the Minnesota House Education Finance Committee for further debate.