NEWS RELEASE
Rep. Sandra Feist
Minnesota House of Representatives
District 39B – 651-296-4331 – rep.sandra.feist@house.mn.gov
5th Floor, Centennial Office Building, St. Paul, MN 55155
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Marlee Schlegel
marlee.schlegel@house.mn.gov
(651) 296-9873
March 20, 2025
Rep. Feist Presents Compensatory Revenue Legislation in House Education Finance Committee
SAINT PAUL, MINN. -- Today, Rep. Sandra Feist presented HF745 in the House Education Finance Committee, a bill to update the compensatory revenue formula following the implementation of Universal School Meals.
Compensatory revenue is additional funding provided to schools to support at-risk students in need of additional resources to meet academic standards. Before the implementation of Universal School Meals, eligibility for free and reduced lunch was heavily utilized as a proxy in determining compensatory revenue allocation. When the Minnesota House passed Universal School Meals in 2023, a program that has been widely beneficial and highly popular with Minnesotans, the bill included language to ensure compensatory revenue for individual schools did not fall below previous years’ levels. However, inflation and fluctuation in classroom sizes, as well as demographic shifts in student populations, have necessitated an update to the formula to better reflect a per-pupil guaranteed dollar amount rather than a funding floor determined by previous years’ numbers.
Rep. Sandra Feist (DFL – New Brighton) is chief author of the legislation and released the following statement:
“Compensatory revenue is a massive part of schools’ budgets, and we must respond quickly to their needs in updating this formula. This bill would not only address the short-term impact and get resources to schools that need them, but it would also establish a task force to look at the bigger picture and determine how best to set and allocate compensatory revenue now that families don’t have to worry about applying for free or reduced meals.”
The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the Education Finance budget.