SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Today, the Minnesota House passed HF 2497, the Education Budget Bill which delivers sustaining, transformational investments to support our students and school staff as well as stabilize our public school funding. The House also approved two bills to support children, families, and early learning across Minnesota.
Rep. Liz Olson (DFL – Duluth) and Rep. Alicia Kozlowski (DFL – Duluth) supported the legislation.
“House DFLers are taking advantage of a historic opportunity to make unprecedented investments in our students while ensuring schools have robust, predictable, and sustainable resources,” Rep. Olson said. “We’re committed to students, children, and families having the opportunity to thrive now and into the future, and I’m extremely proud this budget makes good on this commitment with new funding on the formula tied to inflation, and so many other actions to ensure our students have the world-class education they deserve.”
"I am proud we are prioritizing historic investments in this critical area, including early learning scholarships for thousands of low-income and vulnerable infants and toddlers, increased reimbursement rates and access under the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), and Great Start compensation supports for teachers," said Rep. Kozlowski. "Our children and youth are our future, and I’m thrilled that we’re keeping our promise to Minnesota by increasing school funding and tying that funding to inflation, providing universal school meals, student mental health supports, diversifying educators and curriculum, and much more. At the same time, we must strengthen investments in our educators and provide them with livable wages and a secure retirement. Thanks to youth, educators, and advocates in Duluth and across Minnesota, our bills to advance gender inclusive school facilities, Indigenous Education for all, and Homeless Youth Pilot Project are included in these historic investments in creating brighter and more stable futures for our youth and families.”
The Education Budget provides a 4% per-pupil increase in the general education formula in 2024 and a 2% increase in 2025 for an investment totaling $710 million over the biennium. The bill also links the formula to inflation in all future years to help school districts have more predictability in their financial outlooks.
In addition to the stability provided by linking the formula to inflation, this budget bill also reduces the Special Education cross-subsidy by nearly half, includes funding to eliminate the English Learner cross-subsidy by 2027, delivers new investments dedicated to helping schools hire support staff like school counselors, psychologists and nurses, and includes resources to expand the Full Service Community Schools model.
The legislation includes key solutions to improve equity, such as making menstrual products available for free in school bathrooms, providing grants for schools to build gender-neutral restrooms and locker rooms, and increasing the use of alternatives to exclusionary discipline that has disproportionately impacted students of color and students with disabilities. It also includes measures to recruit and retain teachers of color and expand access to Indigenous education and diverse courses so students can more easily find role models who look like them in their curriculum and at the front of the classroom.
To support the youngest Minnesotans, the Children and Families Budget includes investments contained in two separate bills. HF 238 focuses broadly on children and family support, while HF 2292 includes early education components. The budget would increase the maximum rates for all child care assistance (CCAP)-eligible children, expand CCAP eligibility to foster care and relative caregivers, and expand access to early learning scholarships for high-quality early childhood programming for 3- and 4-year-old children with the highest needs to improve school readiness.
The budget extends child care stabilization grants, provides new funding for child care support grants, and extends existing funding for new and existing childcare programs. It also includes support to help keep youth housed including a pilot project in St. Louis County authored by Rep. Kozlowski to provide cash stipends to homeless youth, emergency services grants, support for transitional housing, and services for people aged 24 or younger lacking a fixed residence.
The legislation now goes to the Minnesota Senate for its consideration.