Education advocates praise key policy changes preserved in draft special session K-12 bill

MINNEAPOLIS, MN—Today MinnCAN applauded the draft special session education bill negotiated by legislative leaders and Gov. Dayton. The newly negotiated bill, which builds off of the education omnibus bill passed by the Legislature last month, preserves important policies from that bill and makes new investments in public education. In particular, MinnCAN applauds the following components of the draft special session bill:

• policies to streamline out-of-state licensure by providing clarity and transparency to the Board of Teaching's process for reviewing out-of-state teachers' applications, and to honor “similar” out-of-state licenses;
• an additional $48,250,000 for early learning scholarships to help low-income children access high-quality early learning opportunities;
• a policy change to ensure that, during their clinical experience, student teachers are paired with effective and experienced mentor educators;
• an increase to the basic per pupil formula by 2 percent in 2016 and 2 percent in 2017; and
• changes to the Q Comp program, allowing more districts to participate and giving them greater flexibility to use funds to recruit and reward effective teachers in hard-to-staff-schools.

“We're thankful that important policy changes have been preserved in the draft special session education bill, including measures to give experienced out-of-state educators a clear path to the Minnesota classrooms, where they're needed,” said MinnCAN Executive Director Daniel Sellers. He continued, “Licensure reforms and many other critical policies have had bipartisan support throughout session, and we're eager to see their swift passage in special session.”

For more information or interviews with Daniel Sellers, contact MinnCAN Public Affairs Manager Ariana Kiener: 612-666-3066 or ariana.kiener@minncan.org.

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About MinnCAN: Launched in 2011, MinnCAN: The Minnesota Campaign for Achievement Now is an education advocacy nonprofit. MinnCAN is a movement of nearly 12,000 Minnesotans–and growing–dedicated to creating the political will to enact smart public policies to ensure that every Minnesota child has access to a great public school. Learn more at www.minncan.org.

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