Education legislation roundup, 3/23/2012

Click here for PDF version: Education legislation roundup

 

Education legislation roundup, 3/23/2012

As a follow up to our Asian Pacific Day at the Capitol, we would like to highlight some of the movement at the capitol on major education legislation and how it affects you and your communities.

As you read through these bills, consider contacting your legislator via phone, email, in-person to learn where she or he stands on the issues. Find out who represents you.

Teacher Layoff (H.F. 1870 / S.F. 1690):

Recently, the MN Senate passed a bill that will reform Minnesota’s strict seniority-based “Last In, First Out” (LIFO) standard for teachers layoffs. If passed, the bill would authorize schools to base layoff decisions on effectiveness of teachers, letting them keep quality teachers in the classroom. It currently awaits action in a joint House/Senate conference committee.

While there is partial support from both sides of the aisle on the bill, concerns about how to determine the “effectiveness” of a teacher have held up the bill. Currently, a teacher evaluation system is in the works in Minnesota.

In thinking about this bill, a question raised is, “Why are we laying off teachers?” A good direction to look is the fiscal health of schools and the impact of reduced educational funding.

Education omnibus bill (H.F. 2083 / S.F. 2492):

During last year’s shutdown, the MN legislature and Gov. Dayton emerged with a budget shift that, in simple terms, borrowed from schools by only paying 60% of their funding this year and scheduling the rest of the payment for next year.

Due to this shift, many districts have reduced budgets, relied on short term loans that incurred additional financial costs, and/or cut faculty and staffing levels which increases class sizes.[1][2] Below this section is an infographic that briefly covers many aspects of the issue. Additional details are being tracked at Parents United’s website.

Image from mnfaireconomy.org. Disclaimer: CAPM is not affiliated with mnfaireconomy.org

The (bitterly debated) solution(s):

Along with the rest of the nation, Minnesota’s financial forecast has improved and state leaders have agreed that the school shift needs to be paid back, starting with a 70%/30% payment (10% improvement).

Unfortunately, there are bitter disagreements between the GOP and DFL on the method to pay back schools:

The GOP have proposed a plan to pay back the shift using the state’s emergency reserves. The DFL, Gov. Dayton, and Minnesota Management and Budget commissioner Jim Schowalter have stated that using the state’s budget reserves is financially risky.[3]

The DFL pitched a plan (HF 2480/SF 2029) to repay the shift by ending tax loopholes for foreign businesses in Minnesota.[4] The GOP has criticized the plan as unfriendly to business in Minnesota.

At this time, the GOP-led plan has passed in the House and awaits action in the Senate.

The Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans encourages community members to discuss details of repaying schools with their elected legislators, especially your state senator. (Find out who represents you.)

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 Other legislation of significance:

Expanding early college (H.F. 2025 / S.F. 1531):

Expanding college access and earning dual credit in high-school have been popular topics in Minnesota and on the federal level.[5] Currently, bills in both house and senate have proposed expanding Post-Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) to allow student to get dual-credit (high school and college credit).

The bills have bipartisan support; however, concerns have been raised about the senate version, which allows public dollars to be spent towards for-profit, private colleges (non-profit, private colleges are eligible under current law).[6]

The future of the Integration Revenue (H.F. 2840 / no Senate companion):

A puzzling dilemma arose last session when the MN legislature voted to end integration revenue while still keeping the state’s desegregation rule in place. The contradictory decision led to the creation of the Integration Revenue Replacement Task Force to determine how to restructure integration revenue funds for 2014 and beyond. The task force’s recommendations were released in February and recently emerged as a bill in March.

In brief, the taskforce recommended for the creation of the “Achievement and Integration for Minnesota (AIM)” program, which adds an additional focus on racial disparities in academic outcomes:

All district plans must be locally developed and establish clear student achievement goals that address racial disparities, as well as other measureable goals to which they will be held accountable and report to their respective communities.

While action is not expected to take place in 2012, action must be finalized by 2013’s session. The Council encourages community discussion with your legislators and school leadership on the topic of racial disparities in education.

Still waiting for… (the wish list for the Council).

• While there is no movement on H.F. 2840, we expect another bill and a more motivated legislature to act on the integration revenue issue next year in 2013.

• We are also hoping to see a permanent solution to pay back the school funding shift (not a one-time fix to 70%/30% but a path to 100% fully funded schools!)

• We’re hoping for bills next year that will address diversity in Minnesota’s teacher workforce. Either bills that will increase the number of teachers of diverse backgrounds or help retain and support diverse teachers already in the workforce.

• In the meantime, the Council is also working directly with the MN Department of Education to help create more communication with Asian Pacific communities, to create and adopt a statewide public agenda for closing the achievement gap, and to help engage families in their child’s education.

Questions?

• Need more information on the topics here? Contact capm@state.mn.us or call Brian at 651-757-1742.
• Need to know who your legislators are? Find out who represents you.
• Need tips on speaking to your legislator? Legislative Do’s and Don’ts, and helpful tips
• What to get more involved? Just get in touch with Brian Kao, the Council’s lead staff on education.

The Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans, created in 1985, is a state agency that advises the Minnesota state legislature and governor’s office on issues pertaining to the Asian Pacific community.

References

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[1] Hawkins, Beth. “Shifts 101: What new proposals would mean for Minnesota’s schools | MinnPost.” MinnPost. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. <http://www.minnpost.com/learning-curve/2011/07/shifts-101-what-new-proposals-would-mean-minnesotas-schools&gt;.

[2] “Minnesota school districts begged; now they borrow | StarTribune.com.” StarTribune.com: Web. 23 Mar. 2012. <http://www.startribune.com/local/west/134799543.html&gt;.

[3] “GOP, Dayton Differ Over Plan To Repay Schools « CBS Minnesota.” CBS Minnesota. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. <http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/03/08/gop-dayton-differ-over-plan-to-repay-schools/&gt;.

[4] “DFL floats plan to pay back school shift with corporate taxes | StarTribune.com.” StarTribune.com. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. < http://www.startribune.com/politics/blogs/142506185.html>

[5] http://www.twincities.com/opinion/ci_20114915/editorial-expand-college-access-high-schoolers

[6] Session Daily. PSEO expansion gets committee approval. http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hinfo/sessiondaily.asp?storyid=3018

 

Human Trafficking in Minnesota series, Part 1: Introduction

Starting in Feb 2012, CAPM intern Michelle Sham will be reporting on the issue of human trafficking, an issue that has often been associated with foreign populations or countries. It is our hope that this blog series will help shatter myths about human trafficking, provide an alternative view of the realities of this grave human injustice, and to offer information that can aid in catalyzing social action against human trafficking.

Picture by Ira Gelb

The Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans is making a great effort to create awareness in human trafficking issues in Minnesota especially in our Asian Pacific communities. Human trafficking is a very complicated problem that outrages us all, yet it is not easy to understand or to solve. However, it is not impossible either. Solutions have to start with awareness of the problem and an understanding of the complexities of human trafficking. For this reason, I will be writing a multi-part blog series on human trafficking.

Fast Facts: 

• Minnesota has become one of the thirteen most heavily sex and slavery trafficked states in the United States.
• Human trafficking is a crime against humanity. It involves the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring or receiving a person through the use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them for labor or commercial sexual purposes.
• Children and women are the most vulnerable to trafficking. 50% of trafficked victims are children.
• Human trafficking is the second largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world, and it is very apparent in our state of Minnesota.

Topics that will be covered in this blog series:

• Human Trafficking affecting the Asian community in Minnesota
• How the trafficking business works
• Human trafficking and healthcare
• Legislative issues around human trafficking
• Updates on people and organizations working to stop human trafficking

Starting with awareness
Awareness, as a starting point, can bring about many important bottom-up changes. First of all, because victims are usually hidden and brought around our neighborhoods quietly, awareness in the community can help people identify victims, and point them to the direction of the help they need. It also educates people on their rights. The awareness of rights not only encourages members of our Asian community to be more civically and politically active, it also reduces a victim’s vulnerability helping them to act against their perpetrators who will blackmail or coerce them into forced labor or prostitution. Most importantly, great awareness can lead politicians and legislators to take this issue of human trafficking more seriously and act on it. Awareness can create the public discourse needed to state that human trafficking must not and will not be tolerated in our communities.

To learn more about human trafficking, please read next week’s post of the series which will touch on the issue of human trafficking within the Asian community in Minnesota.

 

 

So, How are the Children? – Education Forum Recap (post updated Nov. 1, 2011)

Post updated: November 1, 2011

We have uploaded a complete 16-page summary of the forum and also provided requested information about MN Dept. of Education’s NCLB waiver application.

• 16-page summary of the Education Forum, (includes an executive summary).
• Informational sheet on MN Dept. of Education’s NCLB waiver application.
• Hmong Times article on the forum by Amy Doeun.
• To see slides from the event, visit our sliderocket page.
• To view photos of the event, please visit our flickr page.

Education Forum 2011 - Oct. 1

 

When it comes to jobs, Minnesota must embrace the future

Press Release: April 21, 2011

For Immediate Release Contact: Ilean Her, 651-757-1740

To view the PDF version of this PR, click here.

(St. Paul, MN). This week Governor Mark Dayton starts his job creation tour of Minnesota. People tell me in my role as Executive Director for the State Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are not doing so bad in this economy as evidence by our unemployment rate. Everyone it seems is focused on job creation and ending unemployment. And since our number is so low, we’ve got nothing to worry about right? Wrong. I do not want to be the harbinger of more bad news, but AAPIs do indeed share the pain in this bad economy, and in some areas, suffer disproportionately.

While it is true that the unemployment rate of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander (7.7 percent) is lower than that of whites (8.1 percent) and the national average (9.1 percent) this is not and should not be the only measure of economic health (Footnote 1).

In the recent report, Diversity and Change: Asian American and Pacific Islander Workers, Center for Economic & Policy Research, July 2011, researchers made the following findings about the health and well-being of the AAPI worker:

Many AAPI workers face high unemployment (even in good times), experience working poverty, have problems obtaining health insurance, and struggle with disabilities and language difficulties that impede upward mobility.

• In the second quarter of 2010, Asian Americans had the highest long-term unemployment rate of America’s major racial and ethnic groups.
• Over half (51.7%) of unemployed Asian Americans had been unemployed for more than six months, and almost 4-in-10 (39%) had been unemployed for more than a year.
• The employment rate for AAPIs is consistently higher than it is for blacks and Latinos, but consistently lower than it is for whites. All four groups suffered steep declines in employment between 2007 and 2010. In 2007, the employment rate for AAPIs was 70.8 percent; by 2010, it had fallen almost 5 percentage points, to 66.1 percent. (footnote 4)

 

Concerns about Education and Health and Human Services Legislative Cuts

Click here for the full brief on health legislation

CAPM is concerned about cuts affecting Mental Health Care, Refugee and Immigrant Access to Health Care, and care for the Elderly, Disabled, and Low-income

• Mental health remains to be a top concern of the Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) community, especially with high levels of depression, suicide, and PTSD.

• CAPM is troubled by accounts of refugees arriving in the US with no support or introduction on how to secure basic needs such as housing, school enrollment for children, etc. Elimination of health care coverage could exacerbate refugee population’s ability to reclaim security and independence in their lives.

• CAPM is concerned that many of these cuts would negatively impact APIA individuals and families with elderly, disabled, and/or low-income statuses. The loss of health care and safety net programs could create more educational and economic barriers, especially for families with children.

Click here for the full brief on education legislation

• CAPM is concerned that cuts to integration revenue, compensatory aid, special education, and adult basic education would negatively impact communities needing the most educational support

 

CAPM and Council on Black Minnesotans opposed to integration cuts

photo credits to koratmember

Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans and Council on Black Minnesotans are opposed to integration and compensatory funding cuts in House Education Finance Omnibus bill.

On March 30, 2011, 2:30 AM, the MN House passed the Omnibus Education Bill, which eliminates the rule requiring integrated schools in Minnesota, cuts integration funding for Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth, and freezes special education and Adult Basic Education funding. As an example of the impact of these cuts, Minneapolis Public Schools alone would lose about $17 million or $480 per student from integration funding cuts.

Families, students, and community leaders are deeply concerned about the shifting of funds from metro area schools with high levels of poverty to other parts of the state. The integration funding and compensatory aid funds are currently used to eliminate segregation in our schools and to close the educational achievement gap. The Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans and Council on Black Minnesotans maintain that the proposed cuts and freezes fundamentally undermine Minnesota’s efforts to reduce our state’s achievement gap and to promote educational equity.

While we recognize that funding in education is limited and needs more accountability and effective use, we maintain that the proposed cuts and freezes in education funding is not the answer. These cuts and freezes would disproportionately impact metro area schools whose populations are largely made up students of color and low-income students. These drastic cuts and freezes should not be made at the expense of our children and their future.

View the Letter from CAPM and CBM opposing integration cuts

 

CAPM responds to integration and compensatory cuts in education funding

Click here to see the PDF copy of this letter.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans opposed to integration and compensatory funding cuts in House Education Finance Omnibus bill

On March 22, 2011, the House Education Finance Committee recently heard and passed the Omnibus Education Bill, which eliminates the rule requiring integrated schools in Minnesota, cuts integration funding for Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth, and freezes special education and Adult Basic Education funding. As an example of the impact of these cuts, Minneapolis Public Schools alone would lose about $17 million or $480 per student from integration funding cuts.

 

Legislature proposes cuts to integration and compensatory funding in education

Press Release, 3/22/11

The House Education Finance Omnibus Bill recently heard and passed this week includes cuts to integration dollars (used to help integrate racially isolated schools) and compensatory aid (aid for low-income, free/reduced lunch students).

As an example of the impact of these cuts, Minneapolis Public Schools alone would lose about $17 million or $480 per student from integration funding cuts.

While the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans recognizes that funding in education is limited and needs more accountability and effective use, we maintain that a total elimination of these funds is not the answer. Reductions to Special Education and Adult Basic Education funding is also of great concern for the Council. These cuts would disproportionately impact schools whose populations are largely made up of Asian Pacific students and other students of color.

• Integration and Compensatory Funding cuts would mainly hit Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth areas and therefore disproportionately affecting students of color and harming efforts to close the achievement gap.
• Cuts to transportation would limit the efforts to improve interracial contact for students.
• Elimination of special education funding will force school districts to use general dollars from other programs, reducing total school effectiveness.

What the community can do:

Please consider writing a letter of your concerns to the governor, your district’s legislators or legislators on Senate and House education committees. Everyone is concerned about the achievement gap but let them know your specific concerns on addressing the achievement gap.

• Mention if you are a student or parent of a student impacted by school programs or services funded by integration or compensatory aid and if those programs are beneficial.
• Watch the video of 3 young Asian Minnesotan students who had great courage to testify on what integration in their schools meant to them. Follow their courage. [Skip to 04:33:00, testimony is about 3-4 minutes long]. http://livestre.am/FEzX
• Ask questions, contact the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans at capm [at] state.mn.us to learn more about this issue and ask how your concerns can be best heard at the capitol

Students from Central, White Bear Lake and Woodbury testifying

 

CAPM supports HF 556, bill to protect sexually exploited children

CAPM supports HF 556, legislation which aims to protect and assist sexually exploited children get appropriate therapeutic responses.

The legislation would address current Minnesota law that contradicts itself when it comes to sexually exploited children: children found to be “engaging in prostitution” may simultaneously be considered victims of sex trafficking, children in need of protection or services, maltreated minors, and juvenile delinquents.

The purpose of the bill is to:

• make sure sexually exploited children receive therapeutic responses appropriate as victims of a crime, not  punishment as criminals
• increases fines on “johns” to create a funding stream for more supportive services
• preserves the tools prosecutors need to convict sex traffickers and pimps

To learn more about the bill, visit Advocates for Human Rights or the MN Leg. page for HF 556

 

CAPM releases two legislative reports and recommendations

• CAPM Report on Workforce Development and Employment – 2011 Legislative release with recommendations
• CAPM report on Educational Achievement Gap - 2011 Legislative release with recommendations

We will release more reports as we finish them. Stay tuned.