The Legislature returns tomorrow from the Easter break and they will be diving right in as they begin to pass major policy bills off the floor.  The Senate omnibus education policy bill is slated to be on the floor tomorrow and if the action during the last meeting of the Senate Education Policy Committee is any indication, there will likely be several amendments that seek to make changes in the bill.  There was little discussion as the bill passed out of committee on the effort to make it more difficult to ban books and other materials from the library, but I expect an amendment to that effect tomorrow.  I also expect some amendments that may try to loosen requirements around several programs enacted last year, but those amendments will likely come up short.  Still, with a razor-thin one-vote majority, there may be instances where an amendment offered by the minority party will sneak through.  It all remains to be seen.

It will be a short week ahead with the Legislature breaking on Thursday and returning a week from this Tuesday due to the scheduled Easter break and things will be happening quickly once they reconvene.  Both the House and Senate omnibus education policy bills are out of their respective committees and will be hitting the floor at some point in early April.  I have posted both of the bills as introduced, but there have been several amendments added to the bills and I will post the updated bills on the blog when they are reported to the floor with the amendments incorporated into the original text.  Here again are the bills as introduced:

HF 3782

SF 3567

The 2024 Legislative Session will complete its first stage this week as the deadline for policy bills to come out of committee is Friday, March 22.  As I wrote on my blog post from earlier today, the Senate Education Policy Committee will be releasing their version of the omnibus education policy bill tomorrow and taking testimony on the proposal.  The bill is 97 pages long, which is up about 30 pages from the Governor’s omnibus education policy proposal.  I am in the process of combing through the proposals looking for the additional material in the Senate version of the bill and should be able to provide that information after reviewing the two bills.  One major provision not in the Governor’s bill that is in the Senate proposal is clarification of rules surrounding student newspapers.  Here is a link to the Senate’s strike-everything amendment that will now become the Senate’s omnibus education policy bill:  SF 3567 Strike Everything Amendment.

We are now a month into the 2024 Legislative Session and things are starting to take shape.  The February budget forecast is now in the rearview mirror and funding targets for the various finance committees will be announced shortly.  It’s difficult to discern right now what targets will look like.  Even with the $1.3 billion improvement in the short-term state budget outlook, there will likely be reluctance to allocate that much of the new revenue to increased spending.

Last week was a short week in many respects as a majority of legislators took part in the observance of the three first responders that were shot while answering a call in Burnsville in late February.  That led to the cancellation of most committee meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, which are the heaviest days for education-related hearings although legislators were available for meetings.