463 State Office Building, 100 Constitution Ave., St. Paul, MN 55155 (651) 296-
2273
For Immediate Release
For more information contact:
March 22, 2000
Doug Champeau (651-296-4305)
NEWS RELEASE
HOUSE APPROVES $60 MILLION OMNIBUS K-12 SPENDING BILL
ST. PAUL Rural school districts are the prime beneficiaries of a $60 million supplemental
K-12 spending bill approved early Wednesday morning by the Minnesota House. The bill would fully
fund secondary vocational education programs, provide equity aid for many rural schools districts with
declining enrollments and fund a grant program to help rural schools with telecommunication and Internet
access.
While this is a non-funding legislative session, House Speaker Steve Sviggum (R-Kenyon) said
this bill prudently sets a priority for education by recognizing needs and deficiencies that do exist in our
schools. "This bill begins to address the many unmet needs of rural school districts," said Sviggum. "In
the past, too much speciality aid ended up flowing to St. Paul and Minneapolis. Our goal was to build a
little more equity in the system so that all schools across the state benefit."
The K-12 legislation was part of a larger omnibus supplemental education bill that also funded
Higher Education and Family & Early Childhood Education programs, including $10 million in
additional funding for adult basic education programs and $11 million in deficiency funds to help with
increase enrollments on MnSCU campuses.
Approximately $30 million is spent on to help both some rural and suburban school districts with
the high costs of employing highly trained and experienced teachers. Last year, this "Training &
Experience" revenue was combined into general school funding, but many school districts that counted on
such aid experienced financial problems because many veteran teachers retired sooner than expected.
Details of the K-12 bill include:
$11 million to fully fund secondary vocational educational programs for the 2000-2001
school year that were not fully funded in last year's K-12 education bill
$10 million to fund telecommunications access grants to improve capacity to help more
rural schools districts acquire adequate Internet access
$9 million in equity aid to provide additional funding to small schools with declining
enrollments
$500,000 to create an innovative teacher loan forgiveness program to help attract science,
math, industrial technology and special education teacher candidates to rural school
districts.
The bill now heads to a conference committee with the Senate. With the threat of a governor's
veto on any spending bill this session, Sviggum hoped the governor would get behind the more
reasonable House bill because it addresses exceptional needs in out-state Minnesota.
"Just because a school is smaller doesn't mean its costs are any less," Sviggum said. "This is a
well-thought out bill that gives rural schools a little extra help in this non-budget year."
