House panel advances bill to repeal automatic special education funding cuts

Minnesota special education spending has increased from $1.8 billion to $2.7 billion per year over the last five years.

Those skyrocketing costs led to a 2025 law creating a Blue Ribbon Commission to find $250 million in special education cuts or mandate an automatic $250 million deduction in special education cross subsidy aid.

Rep. Ben Bakeberg (R-Jordan) seeks to undo that automatic deduction.

“Let’s be clear, this is a cut to our local schools, on top of the current struggles our schools are facing right now,” Bakeberg said.

He sponsors HF4114, which would eliminate the automatic deduction beginning in the 2028-2029 biennium and instead have the Legislature “identify enacted provisions that were recommended by or based on the recommendation of the Blue Ribbon Commission on special education.”

The House Education Finance Committee approved the bill Tuesday and sent it to the House Ways and Means Committee.

“Taking away resources from a group of our most vulnerable students is not how we move this state forward into full inclusion,” Rep. Kim Hicks (DFL-Rochester) said.

Committee Co-Chair Rep. Cheryl Youakim (DFL-Hopkins) said she and Co-Chair Rep. Ron Kresha (R-Little Falls) had angst last year over the provision. “We did not want to have it be part of our bill, but it was the cost of getting an education bill passed which was desperately needed to have our K-12 schools funded.”

Youakim called the bill “a message statement,” noting that neither she nor Kresha had signed onto a supplemental budget proposal from Gov. Tim Walz that includes $50 million in further cuts to special education funding.

“We need to send a clear message to the governor: these cuts can’t be accepted and approved,” Kresha said.

Justin Killian, education issues specialist at Education Minnesota and a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission, spoke in favor of the bill, lamenting the scope of the commission’s goal.

“We’ve been asked to balance the entire state budget on the back of special education teachers and students,” he said.

Special education services are mandated by the federal government which can force schools to pull funds from other areas to cover special education funding shortfalls.

Rachel Coleman, president of the Minnesota PTA, and Joanne Barkmeier, the group’s advocacy commissioner, were among those writing in support of the bill.

“Diverting funds from the general fund to special education would primarily result in staff reductions, which could include many staff recently trained in new literacy curriculum and instruction strategies under the READ Act, counselors and social workers that provide student mental health services, and staff for elective options that help students chart their plans for life after high school.”

Hollee Saville, vice chair of the St. Michael-Albertville School Board, agreed. “When funding is cut, we don’t cut services. We pull money out of general education classrooms. That means every student is affected.”