As a legislator who wants to get things done that will actually work to solve problems and deal with important issues for the people of our state, I want to share with you a very frustrating and unfortunately all too common experience in the legislature.
First, the good news. A DFL colleague brought a bill before the House Education Policy Committee, of which I am co-chair, concerning anonymous threat reporting systems for schools which is a system that will aid in preventing suicides and violent acts. Our GOP committee members supported the concept, but the heavy mandate upon schools in the bill was a no-go for us. Instead of just saying “no,” both DFL and GOP representatives agreed to work together on the bill to come up with a bipartisan solution. Together, we developed a bill which we could all support that would create opportunities and encourage schools to voluntarily adopt an anonymous threat reporting system at low or no cost.
This is what people want to see - legislators working together across the aisle to find areas of agreement and get it done. Every committee member agreed that this is one piece of the puzzle that can help keep our schools and children safe. As co-chair, I scheduled my DFL colleague's final bill to come back before our committee to vote to send it to the floor for a full House vote.
And now the frustrating part. Although this bill had been heard in committee three weeks prior, with plenty of time for feedback from the public and state agencies, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) stepped in the morning of the scheduled committee vote. It announced that the bill had a cost to the agency and requested a fiscal note. As a result, the bill author pulled the bill, and we never had our bipartisan committee vote.
There is a component in the bill that requires MDE to produce a modest report in 2029 with the requirement that the department use existing dollars within MDE to pay for the report. The agency says they need extra funding - above and beyond their operating budget - to produce this report.
We have a saying in the Legislature: "Death by fiscal note." State agencies, under the governor’s jurisdiction, can basically "kill" a bill by insisting that extra funding is needed for the agency to accomplish bill requirements. For the cost of a modest report three years out, this agency has basically killed this bipartisan bill that would help keep kids safer at school.
I understand the need for extra funding when we have bills that would create new programs requiring multiple new staff. However, this is a simple and modest report that should be accomplished within the agency’s current well financed operating budget. It’s their job, and they shouldn’t need extra funding to do their job.
I won’t bore you with the facts like the $63 million per year MDE receives for its operating budget, that they were given an operating increase in last year’s negotiations at the administration’s insistence, and were allowed to carry forward an additional $8 million from the previous year. There’s more. What I will add is that, while the governor’s agency received its operating increase last year, our schools were doled out cuts. It’s one of the reasons I voted against the education omnibus bill last session.
It’s time for legislators to push back on these agency practices, and that’s what I’m doing. The Department should use funding within their more than generous budget to pay for this report. They have a history of moving around their funds to pay for the things they care about, so they should certainly be able to pay for a modest report for a bipartisan bill that will help keep our schools safer.
I hope we can keep this bill alive. I’ll keep you updated!