By Rep. Paul Anderson
Most committees are wrapping up their work as the legislative session moves into the home stretch. Only five weeks remain before adjournment on May 23. We’ll transition to more and longer floor sessions as bills come out of committee and are put on the calendar for final action.
Two of the finance committees I serve on, education and agriculture, put the finishing touches on their respective bills last week. Keeping in mind that this is not a budget year, the bill coming out of the education committee contains $53 million in new, mainly one-time spending. One of the unique parts of the bill is funding for the Lakes Country Service Cooperative to work with Minnesota State University, Moorhead, to develop graduate level courses for high school teachers so they can remain eligible to teach college courses in their high school classrooms. Within the next five years, those who teach concurrent courses must have an advanced degree in the field they are teaching.
While on the subject of education, some are saying we have a perfect storm in relation to a looming shortage of teachers. Nearly 6,000 educators, over 10 percent of Minnesota teachers, left their positions in the years 2012-14. In addition, newly licensed teachers trained in Minnesota fill less than five percent of the vacant positions. The number of new teacher licenses awarded to those who complete their license requirements in Minnesota has decreased by 7 percent over the last five years. Over the past 10 years, the trend is even more glaring as it shows a 44 percent decrease in licenses awarded.
This new education bill begins looking for answers to this problem. It contains limited funding for those doing their student teaching to receive a stipend to help expenses, in addition to increasing the funding available for teacher loan forgiveness. It also contains language declaring the Board of Teaching has responsibility for licensing teachers, issuing special permissions to teach, and performing all licensure-related duties and responsibilities. In addition, at the Board’s direction, it allows the Department of Education to perform administrative functions related to issuing licenses.
The agriculture bill also contains limited additional spending, with the dollars coming from funds left over from last year’s massive effort to combat Avian Flu in our poultry flocks. Funds will be re-purposed to assist the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab with new research and to the Department of Ag for laboratory equipment. In addition, a farm safety program will be established to assist farmers in retro fitting their older tractors with roll over protection. A meeting on farm safety I recently attended listed roll overs as the leading cause of accidental death among farmers. The program will be voluntary and would limit the out of pocket expense of installing a roll bar and safety belt to $500.
I am also carrying an ag policy bill that’s ready for floor action. Among its main features is an extension of the Farmer-Lender Mediation program for another two years. The program is expected to be used extensively in the near future because of the decline in commodity prices and the resultant negative cash flows. The legislation also establishes a commission to examine the program, which hasn’t been changed since the 1980s, and report back to the Legislature next year.
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With warming temperatures and dry conditions, field work has kicked into high gear. Ground is working up nicely but also resulting in dust clouds as machines work across the fields. Corn is being planted, which is early for this area, but the soil has warmed sufficiently and conditions are good. Farmers are urged to be careful as they put in long days getting their crops seeded.
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