Legislative Notes for the week of April 10 - April 14, 2006

Bonding Bill Passes House Floor

The Minnesota House overwhelmingly approved a nearly $1 billion bonding bill this week by a 114-16 vote. The bill includes $187.7 million for Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. Many members who voted against it said that while the bill contains many good projects, they were voting against it because it does not include the important project or projects in their district. The bill’s author, Rep. Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, said the widespread support shows that it is a balanced bill. You may review the bonding side-by-side comparison at http://www.mnscu.edu/media/publications/pdf/systembondingside-by-side2006.pdf.

A conference committee will work out the differences between the Senate and House bills. Watch for conferees to be appointed after lawmakers return to St. Paul from the Easter/Passover break.

House Higher Education Bill Moves to Ways and Means

The House Higher Education Finance Division took up the committee's omnibus bill early this week and passed it as amended out of committee. The bill, which will be heard next in Ways and Means, includes the option for post-secondary institutions to disclose underage drinking information to parents or guardians. The bill also gives authority for a University of Minnesota, Rochester campus and provides an appropriation of $5 million in FY2007, $5 million in FY2008 and $6.33 million in FY2009. Task forces are created in the bill to look at higher education English proficiency for faculty, as well as study the high cost of textbooks.

Multiple amendments to the bill include deleting the sections that would make part of the search private for a Minnesota State Colleges and Universities chancellor and a University of Minnesota president. With the adoption of this amendment, the chancellor and president search process will remain an open and public process. Rep. Ray Cox, R-Northfield, introduced an amendment to include the DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) language in the bill. The amendment addresses young people who grew up in Minnesota and have graduated from a Minnesota high school, but they generally derive their immigration status solely from their parents, and when the parents are undocumented or in immigration limbo, their children have no mechanism to obtain legal residency. The language specifically qualifies these students for resident tuition if the student attended high school in Minnesota for three or more years and graduated from a state high school or received a GED in the state. This amendment was adopted and is also part of the Senate higher education omnibus bill.

The Senate is expected to hear the Senate higher education omnibus bill in Senate Finance on Tues., April 18. Also watch for the House higher education bill to be heard next week. The full bill may be found at http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H3924.1.html&session=ls84. You also may review a summary of the bill at http://ww3.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/bs/84/HF3924.html, as well as the fiscal implications of the bill at http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/fiscal/files/hed06.pdf

David McCormick to Speak at Minnesota High Tech Association

David H. McCormick (son of Chancellor McCormick), Under Secretary, Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce, will speak Tues., April 18, at the Minnesota High Tech Association spring conference, "Will Minnesota Remain Globally Competitive?" David McCormick's Office of Industry and Security deals with export control policy and regulations, export licensing, enforcement, international compliance and cooperative programs, industrial and technological base programs and advocacy activities, regulator change, security and other related issues. You may find more information on the Spring Conference Program at http://www.mhta.org/ittrium/reference/MHTA2006SpringConference4.10.06.pdf?
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Congress to Pick up Budget Negotiations After Recess

When Congress returns from recess April 24, budget negotiations will pick up after going nowhere in the House last week. Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif, refused to support language limiting his committee’s ability to fund disaster relief. The budget impasse in the House is the latest development in an ongoing feud between conservatives and appropriators. House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he remains committed to bringing a budget bill to the floor when members return from their two week recess, but to do so, he must first bridge the gap between conservatives and members of the Appropriations Committee over permanent changes to the annual budget process. The standoff in the House boils down to a difference of opinion over how to limit the number of earmarks added to appropriations bills.

Student Learning Assessment

An Amercan Association of State Colleges and Universities white paper recently was released. The paper, "Value-Added Assessment: Accountability's New Frontier," the paper delves into the timely issue of student learning assessment. It calls on public colleges and universities, working in collaboration with state and regional accreditors, to develop a consensus model for gauging the value added to undergraduate student learning. It notes that such a model should recognize three basic types of measures: direct (e.g. Collegiate Learning Assessment), indirect (e.g. National Survey of Student Engagement), and applied (e.g. alumni/employer surveys). The paper is posted on the Web at http://www.aascu.org/perspectives_06/.