Legislative Notes for the week of February 19-23, 2007

Faculty meet with legislators

The Inter Faculty Organization, representing the four-year university faculty, met Thursday with House and Senate leadership. Faculty asked lawmakers to fund the system's $57 million inflation request and the $30 million repair and replacement projects request. They also supported Gov. Pawlenty's initiative Achieve II, which encourages high school students to take college courses.

For every course that is successfully completed, students earn scholarship funds for college. Student leadership also joined the faculty this year for visits. The IFO met with Chas Anderson, the deputy commissioner of education, to discuss issues that cross higher education and P-12 boundaries, such as 3R schools (Gov. Pawlenty's initiative to make schools produce rigor, relevance and results in high schools), Advanced Placement courses and Post-Secondary Enrollment Options.

System cleans up with housekeeping bill

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities housekeeping bill was brought before the committee. A few technical, non-controversial changes were sought. One clarifies courses taken by seniors. Currently, seniors can take courses and only pay for the administration costs (varying by campus), up to $20 per credit.

The language change would require companies to pay for training of employees that fall under this category for continuing education. It also seeks to clarify banking services. The bill was laid over for inclusion in the omnibus.

Alternative school students want college

The House Education and Finance and Economic Competitiveness Finance Division heard from the alternative learning schools and charter schools whose executive directors shared how the programs were offering K-12 students different learning opportunities. Four students told the committee that public schools were not working for them. They said public school class sizes were too large, they didn't feel challenged enough, and the structured school day didn't work. All had excelled in alternative or charter schools.

One concern that was raised was that alternative learning school students were not being accepted into Post-Secondary Enrollment Options programs because they were not "college ready." Executive directors also said they wanted a voice in the P-16 Partnership, a voluntary organization of leaders in various Minnesota education organizations. Finally, they challenged committee members to make changes with the Minnesota Department of Education to accommodate alternative learning students' styles. Committee members seemed agreeable to what was discussed.

Wisconsin or Minnesota students would pay the same

The House Higher Education and Economic Competitiveness Committee took up tuition reciprocity. Currently, Wisconsin students attending the University of Minnesota (and some of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities) pay a lower rate than Minnesota students. When the reciprocity agreement was established between the two states, tuition was about equal, and Wisconsin students paid similar rates to attend a Minnesota institution as the students from Minnesota paid.

Rep. Tom Huntley, DFL-Duluth, is the chief bill author of a bill requiring that Wisconsin students in the future would pay the same tuition at the University of Minnesota as the Minnesota students. Huntley wants to ensure that students in the same class are paying the same rates. Minnesota Office of Higher Education Director Susan Heegaard also testified that she is working with the Wisconsin office to see if an agreement could be reached without legislation.

Accountability 101

The Senate Higher Education Committee heard from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education on its new accountability report released this week. The report was a legislative-requested study. It focused on five goals: improving the success of all students, particularly those from traditionally underrepresented groups; creating a responsive system that produces graduates that meet the state's economic demands; increasing student learning and improving student skill levels for global competition; contributing to the development of a competitive state economy through research and workforce training; and providing access, affordability and choice to all students.

View the full Minnesota Office of Higher Education report

The governor's recommendations stops by the Senate

The Senate Higher Education Committee heard the governor's bills. The committee focuses specifically on medical provisions, including funding for Mayo Clinic Medical School, the United Family Medicine Residency program and the Family Practice and Graduate Residency program. Susan Heegaard and Mark Misukanis testified for the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and explained the governor's priorities, both appropriations and policy that affects their office.

Health insurance for all students

Students may be more likely to have health insurance under a new bill proposed by Rep. Diane Loeffler, DFL-Minneapolis. Currently, people ages 18-25 have one of the highest uninsured rates in Minnesota. Under the bill, young men and women would be granted longer access to their parents' health care plan. The new language amends, for the purposes of private health care coverage, the definition of dependents to include anyone younger than 25.

Under current law, family coverage extends only to full-time or disabled students under age 25 and unmarried teens younger than 19. The bill was approved by the House Health and Human Services Committee and sent to the House Commerce and Labor Committee.

Committee Deadlines Announced

Each year lawmakers establish deadlines for committee action on bills in order to contain the list of topics to be dealt with during the session. The first deadline, set for March 23 in the House and April 14 in the Senate, is for committees to act on bills in the house of origin. The second deadline, also March 23 in the House and April 14 in the Senate, is for committees to act favorably on bills in both bodies. This means bills can only move if they have been heard in both the House and Senate by these dates.

The third deadline, for major appropriation and finance bills, is April 2 in both bodies. This means the Senate is hoping to pass finance bills prior to policy bills, based on the April 14 deadline in the Senate.

A fourth deadline has been added this session, which has been set for no later than April 27, 2007. The Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate must establish joint revenue and appropriation limits for action in conference committees by this date.

There is no yearly deadline for the introduction of bills; however, you will start to notice that the introductions will taper off once the first deadline has passed. All of the unheard bills are essentially "dead" for the session as no action can be taken on them after the deadlines pass. They can, however, be carried into the second year of the biennium.

Federal Update: Raise expectations for accreditation

Chancellor James McCormick is serving on the federal negotiated rulemaking process on accreditation. The group met this week to discuss higher education institutions' accreditation and decided standards should be raised for institutions.

As reported on InsideHigherEd.com, the chancellor said: "If a college has complete autonomy, they might have low standards and be shown to have met them. Don't we have to push colleges and universities to aspire higher and to meet certain standards? It's hard to do, really hard to do. But don't we have to push people to aspire harder, and aren't you in a terrific position to push institutions to do that?"

Students GPAs are increasing, but are they really learning?

Two reports released this week show that students are taking more advanced classes and earning higher grades BUT are not increasing scores on federal tests that measure how much they have learned. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings issued a statement making clear her frustration with the studies' findings. "The two reports released today show that we have our work cut out for us in providing every child in this nation with a quality education," she said.

"If, in fact, our high-school students are taking more challenging courses and earning higher grades, we should be seeing greater gains in test scores." The reports released Thursday were "The Nation's Report Card: America's High School Graduates" and "The Nation's Report Card: 12th-Grade Reading and Mathematics 2005."

Round table discussion

Congresswoman Betty McCollum will host a town hall meeting to discuss issues facing the state and nation this weekend. Tomorrow, Sat., Feb. 24, she will be at the Wentworth Library; 199 E. Wentworth Ave; West St. Paul, MN, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Please feel free to join her and bring up any concerns you might have.