Minnesota House Passes K-12 Education Supplemental Budget

(KNSI) — The Minnesota House of Representatives has passed the K-12 education supplemental budget, adding $37 million in funding to get kids reading at or above grade level.

The bill also boosts voluntary pre-kindergarten programs by adding 5,200 seats starting in 2025, a year earlier than initially planned in last year’s budget and forms working groups to oversee the proper use of increased funding, approximately $1.8 billion, for special education and English learner programs over the next four years, ensuring alignment with best practices.

Various measures were added to equip teachers and paraprofessionals with training to better cater to student needs. Among the measures is a pilot initiative to compensate student teachers and tackle the trend of student absenteeism. Lastly, the bill mandates including comprehensive information on physical and mental health in the curriculum as a statewide standard.

Opponents took issue with those standards, saying they won’t be developed locally anymore and take the power of making those decisions out of the hands of parents, teachers and school boards and instead make it centralized and far away from the school communities most impacted.

The bill passed on a 68-61 vote and now moves to the Senate.

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