APRIL 11, 2003 VOLUME 20, NUMBER 14 In this issue: VIRTUAL SCHOOLS PROPOSAL SCHOOL ZONE SPEED LIMITS, AND MORE HF1469-HF1527 ESSION S Weekly Session Weekly is a nonpartisan publication of the Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Services. During the 2003-2004 Legislative Session, each issue reports daily House ac- tion between Thursdays of each week, lists bill introductions and upcoming commit- tee meeting schedules, and provides other information. The publication is a service of the Minnesota House. No fee. 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Lambert Editor/Assistant Director Michelle Kibiger EATURES Assistant Editor F Mike Cook AT ISSUE: SAFETY — A bill that would allow local governments additional Art & Production Coordinator flexibility in adjusting speed limits in school zones is headed to the House Paul Battaglia floor. • 24 Writers Miranda Bryant, Patty Janovec, Jeff Jones, Tom Lonergan Chief Photographer DEPARTMENTS/RESOURCES Tom Olmscheid Photographers It’s a Fact: Deep pockets 4 Committee Schedule (April 14-18) 30 Andrew Von Bank, Kristine Larsen Resources: 2003 House of Representatives Reflections: Maria Sanford 31 Office Manager and Senate members 25 Minnesota Index: Crime and Nicole Wood Governor’s Desk (CH1-CH11) 27 punishment 32 Staff Assistants Bill Introductions (HF1469-HF1527) 28 Christy Novak, Joseph Rude Session Weekly (ISSN 1049-8176) is published weekly during the legislative session by the Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Services, 175 State Office Building, St. Paul, MN 55155-1298. Periodicals postage paid at St. Paul, MN, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Session Weekly, Public Information Services, Minnesota House of Representatives, 175 State Office Building, St. Paul, MN 55155-1298. Printed on recycled paper which is 50% recycled, 30% post-consumer content. On the cover: Diffused light penetrates the ornamental skylight above the cantilevered staircase in the State Capitol. — Photo by Andrew Von Bank 2 April 11, 2003 IRST READING F★ ★ ★ successfully complete, up to an annual limit of 10 courses per student. Logged on The students could be from another school district under the state’s open enrollment law. Education committee examines online education programs, In such cases, the bill proposes the student’s but funding elusive in tight budget times home district would lose the amount of state aid paid to the district offering the online class. Besides public school students, both bills BY TOM LONERGAN these programs bubbling up now and put would allow private and home school students ublic and charter schools could expand some law and process around it.” to take online courses. Under the bill the state well beyond traditional classrooms “Online learning is going to be a reality in education commissioner to issue up to 2,400 au- Punder two House bills that propose on- Minnesota, as it is in other states,” said thorization certificates annually for K-12 private going state funding for online learning pro- Buesgens. “I hope we can give parents another school students to enroll in online courses. grams and virtual schools. option in deciding what’s the best education Seagren said a private or home school stu- Sponsored by Rep. Alice Seagren choice for their children.” dent enrolling in a district or charter school (R-Bloomington) and Rep. Mark Buesgens The bills would allow the state to take a lead- for an online course would be considered a (R-Jordan) respectively, HF1260 and HF1118 ing role in providing publicly supported online public school student. She said the state’s would not only establish state policy for sig- learning, said the director of the state’s first vir- shared time funding already provides for a nificant expansion of online learning and vir- tual school. “If public schools don’t lead in vir- portion of the cost when a private school stu- tual schools, but could also initiate a new era tual education, someone will,” said Kim Ross, dent takes a public school course. in classroom presentation and instruction director of the Minnesota Virtual Academy, and The online learning bill includes $994,000 delivery throughout the state. Houston Public Schools superintendent. each for fiscal years 2004-05 for districts The bills would allow school districts and charter schools to expand online courses and establish virtual schools. Both will be consid- ered for inclusion in the education finance omnibus bill. Initial committee hearings on the bills were held April 1 and 3. Companion bills (SF1211, SF1283), spon- sored by Sen. Steve Kelley (DFL-Hopkins), await action by the Senate Education Committee. Less than 1,000 of the state’s estimated 850,000 public school students participate in online learning, which was first funded through state grants in 1995. More than a dozen school districts offer online learning programs and more than 30 percent of schools offer some online courses, according to the Department of Children, Families and Learn- ing, which funds online learning programs after reviewing each proposal. Funds for ex- isting programs will expire on June 30, 2003, the end of the current fiscal year. Most existing online learning programs of- PHOTO BY TOM OLMSCHEID fer high school-level classes for working stu- A bill being considered by the House Education Finance Committee would allow for expansion of virtual schools and online learning in Minnesota. dents, those with a serious medical condition, as well as remedial and accelerated classes for About 85 percent of the academy’s 150 kin- offering online courses to private school stu- students of varying achievement levels. Online dergarten through fifth-grade students are home dents. That issue didn’t sit well with several programs have also been developed for stu- schooled, he said. The school, which purchases committee members. dents in alternative learning centers. full grade curriculums from a private company, “We shall not pay for private school students,” The state’s first virtual charter school, based will expand to seven grades next year. said Rep. Barbara Goodwin (DFL-Columbia in the Houston School District, began in HF1260 would establish a system of paying Heights), citing the state constitution. November 2002. for online courses based on a percentage of With the state’s budget deficit, spending ad- “We’ve been grappling for several years on the state’s general education formula. Districts ditional money on private school and home how to do online learning and how to pay for offering online learning would be reimbursed school students should cause “grave concern,” it,” Seagren said. “We’re going to take all of for the number of online courses students said Rep. Mindy Greiling (DFL-Roseville). “It’s Session Weekly 3 irresponsible to start dabbling in constitu- tional issues like (state) instructional money going to private schools.” For virtual schools, HF1118 proposes to fund full-time virtual students as if they were students transferring to another school district under the Deep pockets state’s open enrollment option. When that hap- 1894 benefit baseball game a display of both the absurd and pens, a proportion of state education aid follows generous in St. Peter the student from district to district. The bill would also consider a virtual school The skies during the hot summer of 1894 the game. Strapped to his side was a Colt a site for other state funding and proposes to held an almost constant smoky haze in cen- revolver, which he used to enforce the rules fund part-time virtual students in the same man- tral and east-central Minnesota, as fires of the game at gunpoint. ner high school students who take post-second- threatened many communities due to ex- In addition, players were arrayed in all ary courses at colleges or universities are funded. treme drought. Temperatures climbed manner of costume, according to an ac- A fiscal note is being prepared on the cost of above 90 degrees many times that summer, count in the St. Peter Tribune from Sept. 12. the virtual schools bill for the 2004-05 biennium. and even topped 100 degrees a few times in Described as “striking and original,” the “We support the direction both bills take,” the late summer months. costumes included bloomers, items made said Jim Bartholomew, director of government On Sept. 1 that year, two smoldering fires of Chinese silk, and garb more suitable for relations for the Department of Children, converged near Hinckley and in a few min- the gridiron than the basepath. Families and Learning. The bills would pro- utes devastated that small lumber town and In the Herald account, one man wore vide “a way of integrating online (options) in several neighbor- skirts and flowers, the delivery of public education,” he said. ing communities. another wore The bills have the potential to not only es- Across the state, cheesecloth and tablish new public policy in the state, but could communities colored hose, and redefine public schooling, as well, said Jan banded together to a third wore a Alswager, representing Education Minnesota. raise funds in relief pink jersey with While not opposing the bills overall, she for the fire victims “very loud trunks and the families left and tights.” cited several areas the teachers union would Members of the “Fats” and ”Thins” play a benefit take issue with.