The 2017 legislative session has truly been one of the most remarkable parts of my life.
For 33 years, I taught high school students bout how government works, and yet I am still awestruck by all the things I have learned in just five months. Much of what I have learned has been from my own constituents. I have also been incredibly impressed by how may of my former students have walked through my door.
Lobbyists have been important as well, sharing their wealth of knowledge with me on issues ranging from transit to environmental protection. Every one of these groups has proven informative and has only further enhanced my positive outlook on life in our state.
I am incredibly impressed by some of the good things we got done this year. We saved Southwest Light Rail, legalized Sunday liquor sales, passed Real ID and gave premium relief to Minnesotans on the individual health insurance marketplace.
In this year’s bonding bill, we also funded the creation of a quiet zone on the Twin Cities & Western Railroad tracks running through Eden Prairie, and created a new crossing at Eden Prairie High School, to prevent any additional young people from having their lives cut short as they cross.
One bill I want to discuss more in-depth is the education budget. We go some important things done by working together. We increased per-pupil spending by 2 percent for each of the next two years and put an additional $50 million into our state’s voluntary pre-K program. We increased compensatory revenue for high-need students and ensured that all teachers renewing their license take an hour of suicide-prevention training.
Still, there are some things that we will have to fight for next year. This year’s education budget did not increase funding for Support our Students grants, a bill I co-authored to provide additional counselors, social workers, and other support staff in schools. Our state is near the bottom of the student-to-counselor ratio. With some districts only having a single staff person to reach more than 800 kids.
This is unacceptable, and I am committed to continuing my work on this issue. It’s imperative we get more counselors into Minnesota schools.
I am also greatly concerned by two major policy provisions that were included in the education budget. The first policy change is a teacher licensure reform that allows unlicensed community experts to instruct our youth without any incentive to further their teaching credentials. Courses on classroom management and pedagogy are absolutely necessary for all teachers, and it is a disservice to students to normalize allowing sub-standard educators into our classroom.
This is doubly disappointing because these teachers are not allowed to collectively bargain, meaning they will be the first ones to be laid off when schools need to make cuts. We need real teacher licensure reform that puts people on pathways to full licensure in order to reduce our state’s teacher shortage, and I look forward to working on this next session.
The other troubling policy provision is the repeal of teacher seniority in state statute. The institutional memory of career educators is invaluable, but that does not always matter when school districts have to balance a budget. Educators who have been teaching for decades can now be laid off simply because of budget cuts. This change does away with decades of precedent and puts the careers of lifelong educators in greater jeopardy.
My last reflection, however, will be on a positive note. I am incredibly impressed with all the staff who work here at the Legislature Their exuberance, competence and passion for government makes for an outstanding work environment.
We have a research department that puts together bill summaries, a media department that helps turn my thoughts into fluid prose, and nonpartisan staff, without whom the bills we vote on could never be written in the first place. I would also be remiss if I did not thank the legislative assistance, who perform so many different tasks that I cannot even begin to name them all.
We did a lot of good together this legislative session, but as always, there is more work to be done. I look forward to the summer and fall and hearing what ideas you have before we begin the 2018 session next winter.
Sen. Steve Cwozinski, SD48
Eden Prairie News, June 15, 2017