Dear Neighbors,
It’s hard to believe it’s nearly Thanksgiving! I hope you and your family have a safe and happy holiday — and have a lot to be thankful for this year.
Later in this week’s update, we’ll take a closer look at the state’s higher education budget.
Emergency Insulin Access
On October 18th, I appointed Representatives Michael Howard and Tina Liebling to a work group tasked with resolving the differences between the House and Senate insulin proposals. Minority Leader Kurt Daudt appointed himself to represent his caucus.
The 30-day deadline that Senate Majority Leader Gazelka proposed has come and gone, and I agree with Governor Walz that it’s time to hold public hearings on the issue and the proposals that have been put forward. There’s a lot of wisdom and know-how outside of the Legislature and executive branch — from patients to pharmaceutical companies — and we need everyone at the table.
The House DFL is ready to get this done as soon as possible and ensure Minnesotans have access to the insulin they need to survive. I’m looking for your input on this issue. Please fill out the short survey linked here. Thank you!
Minnesota Milk Legislator of the Year
’m honored to receive the Legislator of the Year Award from the Minnesota Milk Producers Association! This is a difficult time to be a farmer in Minnesota and in America. I’m very pleased we were able to invest $8 million to help family dairies enroll in federal Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC). This federal program is designed to help protect Minnesota’s milk producers from dairy market volatility. Our Dairy Assistance, Investment, and Relief Initiative (DAIRI) helps farmers obtain this federal insurance coverage.
Led by Representative Jeanne Poppe, chair of our Agriculture and Food Committee, the Minnesota House delivered results for farm families and rural communities in a time when uncertainty and trade tensions coming out of Washington DC are putting an enormous strain on Minnesota’s farm economy.
Special thanks to Congressman Collin Peterson and Minnesota Department of Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen for working with us to develop a program to assist our dairy farmers. You can learn more about the DAIRI program here:https://www.mda.state.mn.us/dairi
Me with Lucas Sjostrom, Executive Director of the Minnesota Milk Producers Association (left) and Dave Buck, President of the Minnesota Milk Producers Association (right)
Higher Education Budget
Since session ended, I’ve been working to “unpack” each of our budget bills in my email updates. This week, we’ll dive further into higher education than the end-of-session headlines.
All Minnesotans deserve the education and job training they need to get good-paying jobs that can support their families. Unfortunately, years of underfunding of our colleges and universities has led to skyrocketing tuition and student loan debt for Minnesotans.
Our Minnesota Values Budget, passed by the House, would have frozen tuition at public colleges and universities to improve college affordability and reduce the growth of student loan debt, but compromising with Republicans during final budget negotiations meant less investment than the initial House proposal.
We have a developing shortage of skilled labor in our state, and if we don’t make college and job training more accessible and affordable, our businesses will not have the workforce we need to compete.
Here are some of the highlights:
Tuition Cap: The budget includes a 3% cap on tuition increases for the next two years for resident undergraduate students at both MinnState and the U of M.
Office of Higher Education (OHE): OHE received a total of $538.013 million for financial aid and other higher ed planning and coordination initiatives.
State Grant Increase: The higher education budget invested an additional $18.16 million in the state grant program. With this increase in funding, a full-time resident undergraduate who qualifies for the state grant will receive an increase of approximately $235 more per year in their award. The program will also benefit more than 3,300 new students over the next two years.
Online-only Tuition Freeze and Report: For the next two years, there will be a freeze of the differential in online tuition rates until a report examining online rates differential is returned to the Legislature.
MN Reconnect: $2 million in funding to help get former students back into Minnesota institutions to complete their unfinished degrees.
State Longitudinal Education Data Systems (SLEDS): $1.782 million per year (a $900,000 per year increase) to maintain SLEDS and develop an Early Childhood Longitudinal Data System (ECLDS) to provide policymakers, education and workforce leaders, researchers, and members of the public with data, research and reports on the Minnesota student body and workforce.
Intervention for College Attendance Program Grants (ICAP): $796,000 per year to help keep students on track and in school to graduate on time. This amount results in a $250,000 increase over the next two years.
College Possible Increase: $500,000 per year (a $250,000 per year increase) for College Possible programs helping Minnesota students get into college.
Emergency Assistance for Postsecondary Students: $269,000 per year (a $94,000 per year, one-time increase) to meet immediate student needs (i.e., food, shelter, transportation) that could result in a student not completing a term.
Student Loan Debt Counseling: $200,000 per year for a grant from OHE to Lutheran Social Services to administer a statewide student loan/debt counseling service to Minnesota residents.
Teachers of Color Candidate Grants: $1.5 million ($750,000 per year) for grants to pay for student teacher training for teachers of color and American Indian teachers. This amount is in addition to the existing $500,000 per year appropriation for grants to teacher candidates in shortage areas.
Hunger Free Campus Designations: While there is no funding attached to the designation, as it had been in the House higher education budget, MinnState community and technical campuses may now earn distinction as Hunger Free Campuses by: establishing a food pantry or partnership with a local food bank, providing SNAP information to students, holding a campus hunger awareness event, establishing an emergency assistance grant that is available to students, and establishing a hunger task force that meets at least three times per year.
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
MinnState Funding: A total of $1.524 billion (an increase of $81.5 million, dedicated completely to Operations and Maintenance to have the greatest impact on keeping tuition costs low).
Central Office and Shared Services Funding: $33.07 million per year.
Mental Health Services: $250,000 total for a new one-time program to require MinnState to contract with mental health organizations to provide both mental health services and information about health insurance to students on campuses at up to five state colleges. Mental health services must be free for students without insurance.
Open Textbooks and Z-Degree Options: $500,000 total for a pilot program to develop textbook-free or zero-textbook-cost educational resources for students on at least three MinnState campuses by academic year 2020-2021.
Workforce Development Scholarships: The final higher education budget includes a $7 million increase in Workforce Development Scholarships for MinnState students in fields related to advanced manufacturing, agriculture, health care services, information technology, early childhood, or transportation.
Skilled Workforce Partnerships: This provision provides $1 million in one-time funding to support local partnership programs between MinnState campuses and businesses, and may also include K-12 school districts, trade associations, local chambers of commerce, and economic development authorities.
Expanded Workforce Development Use: Workforce Development Grant recipients are allowed to receive scholarships for more semesters to help them transition to four-year degrees if they wish.
Administrative Costs Report: The budget includes compromise language that requires the Board of Trustees of the MN State Colleges and Universities to provide a report detailing how they define, categorize, and account for administrative costs. The report must further identify measures taken to use innovation and cost efficiencies to lower administrative costs.
>University of Minnesota
U of M Funding: A total of $1.340 billion (an increase of $43.5 million).
Medical School: Base funding of $15 million per year of the operations and maintenance funding are to increase the medical school’s research capacity; improve the medical school’s ranking in National Institutes of Health funding; ensure national prominence by attracting and retaining world-class faculty, staff, and students; invest in physician training programs in rural and underserved communities; and translate the medical school’s research discoveries into new treatments and cures to improve the health of Minnesotans.
MnDRIVE: Base funding of $4 million per year to advance cancer research.
U of M – Morris American Indian Tuition Waivers: $500,000 per year base funding.
Primary Care Education Initiative: Base level funding of $2.175 million/year is appropriated from the Health Care Access Fund for the purpose of training more doctors to serve in greater Minnesota communities.
Administrative Costs Report: The U of M Board of Regents is asked to provide a report to the Legislature detailing how they define, categorize and account for administrative costs. The report must further identify measures taken to use innovation and cost efficiencies to lower administrative costs.
Mayo Clinic: Base level funding of $1.351 million each year is provided for the Mayo Medical School to increase the number of doctors practicing in rural areas and for the Family Practice and Graduate Residency Program to help pay stipends for residents.
Argosy Closure: The Legislature acted swiftly to help students impacted by the closure of Argosy University in March by passing legislation to make sure they received any state grant benefits that should have gone to them, and to release students from student loans that were borrowed for the 2019 spring semester. OHE is also working to address problems with private for-profit school closures going forward, and will be bringing more legislation in 2020. (HF 2849/SF 2841, Ch. 34-Bernardy)
Here are some of the measures that did not become law
Affirmative Consent: The House fought to include new language requiring that instruction on affirmative consent be provided in every new student orientation/training. The Senate opposed the provision.
Aspiring MN Teachers of Color Scholarships: The House worked to include a new scholarship program at $1.5 million per year, but due to a lack of resources in the agreed-upon budget targets this provision did not get included in the final budget.
Student Loan Advocate: The House bill would have created a Student Loan Advocate to help Minnesotans being taken advantage of by bad lenders. Due to Senate opposition, this provision did not become law.
Healthforce at Winona State University: The House higher education bill included $75,000 per year for Winona State University’s program to train more Personal Care Attendants (PCA) to address the current worker shortage in the field. This funding was not included in the budget.
As always, please contact me anytime with your input. I appreciate hearing from you! You can reach me at 651-296-4280 or rep.melissa.hortman@house.mn. You can also keep up with what’s happening at the Capitol by liking my legislative Facebook page. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Melissa Hortman