[Music] think we're going to get going here we might order change a little bit of the order of um the bills and we'll start with 4106 so today is March 26 it is 8:43 this is the education finance committee and we will begin I have the first bill up and so I'm going to ask Senator swad ziny to come over and take over for me and we'll begin morning how's your trip in is fine I left at 645 oh my gosh you how far do you have to drive just for parked out for last half hours next we have first we have
lay over for possible inclusion in the future Omnibus Bill Senator kunish whenever you're ready thank you so much senator sadinski for for taking over for us so this bill um will allow an extension of the school endowment to our tribal contract schools uh and just for some background information on the first Monday of September and the first Monday of March each year Minnesota Department of Education distributes the school endowment payments to 329 public schools and 18 181 charter school and u
hmy the school endow endowment distributes a total of $49 million for the 2023 2024 school year and is distributed to Public Schools acmy Charter Schools based on their respective average daily membership uh and just to remind everybody that um these dollars what are what we're talking about are the school trust land endowment fund that um uh the state of Minnesota uses to uh their best uh their best work to bring these dollars to education so um in spite of all the public schools acmy and Chart
er Schools receiving these dollars four of our tribal contract schools do not receive School endowment is distributions based on current Minnesota land land laws so this bill aims to correct this oversight by extending the school endowment to roughly 620 Native American students the four Public School tribal contract schools are nashing Bon ging fond Lake uh OJ school and Circle of Life Academy extending the school endowment to these four public tribal schools equates to roughly $36,000 in distr
ibution um and the the this extension would reduce School endowment benefits to existing recipients by approximately 4 cents um and so right now our permanent School fund value is $1.88 billion the 2324 School endowment distribution was $49 million and the ADM amount um averaged out to $58 per students so um that is my bill Mr chair and um I have uh the director of the um School endowment fund or uh School trust lands here with me thank you Senator and um I see you have a couple testifiers so wh
en you introduce yourself for the record and begin and make sure you sign in wherever it is up there thank you good morning Mr chair and members Aaron vandin School trust lands director um and thank you senator kunesh for finally getting this bill a hearing and uh getting it introduced again we've been working on it for quite some time um just a quick background I I my role is uh School trust lands directors to provide advice to the executive and legislative branch on all matters School trust la
nd whether it's um how we manage the land we have 3 and a half million Acres that we manage 2 and a half million Acres of a unified surface and mineral estate an extra million Acres of minerals so I provide advice on that I also work uh hand inand with the legislature and the permanent School fund Commission on changes to legislation that actually helps the school trust and school trust beneficiaries this is exactly what this does um I'll just brief side note real quick this this actually came t
o my attention about seven or eight years ago when I was doing a presentation at the School Board Association leadership conference and a school board member from the um well it's actually Cast Lake being a school district asked if all school if all tribal schools received the benefit and I thought they did I did a little bit of research and found that these four did not uh so we as I mentioned a second ago we've been working on this and trying to get uh these extension to these schools uh for y
ears um as a trustee I I believe it's Our obligation and all legislators are trustees as well it's Our obligation to make sure that all beneficiaries receive the benefit of the school trust lands uh this is exactly what this bill does um the the enabling act that set out the school trust land said that these lands are to be used for the support of schools uh that's and we've now interpreted that in our constitution that says that the how we're going to support schools is by Distributing the net
interest and dividends to all the school districts in the state as required by law and that's in uh Minnesota Constitution Article 8 or excuse me article 11 section 8 and uh with that Mr chair conclude my testimony thank you do we have another testifier before we open up for questions Lori Harper from Lori Harper do you see her online okay we do have a another guest here begin when you're ready thank you thank you Mr chairman members of the committee my name is Denise Dietrich and I am here on b
ehalf of the Minnesota school boards Association and I'm here happy to support uh Senate file 4106 there are several historical and foundational reasons why we support extending the school trust endowment fund payments to the five uh public tribal school contract schools or 622 students addressed in this bill and they are first of all it is a failure to equally share the school trust Revenue with tribal tribal schools is a breach of trust second the founding fathers of our country established th
e permanent School fund with public schools and students as the beneficiaries the 6222 students addressed in this bill are part of Minnesota's student population and should be included in the payments in other words this just helps write a wrong these four schools are considered public schools and the students should be treated as the other beneficiaries uh this Revenue will help uh these four schools improve facilities higher qualified teachers improve educational outcomes and reduce disparitie
s in educational opportunities and if you are at all curious as to how other states handle this uh in my I did call on the state of Utah which I have long called the gold standard in school trust L management and they do distribute their revenue to the tribal schools as well with that I will conclude my comments thank you Mr chairman thank you T members any questions comments Senator thank you Mr chair um not I just don't know a whole lot about these schools and I've heard them characterized as
public schools could you elaborate a little bit more on how they're a public school I'm looking at the definition um in 124d 73 which this bill references and it says that uh an American Indian School is a school that is not operated by a school district yet when I look at the Minnesota Constitution it says that funds distributed uh from the permanent School fund should be distributed to school district so I'm trying to iron out that inconsistency um with the state constitution um I'm going to u
m allow um Mr velin to reply Mr chair Senator KW members uh you're correct the statute or excuse the Constitution does say to the school districts as required by law or set forth in law um we've questioned that language as well and we got an opinion uh that the as prescribed by law language in the Constitution allows the school district dists to include more than just school districts Senator kunesh started her testimony we also we also send these distributions to Charter Schools and I would equ
ate these four contract trial schools as Charter Schools under basically the the same definition so I think they meet that definition um if we need to change the Constitution to get it to them we need to change the Constitution but I think that's the next bill that might be up Senator k thank you Mr chair I'm not sure we need to change the constitution on it maybe we need to change some statutory definitions as all I don't know um I'm just looking at the in I I what I see is to be an inconsisten
cy and maybe it's because I don't know exactly how these schools are operated you compare them to a charter school charter school does get per pupil funding I don't know maybe somebody can elaborate on how these schools are funded and how they're like a charter school Miss um H would you care to answer that I mean I would answer it by the fact that um these they do receive um federal dollars and State dollars but also they are a public school and open to to any student that would like to attend
those schools as well um Miss Hofer maybe you can explain them a little bit better Mr chair Senator K thank you for the question so um tribal contract schools are operated by um the Federal Bureau of Indian education they do receive federal aid and then they receive state aid through the tribal contract Aid formula as well anybody else members Senator gusterson thank you Mr chair I have a similar question to Senator kruin is and you mentioned charter schools which I used to work at a charter sch
ool is it that you're attached to a neighboring school system for instance we were an online charter school but we would then join up with other I don't even know I I just I just wanted some clarification sort of like Senator KW was saying about like how it's organized It's associated with then a it's its own school so it's a public school it's just not a per a per pupil formula is that right Miss hord do you oh you want to give it a try and then I can chime into a little bit Mr chair and Senato
r guson thank you for the question so a a tribal contract school is its own entity and operates um independently so it does not operate in conjunction with um an independent school district or a charter school it's its own entity anybody else Senator thank you for bringing this forward it's um seems like it's 170 years beh late so um I appreciate your efforts in this and hope it comes to fruition I just I I think I know the answer but could you tell me how large your staff is um Mr chair Senator
s uh the office of school trust LS has two and a half full-time employees including myself and you guys manage 3 and a half million Acres so to speak uh no sir our role is strictly advisory to the uh Department of Natural Resources the executive branch and the legislative branch the Department of Natural Resources has statutory um administrative control and Management Authority over the school trust lands but you advise 3 and a half million Acres that's correct um you need to talk to the finance
um chair about um maybe getting a few more people to help out with that that seems like quite a work load for your office so thank you senator kunish for bringing this bill forward yep we're laying it over for possible inclusion in the Omnibus Bill thank you next up is Senate file 3472 and we do you have an amendment um I believe I have two amendments Mr chair me sort out all my goodies here I have the A1 uh amendment that um just um brings things adds a few more um participants to this task fo
rce and uh clears up a little bit of language on the expiration date thank you and we'll be um referring this to the environment and Legacy committee and we'll be voting on the does somebody want to move do we need to move it okay all those in favor of the author's A1 Amendment say I I all those oppos the eyes have it thank you and then we have the A3 Amendment yes um as well so this amendment um changes the distribution of earnings from the general account to the state for suspense count in the
permanent School fund that's the A3 Amendment all those in favor of the author A3 Amendment say I I all those opposed the eyes have it begin Senator thank you so um Senate file 3472 again relates to the school trust lands and the permanent School fund and what we would like to see is the creation of a task force to examine the historical returns and all asset allocations for the permanent School fund and to then evaluate and make recommendations for future investment strategies and distribution
s the task force would be made up of professionals with experien investment Finance asset management and trusts uh currently the permanent School fund is comprised of interest and dividends that's how we get that per pupil uh amount which you know after all these years is I I think shockingly low distribution um and so other states such as Utah have convened a similar task force to review their school trust land endowments um the purpose of this bill is to ensure that the trustees are maximizing
the distribution of the permanent School fund and maintaining the duty to protect the Corpus of the trust and that is my Bill thank you Senator and I see you have three testifiers we do not sure if Margaret bird is [Applause] online I am well there she is yeah go ahead Miss bird okay good morning chair and committee thank you for this opportunity to speak to you of in support of SF 3472 my name is Margaret bird I'm a national expert on school Trust plans I've used my graduate degrees in economi
cs mathematics and urban planning to restructure the management of the school trust lands in the state of Utah to a higher professional level I'm currently working on the first B book since 1905 on the permanent funds and the school trust lands I am speaking today in support of SF 3472 which could put your state on the road to a um stronger permanent School fund and a dist a stronger distribution policy you may not know but almost 250 years ago Thomas Jefferson in 1785 initiated legislation that
was passed by Congress that provided for every new state that joined the union to be able to uh receive School trust lands that were to be held in trust in perpetuity for the the support of schools in that state these were forever trust and the school trust lands were created even before there was the United States Constitution there are currently 45 million Acres of school trust lands and they generate billions of dollars annually in support of schools in those states that still have their tru
st it is an awesome responsibility that you and your state has as trustee to the beneficiaries the schools and the children of your state the State Minnesota still holds several million Acres of surface and mineral rights and the proceeds from the sale and use of these School trust lands um created the Minnesota permanent School fund and it that continues to grow today from those productive uses of the lands that fund as I mentioned earlier is nearing $2 billion it has grown so I can put it in p
erspective it is grown approximately 50% since uh Aaron balin's office was created in 2012 in my opinion from Decades of study of those states that still hold the 45 million Acres um it is my opinion that this is a very wise move that you have under consider itation today establishing a task force with institutional and investment professionals appointed by an array of State leaders is necessary to address a complex issue for the best interests of the schools careful consideration by investment
professionals will likely result in changes to your current interest and dividend distribution policy to more of an endowment model like the other states with the larger um School endowment funds the Permanent Fund is constitutionally protected to be perpetual and inv violent forever those are strong words from your state constitution you should be very proud of the words that were chosen in your state constitution after almost two centuries since the creation of the permanent School fund the sc
hools and the children of min inota deserve a financial review of the fund's historical performance and a careful study of the wisest and most prudent course forward the Constitution your Constitution clearly states that the fund shall be invested to secure the maximum return consistent with the maintenance of the perpetuity of the fund so they are advocating for the maximum return but not at any cost as long as the the Corpus of the fund is protected for you as trustees on behalf of the state i
t is incumbent upon you to see that periodic review of the fund occurs as intended the process proposed in SF 3472 is a sound and a tested one we tested that in Utah several years ago and created the school and institutional trust fund office the State Board of Education created a similar task force to which you are cons that to which you are considering today the task force members with the assistance of Staff drafted legislation that created the endowment model currently in use in Utah and the
other states with the largest permanent funds the bill this bill is wise to provide St St technical assistance and organizational support from the Department of Education as much research will be needed to compile the data the task force will need to accomplish its task staff should be and I really want to emphasize this staff should be carefully selected to include individuals with both Financial legal research and Trust respons possibilities and knowledge does any of this matter you bet it do
es our fund like yours distributed interest and dividends in Utah establishment of the task force led to a recommendation of an endowment fund model Utah's permanent School fund now has a five member Board of Trustees some of our brightest investment professionals who manage the largest funds in the state of Utah um sit on that board um Utah's Permanent Fund has grown from a few hundred million to in excess of $3 billion that means more Revenue going to students over time from a larger fund whil
e preserving the Corpus and diversifying risk and currently with some of the things we've seen in the stock markets that diversification of risk becomes very important does that matter in Utah schools you bet it does schools that used to receive a neg negligible amount in the distribution will now receive 112 million next year the best part because the fund is growing the distributions are growing schools can expect to receive distributions that exceed the distribution from the prior year becaus
e of Statewide distributions to schools students now have science labs Chromebooks very important during covid math practice Labs reading tutors English tutors trackers for graduation act and SAT test preparation courses AP classes welding classes and on and on all of those educ experiences were not provided before the changes that we made to the Permanent Fund it pays to honor your school trust with legislation such as this thank you thank you Miss bird Miss Dietrich thank you Mr chairman membe
rs of the committee uh once again my name is Denise Dietrich and I'm here on behalf of the Minnesota school boards Association representing all 331 School boards in Minnesota so today I am pleased to offer our support for Senate file 3472 we appreciate chair Senator kunish bringing this bill forward in fact we have worked with her on this bill since she was a member of the other body and unfortunately due to co and some other things they have delay that things have delayed us until now so as you
are aware the students in the state of Minnesota are beneficiaries of a trust fund established by our founding founding fathers upon statehood in the last 10 years we have made great strides in the oversight and management of the trust lands starting with the elimination of the subtraction of payments to students we created the Office of school trust lands and we have hired an excellent School trust lands director in Aaron Vandal Indy the area that has been overlooked in this whole equation is
the actual permanent School fund and how we distribute earnings to the students the state constitution requires that the public schools in Minnesota receive students receive interest in dividends generated from the fund Investments so in conversations with other states like the state of Utah the school trust lands director and the State Board of investment who invests the permanent School fund we have concluded that the interest and dividends distribution mechanism is outdated Ed in fact Antiqua
ted this bill as amended creates a task force of e experts to explore otherly other fiscally sound trust principles to bring monies generated to the fund into the 21st century today you have a unique opportunity to continue the previous work by passing 3472 into law and to fulfill your trust obligation as Trustees of the permanent School fund this work will benefit the 870,000 trust fund babies today and in the future and so with that Mr chairman I'll just add I do not have any handouts I do not
have um anything else but I do have a trust fund baby with me today she is my granddaughter kiern Dietrich and I am uh going to make sure that my grandchildren understand that they are trust fund babies and what that means for their public education thank you thank you Mr me good morning chair soinski and members of the committee my name is John mle I'm the director of legal and policy services at the Minnesota state board of investment um since we don't get to testify in front of your committe
e as much I thought I'd just give you a little bit of background on what we do and how um we think about the permanent School fund we're responsible for managing the assets of the state um it totals to about $135 billion and most of that is the pension systems but interestingly historically one of our first mandates um in the Constitution was to manage assets for the permanent School fund so we work very closely with the office of school trust lands and the Department of Natural Resources on how
they are thinking about um the asset allocation for the assets of the fund our goal in every account or trust that we manage is to achieve the maximum return possible without taking undue risk now how we think about that goal depends a lot on the goals of the fund that we're managing and um the longevity of the fund that we're managing so with respect to the permanent School fund as you've heard um the distribution formula currently is pretty limited um limited to dividends and interest so the
investment earnings themselves go back into the trust um and are not distributed uh per the formula um we are fully committed to working with the task force on exploring other options for distribution formulas and uh certainly willing to uh discuss how asset allocation plays a role in that process our question that we ask every um account that we manage uh is you know what is the goal of this account how would you like to fund the account and how do you think the distributions from the account s
hould work and that plays a big role in determining how we set asset allocation for um that fund so that's just a little bit of background on how we look at this issue uh from the investment perspective I do have one of our investment experts with us to answer questions um we certainly appreciate Senator kish's work on this and um the adoption of the A3 Amendment and are happy to answer any questions about our participation or uh any of the Investments that are in the fund members any questions
for any of the testifiers senator Kwan thank you Mr chair um is there when this task force is set up is there an intent there's a lot of talk about stronger School distribution changes to school distribution but is there going to be a is part of the purpose of this task force going to be to change the distribution to schools from the sense that it's based on a per puple basis right now uh thank you Mr chair no um we would probably unless there was a strong recommendation or there was a different
model um I would assume that we would stay with the per people distribution thank you Mr chair um is there anything preventing the director um from doing this type of uh endowment model that I've been hearing about based on the current system I don't believe there is uh unless you gentlemen know don't believe that there is restriction to that it just hasn't been done and so the reason that we are doing this we want to do this task force is to look at some different models um here from people li
ke uh Miss Miss bird who did an extraordinary amount of work in Utah and um you know the return on investment there is phenomenal if you can if you can take a minute to investigate and and learn a little bit about what happened there um it's pretty impressive but I it would have to probably go through the legislature and we would have to make all of those changes which is partly why we well a big part of why we want to do this task force go ahead Mr chair Senator K members um actually I apologiz
e Senator I I believe there are restrictions and statute on whether or not I could actually take on this role um and run the task force my job description is laid out in statute it's 127 a. 353 one of those pieces of advice that I'm allowed to work on is asset allocation of the land assets so if you think about the school trust you just heard Mr mule talk about the financial assets that's when we've converted the natural resources or sold the property and we've converted that to cash it's now in
vested so this school trust has two assets a financial assets $1.88 billion as of the last annual report and 3 A5 million Acres of surface and mineral estate so my asset allocation advice to the legislature is in my view solely based on the surface and mineral estate I do not delve into the financial asset allocation that stateboard investment does I think that's out of my purview I try to stay right in my swim Lane thank you Mr chair um I appreciate that and and of course I'm sure we could alwa
ys improve on the uh rate of return it's just normally when as you know I haven't been here that long but when we're talking about setting up a task force it's usually because the subject matter is kind of a mess and we need to kind of sort everything out and figure out what's going on but I've heard U nothing but positive things about your program and you know just the 50% growth since 2012 it you know it seems like that's pretty good um and so it's just a little puzzling to me that this of all
things needs a task force but uh I'm just wondering what your what your thoughts are since you didn't testify do you think this is needed and uh do you think we could have been doing better over these last 10 years Mr chair Senator KW and members um my personal opinion is that um yes we could have been doing better I just give you a real specific example I didn't pass them out today because I didn't think I that I can get them to you later it's the trust fund baby infographic that we have in th
e bottom right corner of that the fund value was $1.1 billion in 2014 the fund value today is $1.88 billion ex exponential growth correct distributions have remained at 2.4 to 2.6% during that same time they're they're I don't know that they've ever been over 3% so distributions have not kept pace with the growth of the Investments that's why that's we're looking at it members any Senator R uh thank you Mr chair and I just looking for a little bit of a clarification followup on that when we're t
alking about distributions um you know I think we look at that here is that's the per pupil funding but I'm getting a sense that that we're talking about something else as far as Investments and can I get some clarification when we're talking about we're not seeing the distributions increase uh is just looking for a little bit of clarification on what what we're talking about there uh chair cinski um Senator Ric so when we're talking about you identify yourself because there was a change in spea
kers thank you apologize uh John mle State Board of investment um so this trust is fairly unique in how its distributions are structured the Constitution contains very specific language on what can be distributed from the trust and that is interest and dividends in a more traditional endowment fund you would have some sort of distribution formula that is buttressed by investment returns so regardless of the Returns on investment um for this fund the only amounts that can be uh distributed per th
e Constitution are interest and dividends which does not include the full return on investment that the fund is receiving under its asset allocation Senor thank you Mr chair so what would some of the other ways that uh we're seeing this growth uh happen other than interest and returns uh so do you want yeah uh good morning uh chair and and members I'm Andy Christensen deputy director for the SBI the the primary other uh vehicle in terms of investment gains that are not being distributed here are
capital gains simply so any capital gains from E inequities go back into the trust Corpus uh but the only income that's distributable are as Mr M said income and dividends and in fact uh the amount that can be distributed is first uh we you net out any capital gain Lo Capital losses in the account before uh the dividends and income can be distributed so it is it is fairly prohibitive one more followup Mr chair of course uh thank you so so we're saying so if you have capital gains that's going b
ack into the base fund but why wouldn't that then be showing an increase in interest in dividends the next year because we've increased the amount in the base so I would think even though in the year you saw the capital gains um that should show some improvement in the next year in your interest and and uh dividends help help us understand yes uh it it should it should help um modestly but if you think about the the Corpus the amount of Interest that's earned on any fixed income that you have th
ere and then Dividends are based on the number of shares in in the in the equity side of the of the equation so while those during years of of strong returns or up returns in either equities or fixed incomes you will see some gain some increase in interest and dividends but not uh nearly the amount that you'll see in the increase in the Corpus from just the increase in equity prices for example members any other questions Senator KW thank you Mr chair I thought I heard somebody and I can't remem
ber who it was say that uh the I thought I heard him say that the Minnesota Constitution limited the distributions to Dividend and interest and I'm looking through the Constitutional provision here and I'm not seeing that did I miss he that is it a statutory limitation or is it a constitutional limitation Mr M Mr chair members to to answer senat K's question um article 11 section 8 last sentence of the first paragraph of that section reads the net interest and dividends arising from the fund sha
ll be distributed to the different school districts of the state in a manner prescribed by law so I think that's the limitation that the testifier made reference to thank you Mr Ares Senator thank you Mr chair so part of the task here for this task force for is to come up with a constitutional amendment to be presented to the voters is that accurate uh Senator kruin we don't know yet we'll have to wait and see what the suggestions are what the findings are what the recommendations are it'll take
some discussion before we come up with any possible um legislative action okay members anybody else Senator final comments now thank you for listening so intently asking really really good questions uh this is really a difficult subject to kind of wrap your head around and so um I just want to thank um those that have been working on this for so long and Miss bird for for flying in from Utah to present this morning she really is the expert on um nationally on these School trust funds and um has
done just an extraordinary amount of work on it and and so I so appreciate all of that work thank you all those in favor of referring Senate file 3472 to the environment Legacy committee signify by saying I I all those opposed the eyes have it Senator kunish thank you as amended as amended thank you thank you thanks you guys take a little break from me and here Senator putam Senate file 505 for a St Cloud School District authorization for Emergency Medical Service education facility uh and I do
n't see any amendments so whenever you're ready you may begin thank you very much Madam chair and members Senate file 55 the bill you have before you it's real simple uh it's an appropriation to the St Cloud area school district to create a facility in which high school students can be trained in emergency medical services and be prepared for careers in healthcare now a program like this exists at Spring Lake Park High School i t it a couple years ago and I learned the great good that can be acc
omplished in a space like that students in a program like this are qualified to sit their EMT exam as juniors in high school giving them a head start on their career and a part-time job that's serving a definite need that we have in our communities now here's the thing um this is also the kind of career preparation that Ms fits our moment and the students that we have today um when I was at uh Spring Lake Park High School I spoke with about 10 young people who were in the program uh one of them
said he just hated school didn't want to be there took a class and this stuff thought it was cool and that's what was keeping him in school didn't have any career Ambitions but it was enough to make him interested in staying in school and that was pretty great now of the other sort of nine kids that I talked to three or four of them said they were going to be paramedics a couple others said they were going to be nurses and a couple said they were going to go to medical school uh this is the kind
of career preparation that opens up new opportunities and has the flexibility that young people in our communities need now so we all know that young people need Career Technical education we all know that Greater Minnesota is suffering Workforce shortages for Emergency Medical Services this initiative will satisfy both of those needs so perhaps a little bit more detail about the specific project uh the capital Improvement will cost about $550,000 our generous friends at Central Care have an in
terest in this project and are willing to support it in a number of ways St Cloud Community Tech technal College will offer concurrent enrollment opportunities Mayo uh the ambulance company that has uh runs ambulances in our community is also willing to offer technical support and resources to get this program off the ground uh cost of instruction has already been figured out by District 742 everyone is on board if we build this thing it will happen uh now members I do want to acknowledge some a
mbiguity in the funding for this project and in this proposal there is some uh lack of of certainty uh about the capacity and appropriateness of the fund from which I'm asking for this resource which I believe was established by Senator KW last session and I'm grateful for his hard work to make that happen uh but we're hearing a couple different mixed messages about whether or not that is the appropriate fund for this resource and so we are currently working to find Alternatives uh that are uh a
ppropriate uh for this project uh my testifying friends can tell you more about why we need more EMS trained people especially in greater innesa and about the nature of our community support and both of our testifiers Madam chair are virtual today because it's snowing thank you Senator putam and um thank you for our testifiers for showing up online I can imagine the roads uh coming from where you are all coming from right now uh the first testifier is jod Gerkin director of state affairs and com
munity relations for centri care are you there yes I am all right if you would state your name for the record and you may begin thank you good morning chair kation members of the education finance committee my name is jod girkin and I am the director of state government and community relations for cental care I'm testifying this morning in full support of Senator putnam's Bill Senate file 5005 to create an emergency medical services education facility in St Cloud cental care is the largest rural
healthcare provider in Minnesota serving more than 700 100,000 people in Central West Central and Southwest Minnesota besides St Cloud Hospital we have eight rural hospitals serving monacello Benson Long Prairie sock Center Melrose Wilmer Paynesville and Redwood Falls unfortunately as you know there is a severe crisis facing Emergency Medical Response in rural Minnesota where ambulance services respond to nearly 75,000 calls for service each year compounding this critical situation is the strug
gle to attract and retain talent I won't reiterate the astounding facts I submitted in your letter but instead we'll share our enthusiasm for this Forward Thinking collaborative opportunity as the area's largest employer and healthcare provider we believe we have an obligation to give back to the communities we serve and are always looking for ways to partner alongside other stakeholders to address Community issues it takes an entire team to provide the Right Care at the right place at the right
time and often that starts with Emergency Medical Services cental care has committed to providing an ambulance to the EMS education facility and to having our trained professionals work tandemly with Educators to provide a robust and meaningful experience to students we have a successful track record working with New London Spicer high school and will bring that experience to District 742 to ensure we are assisting students to reach their full potential in closing I want to thank you for the op
portunity to testify this morning with you and reiterate our full support for this project the possibility of empowering a group a diverse group of young people to explore opportunities in EMS aligns perfectly with our mission to make Rural Life healthier I'll stand for any questions that you may have thank you thank you so much Miss girton um next we have Tom fennel if you uh online as well if you would please state your name and you may begin good morning Madam chair and members of the committ
ee my name is Tom Fel and I serve as the regulatory officer for mail Clinic ambulance and live in the St Cloud area Emergency Medical Services has been a popular topic during this legislative session and rightfully so EMS is in a very difficult place with Staffing shortages and reimbursement challenges seeing an opportunity to bridge the Staffing area this legislation will afford students in the St Cloud area the opportunity to become educated in the roles and responsibilities of emergency medic
al technicians and attain certification as nationally registered EMTs all while providing real life EXP experiences teaching not only medical skills but also deepening their social skills interacting with people during the most challenging times of their lives this program is a crucial step in the introduction of the field of EMS to these students great care will be given to the situations these students will be placed in and special attention will be given to the preceptors these students will
have when leaving the classroom and gaining field experience success will be achieved when these students enter the medical field and continue to broaden their scope on the delivery of patient care in many different areas on behalf of the ambulance providers in central Minnesota region I request you please support Senate file 5005 your actions in support will have a tremendous impact on these on this crucial link to the delivery of patient care in the outof hospital setting thank you and I will
also be happy to address any questions that you may have thank you so much for your your testimony um okay we're going to start with member question any more testifiers Senator putam nope thank you madam chair all right Senator Ric uh thank you madam chair and um yeah couple of questions in regards nothing um I think you know when we looked at this a proposal last year we all agreed this is an area that needed help um I guess I'm wondering why we as a body are going to pick one school um over an
y of the others I I could look at the pine City High School MOA High School Rush City their proximity to Pine Tech Community College that has this very same program um why would we be dedicating a certain amount of dollars to one school district and taking it away from others with the ability to um try to do this very same thing Senator putam Madam chair Senator Eric of course you know the first part of my answer is because stcloud is awesome uh I have to say that you know I do um but I would al
so say that this is a particular moment in central Minnesota and a particular particular opportunity in central Minnesota as you're well well aware central care is opening its first uh the University of Minnesota is opening its first medical school in 50 years in the Sout area and so there's renewed interest in those Allied Industries and those other components of Workforce Development in healthcare in central Minnesota specifically I would also say that because of the partnership that we have w
ith our generous friends at centare and Mayo this provides a unique opportunity to have a foothold uh to step out into greater Minnesota to have these kinds of opportunities for young people uh I think there's a really good chance that uh a child who goes through this program will end up working in Pine City at some point but I would also encourage you Senator Eric to to do this yourself as well um I think that this is the kind of thing that we could have in lots of different areas around the st
ate because the need is so profound and again I appreciate your acknowledgement of the need uh this is one step in the right direction and I would encourage others to take that step too but I'm saying that now is the right time to take that that step in central Minnesota followup uh thank you madam chair um I I don't agree with that I think we would then see all kinds of legislators proposing bills specifically for something within their District um I like the way this was set up last year where
um we have something out fund that's out there and if a school district decides to go after it they're on a equal level with other school districts to get this uh you know I have a again right in uh the Mora Pine City area well health is looking to expand there this very same thing could be done there but I just struggle that we would that I guess I would never imagine coming forward saying my area is more important and should get dedication uh over anybody else's area I think this is the way w
e set up the program last year is the proper way to have this and let everybody uh work in a competitive way to determine if if the program is up and uh you have the support it is likely that they would get money from this fund to make that happen and for us as legislators to specifically pick that uh school that's going to get the funding I think is is not the right way of going about this so I would I I struggle with this one thank you madam chair Madam chair may I respond please do Senator th
ank you madam chair and thank you Senator R for your interest I mean there are a couple different ways that I respond to your your statements the first is that I think we all fight for our districts I think that's what we do every day um but I would also say that there is something particular about this moment in time and what's happening in St Cloud and its consequences regionally you know obviously St Cloud is a regional center uh that's one of the reasons why a program like this will be so si
gnificant because it's not just about St Cloud uh it's about creating Workforce Development that can reach out to the rest of the state thank you um Senator kruin thank you madam chair don't question the need obviously I for a couple you know EMS Services particularly outstate that's a Hot Topic um it was a Hot Topic last year and it's only gotten more acute this year um you know and and so I don't question the need obviously couple reasons one I was on the Spring Lake Park School Board prior to
being here in the Senate so I've seen their program up close and personal and it is a fantastic program outstanding um the work that they're doing there um and you know then I obviously my bill from last year was to help promote other uh schools from around the state to to either get into this kind of EMS programming or expand their EMS programming uh and maybe per perhaps one change is I don't think the bill last year could the funds could be used for construction of a building which is maybe
why this wouldn't be eligible for those grants so that's maybe something that could be looked at in terms of amending you know future years um similar programming but I do like Senator Ric's point about the competitive bidding process I like that better and if there is like a a school district who um is is several steps ahead of maybe others and and has these Community Partnerships and they do need that final piece about constructing a building maybe we can look at um doing you know allowing for
that to be part of the competitive bid process still within the competitive bid process um and so but my question is about the funding source here the way the bill was drafted last year $500,000 fiscal 24 500,000 fiscal 25 in uh Statewide competitive grants for EMS programming um and so it looks like your bill would take some amount of money unspecified from the fiscal 25 allocation and so have you had any conversations about whether or not those uh funds have been dedicated uh to Grants alread
y or is it still there or can you give us some um update on that Senator putam thank you madam chair and thank you Senator KW also I want to thank you again just for realizing this issue and doing this hard work before um uh I think it's fantastic um and I will say that um I was actually deeply moved by my experience at Spring Lake Park High School um that program was incredible and and talking to those kids um this is a this is a profound good that's being done to these kids that wouldn't happe
n without this program and I think you're right too in that one of the things that makes my proposal in particular significant is because it is so collaborative and because people are showing up at the table at the same time which is what I understand happened in Spring Lake Park as well um when you get the community invested in doing these kinds of goods I think that's a really important thing I will say um I mentioned ambiguity about the appropriateness and capacity of the fund um we're not en
tirely sure how much of the prog of the of those resources have been spent yet we've heard from mde kind of one sort of prediction that we've grants are committed but they're not totally sure I can tell you this that there's not enough there I think there's a really good chance that there's not enough there so we are exploring other options and Madam chair uh we might per perhaps ask Council or some other folks for some more detail on this but my understanding is that it looks like it's bent but
no one's really sure I think the takeaway is there's not enough there anyway uh followup Senator cruin thank you madam chair and thank you for that answer and um yeah I mean I think the original Bill had more money in it but this was what we were able to to do and and um it's nice to hear that um that it's doing some good and that people are trying to get out this money I think that um validates um the need uh for this and for future programs like that but to the extent that uh and I I apprecia
te that you're getting conflicting information but to the extent that um grants have been awarded in fiscal 25 uh but have not been allocated yet I'm assuming you don't want to um see that those grants be kind of Taken uh scaled back I mean I'm assuming that's the case Senator um putam thank you madam chair and thank you Senator KW for uh your appreciation of my character uh and that I completely agree with you now that's not that's not the goal at all and I think that you you do actually have a
nother significant Point here and that what I'm asking for is essentially Capital oriented and it's not about um the other stuff that goes on in the classroom uh and I will say that um uh 742 in my school district is 100% behind this we already have a teacher who's a former Navy vet uh who is a medic who wants to get behind this program and you probably know from St Louis Park because there's that fantasttic those folks who run that program are awesome um is that program like this also one of th
e other kind of stars that has to align is you have to have an educator who's committed to it who can staff it who is also charismatic enough to encourage students to join the program that's another one of the Stars that's align for us in St Cloud right now is we have this individual who can do this program uh so no I I abs absolutely in no way would want to take resources from any of the other programs throughout the state uh I just want to start a new one Senator crin thank you madam chair and
and I would like to support your bill obviously I I don't want to see the money coming from the appropriation from my bill last year so I I would hopefully um we're we're able to find a new source of of funds um so that I can support it thank you thank you anyone else all right well with that um Senator putam we will um lay it over for possible inclusion in a future Omnibus thank you for this really inspiring conversation thank you thank you much mam chair all right next we're going to move on
to Senator Carlson Senate file 4259 on Computer Science Education we have um quite a few testifiers for this one lots of interest in it I I myself am very interested in hearing about this as um computer science and technology was a big part of um my teaching career as a library media specialist so Senator Carlson we're going to um plan to lay this over for possible inclusion in a future Omnibus and I believe you have an A1 Amendment Senator sadinski would you like to move the A1 Amendment move t
hank you Senator sadinski Senator Carlson would you please speak to your Amendment thank thank you madam chair and I have an A1 Amendment and also an A3 Amendment to the A1 and because this is the first committee that we're hearing hearing this at uh they are author amendments go ahead then and by the way a A1 is a delete all so what we're doing is we're uh um Madam chair and members uh this is a a uh a bill that's going to hopefully um Bank on the momentum that we started last year with the uh
um computer science Senator Carlson just for a second are you speaking to the amendment or to your bill I'm speaking to the bill okay we just have to pass those amendments and then we'll go to the bill okay so all those in favor of the A1 Amendment please say I I A1 passes um and then the A3 Amendment I'm sorry that's A2 Amendment A2 Amendment would you just tell us what that one is uh that makes some additional clarifications to the licensing Standards Board and uh just says that they have to a
dapt rules to establish a field license in computer science primarily this bill is for licensing okay thank you um um any questions on that members all in favor of the A2 Amendment please say I I any opposed the A2 passes and now you may speak to your bill thank you madam chair and I have some comments here that are are written but I also have to start out with something a bit personal and that is uh people that are at my age uh and have lived here in Minnesota for a long time have gone through
uh the history of Minnesota in uh computer science and related positions and I think we've fallen behind uh we used to have major companies in this area that uh um were they were actually created by the military spending so we had the honey Wells we had the univac we had um Control Data we had all of those and when I started out in my career as an engineer I started out with a Fortran programming which I think everybody who has ever done Fortran U programming actually knows that this is a terrib
le terrible language to know and now we have much more uh friendly languages to uh program in and what we need to do is we need to prepare our young people to be able to go into those positions that we once had a lot of U employment in the Twin Cities and in Minnesota and uh this is this is something that we need to get back to preparing our young people for the positions that they will be ready to take once they get out of their uh school years and we've traditionally lagged lately in uh Comput
er Science Education due to the lack of sustained Statewide Investments Minnesota is currently ranked it's unbelievable last in the nation for access to high school computer science courses however the tide began to turn as I mentioned before uh since the passing of the computer science advancement act last year this the bill before us now seeks to continue this momentum equipping equipping Minnesota Department of Education with the necessary resources to begin to execute the working group's com
comprehensive plan for computer science funding is critical in order to provide schools with the resources they need to support teachers and build course offering capacity in an area where technology permeates every f asset of our side Society it is imper imperative that our schools are not just consumers of Technology but are also skilled creators innovators and problem solvers computer science is not just about coding or programming it's about critical thinking problem solving debugging and u
nderstanding the digital world around us these are skills that are necessary in every field from agriculture to healthcare to the Arts access to Computer Science Education in Minnesota is currently limited with Stark disparities between different regions and socioeconomic groups this bill aims to bridge that Gap ensuring that all students whether they're from rural areas or Urban centers have equal opportunities to learn computer science as you can see in the written test testimonies and I hope
you do take a look at them uh that were submitted for this hearing HF the sf42 59 and its house count counterpart are supported by a broad Coalition of stakeholders representing education and that includes teachers School leadership and students industry and the nonprofit sector supporting computer science is important to many communities and industries and schools in our state and state investment in this subject and our state investment in this subject will pay dividends to both our students a
nd the economy and the businesses that expect these students to be ready for for that economy I I have as testifiers here I will introduce my first one which is and I think do we do we have a sign up here there's two of them online too there's two to I don't know if you want them to go first or last yeah did you have a why don't you have them go first okay we have we have two testifiers that are online and uh I I don't have a preference on which one that goes first perhaps we can have the uh um
the Northern Lights collaborative for computing education that's me oh that's you okay Cindy I'm sorry Cindy Miller library media specialist and K12 computer science lead in duth public schools thank you um Miss Miller uh Welcome to our uh our our hearing here today on um computer science if you would please state your name for the record and then you may begin oops I'm not hearing you not hearing you the next one yeah we don't we're not hearing you um I'm just going to um invite Erica allenberg
to um step up to the microphone and um s and Miss Miller as you uh figure out what your what your issue is but uh Miss allenburg if you would like to state your name for the record and you may begin Erica allenburg are you able to hear me yep we hear you oh okay great thank you um good morning my name is Erica allenburg and I am the chair of the D school board however I'm here representing the Minnesota School Board Association um and I also represented the Minnesota School Board Association on
the state's computer science working group which recently published our comprehensive recommendations for the state I'm here to testify in support of SF 4259 which is a good and necessary step for increasing access to Computer Science Education for all Minnesota students I'm here with a fairly simple message first I fully believe that all students in our state need to have access to Quality Computer Science Education programming as a state we need to be preparing all students with the holistic
skill set they need to be the next generation of thinkers and workers that will fuel their success and our state's success and Foundation foundational computer science skills are critical for this second in order to do this I implore you to be realistic about the financial and operational constraints our school districts are currently under access to Quality Computer Science Education for all cannot be accomplished without adequate and consistent funding for all districts across the state and pl
ease keep in mind that certain Rural and Suburban districts have extra challenges from an infrastructure hardware and staff shortage perspective funding for educator educator training licensing curriculum development and other Associated costs is not something districts currently have and I am not being overly dramatic in saying that the vast majority of districts in our state are suffering from budgetary shortages the association of metropolitan school districts is reporting that in the metro a
rea Rochester and duth alone districts are facing more than $300 million in shortfalls for the 2024 2025 school year in our district Alone um just before just two weeks ago we cut around $3 million from our budget reducing things like nurses media Specialists psychologists and other critical student support so asking districts to PRI prioritize computer science curriculum without funding is just not feasible in conclusion while I fully support this bill and genuinely appreciate the allocated fun
ding it is simply not enough to implement Computer Science Education Statewide and without robust and continued funding we risk unintended consequences like furthering the gaps that are already present in our state in computer science education across rural areas and with many different student demographics graic such as girls and young women and students of color and we risk staying at the bottom of the United States and providing our students with a CR critical skill set for the world today th
ank you for listening and thank you for your service to our state thank you Miss allenburg um Miss Miller do you have can we hear you can you hear me now yes we do thank you for joining us thank you madam chair members of the committee my name is Cindy Miller I'm licensed library media specialist in the K12 computer science lead in duth public schools I'm a regional co-chair of item which is information technology educators of Minnesota and I'm involved with the computer science Teachers Associa
tion in Minnesota and CS for all initiatives in duth today I'm here to seek your support of Senate file 4259 in duth I teach young minnesotans in kindergarten through fifth grade in the library media center at conden Park Elementary where the snow is still coming down sideways when planning my lessons I use the four strands of item information literacy and research digital citizenship technology and Innovation and literacy engagement the computer science lead part of my job is point2 FTE and is
funded through a National Science Foundation Grant and Northern Lights collaborative for computing education that's Jen radoo and her team and spans for four years my task is to create an inclusive equitable K12 computer science pathway for duut students to do this we have to meet students where they are where are they this is the first year we have offered a computer science course in our high schools a smattering of Elementary and Middle School teachers have dabbled in computer science adding
occasional lessons when they thought they fit but that's it there's no path no feeders no prerequisites and and no foundation in our first five months of this project we have made lots of progress starting in May of this year our Elementary School library media Specialists will be teaching foundational computer science skills with unplugged activities and CS fundamentals from code.org we've reworked one and added two new courses for middle school that will start in the next school year we have f
ormed a partnership with Coach Savvy and nlcc to provide professional development for our teachers including those who teach in our media centers that's progress for one Minnesota City your support of Senate file 4259 can help make this progress happen all over the state I'll point out the letter submitted recently by the item executive board that is in your packet today library media Specialists from across the state are ready to teach foundational computer science skills and help Minnesota com
e out of the depths of the last of last place to become a model for change in the country it supports Senate file 4259 and I thank you for your support also Al in supporting Senate file 4259 I'll stay on for questions thank you Miss Miller and thank you for um the kind of um EST how you've established the technology education up in your area it is uh admirable and um certainly one that I think many other districts might want to take a look at um I'm always saddened to hear when they let when sch
ool districts let their library media specialists scho because uh as you know and I know and many people know it's those library media Specialists especially at the elementary level who are providing those technology classes and those Partnerships with the big computer you know corporations that we used to have um uh within our school districts but as they go away those relationships and those programs have also Fallen by the side and I think that is definitely an indicator of of how we have sun
k down to the bottom of it so thank you for doing the work that you're doing and um very admirable work for um the uh school district of duth we have one more testifier Jennifer Rosado and she is here good morning thank you my name is Jennifer Rosado I'm director of the Northern Lights collaborative for computing education at the University of Minnesota Madam chair and committee members thank you for for having me here to testify in support of Senate file 4259 I also represented CS forall Minnes
ota a coalition of Education industry and nonprofit organizations working towards policy change for computer science in Minnesota on the Cs education working group I thank you very much for the support of last year's bill in establishing that group and providing some initial funding um as as the folks have said the bill or the state plan was released last week and having read most of the state plans in the country I can truly say and believe that this is one of the best state plans out there tha
t can provide a robust um computer science education system for all of our students in Minnesota there are 10 recommendations in the state plan that include an advisory committee lure funding for district planning and teacher training and establishing a K12 pathway the bill before you focuses on two of those priorities funding and teacher licensure critical elements to move forward when I was a student in Alexandria Minnesota um at high school I learned to program a very small amount um and lear
ned to um I think it was basic at that point bounce a ball across the screen but I didn't think that computer science was for me at that time I went to college here in Minnesota I graduated I started a MERS in library science and it was there that I realized that computer science was really what I wanted to do and so switched from library science to computer science I've been a computer science Professor for over 20 many years and one of the major focuses that I have is on broadening participati
on in Computing when I first started teaching I saw a field full of men in my classroom I wanted more students who looked like me I wanted more students to believe that they could belong in computer science and that they could make a difference um in the field as they've mentioned Minnesota is last I really believe that we can get to first computer science is a key skill that all of our students need to learn not just because of high-paying jobs like software Engineers but also computer science
related fields like cyber security artificial intelligence data science those are some of the fastest growing Fields but also because of key areas in our economy like agriculture Dairy Farmers use mobile apps to manage their cows production all the time we need students to have an understanding of computer science so that they understand the technical world around us just like we want students to learn science so that they understand the natural world around us we live online these days and we n
eed them to know that our neighbor Iowa has invested over a million dollars in computer science um professional development and that's trained over a thousand teachers with a larger investment we can quickly make progress in moving Minnesota out of last into first place um but we need to build that capacity in our school districts and the funding and lure are two Pathways that are critical for us to be able to do that thank you um if you have extra time today I would also encourage you to please
please visit stem day happening down in the Rotunda and the uh Vault area we have lots of organizations in Minnesota that are here supporting stem and computer science and you get a chance to talk to them and some of the students thank you so much for your testimony uh members are there any questions well lovely um thank you all for coming forward and and sharing your perspective on um the need for computer science here in in the state of Minnesota it's really fascinating to see um all the diff
erent perspectives coming at different directions under different um um scenarios so thank you very much Senator Carlson do you have any final words thank you m CH just a few as as we've heard today and as evidence from other states shows the return to on investment in computer science education is indisputable this is not just about meeting the economic demands of the future it's about Comm committing to a well-rounded education for our students we have an obligation to our children to prepare
them to be active and participatory members of society when they leave school and uh and start to participate uh in the uh economic the economic Foundation of Minnesota this bill supports the development of the F that Foundation by enabling our teachers the architects of our children's future to deliver the robust Computer Science Education this legislation also directly addresses the current shortage of qualified computer science teachers by providing targeted professional development we can Em
power Educators from diverse backgrounds to effectively teach computer science other states have shown that teachers such as Math Science and Humanities can be successful in a computer science classroom when they're given the proper training and support if we do not continue to build off that legislation from last year we fail thousands of students that deserve a 21st century Ed education and I might say that uh personally again um I have my high school that's in my hometown is Egan high school
and my son actually learned his computer science from one of the teachers and a volunteer volunteer that was from uh cray research so we had that historical commitment to programming to the development of Comm computer science he went on to get a computer science degree at the University of Minnesota uh he worked in a large uh primarily uh electronic company in Minnesota but then uh sadly uh he was grabbed by uh Facebook and moved out to California out to the Silicon Valley so we lost him to a h
igher tax happens so yes we train them and they take them right yeah and uh and actually he's had a very rewarding career and it was all based on a lot of of uh volunteerism from elementary to Middle School to high school and I think we what we need to do is make sure that the students that are interested in uh computer science or any kind of programming like that are given the opportunity to be able to have a good train teachers to get them ready for tomorrow's jobs thank you Senator so with th
at we will be laying over Senate file 4259 for possible inclusion in our future Omnibus Bill thank you all very much for testifying next um we're going to be shifting over to Senate file my Senate file 3746 and Senator makade will be taking over for us all right Madam chair we move uh Senate file 3746 before the committee would you like to move your A5 Amendment yes I'd like to introduce the A5 Amendment this Amendment includes language suggested by mde and it will put us in line with the langua
ge from the house the amendment clarifies which subject matters are required and which are recommended by the Department of Education after rulle making the required subject matters in the section um are as followed and these requirements are in current law cardio pulmonary resuscitation and automatic external defibrillator education vaping awareness and prevention education cannabis use and substance use education sexually transmitted infections and disease uh education and then mental health e
ducation and so with that um I move that you adopt the A5 Amendment so moved uh members any questions all those in favor of the A5 say I I any opposed the amendment is adopted Senator kunish you can proceed with any testimony or comments thank you members Senate file 3746 will standardize health education in Minnesota which is a crucial step towards ensuring that all students regard regardless of their location receive a consistent education related not only to their own health but also the well
-being of their family their friends and their communities this bill will require the Department of Education to go through the rule making process to create new health standards rule making will allow for all interested parties to engage the department in a transparent process that will require the input and the buyin of a variety of stakeholders these stakeholders are compiled into standards committees they include parents of schoolage children teachers and faculty throughout the state school
board members members of Minnesota's business Community representatives from the tribal Nations and current students after the standards committee is complete uh with their recommendation there will be amp ample opportunity for public comment and consideration Minnesota statute relates to this matter specifically stipulates that the standards they create are clear and objective and do not require a certain teaching methodology simply put the process of crafting this bill and carrying it towards
eventual implementation is a process that is objective trans arent and relies on important checks and balances while being open to the public at key junctures as this bill has progressed through the relevant Comm committee stops we've received questions from both sides of the aisle regarding the impacts of this bill in the response to these questions I'd like to clarify three really important points before I I um leave it to our uh testifiers number one standardizing a subject matter does not re
quire require certain teaching styles or methodologies I think that's really important to understand here standardizing a subject matter does not require certain teaching styles or methodologies it only sets the learning destination for students in Minnesota local units are still responsible for determining how students reach their learning destination in other words school districts and Charter Schools still determine how their students will meet these developed standards by developing specific
courses and and instruction this is the case for every major subject matter that is standardized number two currently health is the only required subject matter that is not standardized in Minnesota which sort of blows my mind this means that there are other required subject matters that have consist consistent B benchmarks across the state yet health does not we believe that Health should be standardized like every other required subject and number three this bill does not change the fact that
health is still a required subject matter to graduate this is the case everywhere in Minnesota and it will remain so the change we offer is that every student regardless of the size of their school or the location of their schoolroom be taught consistent and important topics about the well-being of themselves and others and so um with that um I just want to make sure that um uh we are addressing this um in a way that allows our students in Minnesota to have a right to an education that's going
to enable them to understand and make well-informed decisions not only about their own life but those around them I believe and many of us believe that um adding both adding Health to the list of subject matters in Minnesota with a Statewide standard will accomplish this and with that members um with that U Madam chair we have a a few uh testifiers thank you madam chair uh we'll go first to Cynthia bowly with the women's Foundation Cynthia uh please introduce yourself for the record and then you
may begin thank you madam chair members of the committee for the record my name is Cynthia bowly and I'm the vice president of strategic initiatives at the women's Foundation of Minnesota thank you uh chair kunish for carrying this bill and members we support this legislation because it will ensure that students across the state of Minnesota have the opportunity to learn what they need to grow up safe healthy and confident the 40 the women's Foundation is a 40-year-old Statewide Community Found
ation in Minnesota dedicated to ensuring that women and girls can be healthy successful and safe and we believe that policy should be built on data and that's why we conduct research every two years with the Humphrey school to understand what's happening in Minnesota and unfortunately we know in Minnesota and across the country students are facing a lot including preventative negative health and safety outcomes for example the research that we published in February of this year indicates that br
oad health education is needed to address serious health concerns Minnesota's ninth grade girls 60% are almost twice as likely to have serious attempts at suicide and boys are at 34% 16% of 11th grade girls report sexual abuse and teen girls are less likely to be physically active and participate in sports which are essential to their health and well-being than their maale counter ports the data in this report illustrates the need for consistent Health standards across the state to ensure that s
tudents have what they need to make healthy choices we also support this bill because it uses a rul making process where students parents teachers health professionals and other interested parties can engage in a transparent process through the Department of Education to create this recommended standard and following that recommended standard there will be additional time for public comment and consideration and as uh Cher kunish noted following the ruem then local districts will uh tailor it an
d implement it uh as at a local level Minnesota Youth deserve accurate age appropriate health education that equips them with knowledge and skills they need to make informed choices about their bodies and health related decisions it also includes the knowledge uh that they H need to exist in society as uh as parents age and deal with Alzheimer's and Dementia and other cons uh considerations uh in Minnesota with a Statewide health education standard students across the state will have access to t
he same knowledge about issues that affect their daily lives we urge you to pass this proposal to ensure that students in Minnesota have access to education on health subjects that will allow them to live full and healthy lives thank you for your consideration I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you so much Miss bowly next we will go to Dr geritz O'Brien who I see is online if you want to come off mute and introduce yourself for the record you may begin thank you madam chair and members m
y name is Dr Janna goerz O'Brien I am a pediatrician and an adolescent medicine physician and an executive committee member for the Minnesota chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics our chapter represents over 1,000 pediatricians in the state our mission is simple we advocate for the health safety and wellbeing of our patients Minnesota's children and Adolescence in short we're here for the kids I am here here on behalf of our chapter to testify in favor of Cen aile uh 3 3746 this bill aim
s to raise the academic standards for Minesota students to include all of the elements necessary for a well-rounded health education kids today face innumerable challenges to their mental and physical health arming them with this information and skills the information and skills that they need to be physically and mentally well is essential starting early paves the way for a lifetime of Health this legislation is long overdue and is needed now as an expert in adolescent medicine I've watched as
my patients have suffered with unprecedented rates of mental illness eating disorders and substance disorders I have never been to more bedsides sitting next to more parents after their child attempted suicide or overdosed on fanel as I stood gravide at a funeral earlier this winter for a beautiful smart funny 17-year-old patient I thought to myself her death was preventable Minnesota children and adolescence are in crisis they need our support our educational standards must rise to meet these n
eeds I've also seen climbing rates of intimate partner violence sexually transmitted infections and sexual abuse and assault among youth of all ages it is heartbreaking knowledge is power open honest and intentional conversations about health and well-being are critical for supporting healthy child development and preventing violence sexual assault and abuse our educational standards must rise to help youth under understand what healthy safe supportive and consensual relationships look like fina
lly our education needs to keep up with the times in the year 2024 children and teens receive a deluge of constant messages on social media about vaping and cannabis products all marketed towards teenagers nutrition and about what their body should and shouldn't look like we owe Minnesota's children the skills and resources they need to navigate this complex and ever evolving world the American Academy of Pediatrics is here for the kids we strongly support this bill it would help ensure Children
and Families from every corner of the state will receive consistent education related not only to their health but that that of their families and communities children in our state are in crisis they needed this education yesterday the time to pass this legislation is now thank you for the opportunity to testify I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you so much Dr and our final testifier is Priscilla May Priscilla mayoa with the Minnesota Youth Council please introduce yourself for the rec
ord and you may begin chair okay good morning chair members of the committee thank you for having me for the record my name is Priscilla mayowa and I'm the director of the Minnesota Youth Council um and I'm here to speak on behalf of the council in support of senile 3746 I'll be sharing the testimony of council R AA Maki brood an 11th grade student at Twin Cities Academy High School aer's words are shared on behalf of herself and all young people across Minnesota who are relying on our school sy
stem to educate and prepare them for the future her word goes T the purpose of quality education is to prepare young people for becoming active and successful members of society as well as teaching skills for everyday life and wellness School prepares us for teaching school prepares us by teaching college preparatory skills and careage skills and by teaching us mathematics and reading and the Sciences yet many young people have no idea how to take care of their own minds and bodies because curri
culums lack fundamental health education educating students about mental health gives them the power to identify when they need help and gives them the knowledge and resources to know how to address it and where to go many young people including some teenagers that I'm close to have already had to talk several of their pairs out of committing suicide this situation demonstrates a significant problem in our system of Education children should not be responsible for saving lives schools have an ob
ligation to teach us what to do in a crisis and more importantly how to prevent the crisis from ever happening many young people do not have an understanding of how to get help if they're struggling with their mental health most of my peers have never known how to access therapy or counseling and many of them don't know about the suicide hotline or how to use it sex education is not a mandatory class in many schools and Drug education is mandatory in even fewer without Statewide health education
standards not all of Minnesota's students have access to equal support in this areas Statewide Health standards allow all students from across the state to make to make to have equal access access to health curriculums and prevent any disparities making mental health a part of school curriculums forces people to talk about it and destigmatize honest conversations surround surrounding mental illness suicide and self harm required health curriculums would provide students with knowledge and skill
s they need to make happier to have happier and healthier Futures this are the words of the council rep AA Maki brood it's also reflecting um the sentiment and feelings of a lot of the council members who are all in support of this bill so I really urge the committee to please vote in support um of Senate file 3746 thank you thank you so much for your testimony uh members questions Senator Lucero thank you madam chair and uh thank you senator kunesh for this bill I am wondering if uh a represent
ative from the the school boards Association could come forward I'm curious to hear their perspective on this um I don't see Miss Dietrich here Senator lero oh that's unfortunate okay how about a representative of the superintendence I they it come for because I'm very interested in hearing their perspective on this Senator Sarah I don't see them here right now if they had an opinion I'm sure they would have submitted a letter Senator lero thank you uh Madam chair well that's unfortunate uh this
is a piece of legislation this is the Senate education finance committee and we have representatives from the School Board Association and superintendent that are glaringly absent right now during critical conversations that are taking place Madam chair I uh when I was listening to the testimony I heard the reference that uh part of the reason for this is to provide medically appropriate or medically accurate and age appropriate uh content and I have pause because those are very subjective term
s medically accurate age appropriate being discussed here this is the same majority party that can't even determine or tell us what the definition of a woman is let alone now to tell us what medically accurate information is I'm very skeptical of this I do not think that it is wise to continue to usurp our local school districts who are very capable of handling this content so unfortunately I do not support this at this time um thank you Senator lar and just as a note the public no member of the
public is required to attend committee hearings but they are allowed to testify or or submit testimony if they have it um Senator Kunes yep and I would just like to to point out that um what we're trying to do is create standards Health standards that school districts then have the opportunity to use their local control to decide what curriculum or what um they will be sharing as their health uh standards or their health curricul with their students so we are putting the local control in place
once the standards are established thank you Senator kunish Senator Eric uh thank you madam chair and you know I it was brought up that the health is the only uh subject area that we don't have standards for but I would say that you know this is a bit different than math or um reading where it's very clear you know where stand standards should be um in those subject areas where again this uh could be a little bit tricky with the especially I heard also the age appropriate um I think a lot of pla
ces around the state and parents uh we hear discussions that struggle with that and such big difference of opinions as to when something is age appropriate and when it isn't and so I would struggle to uh support this at this time um until we'd have better understanding of of where folks would be going around that side of things and I guess also just when we look at all of the different uh things that we asked our school boards um and schools to address from last year around curriculum and discip
linary standards that um this would be yet another thing that uh um we'd be asking them to look at their curriculum and make changes and I've heard from a lot of my schools especially my really small Schools they're they're struggling to deal with what's been put in front of them already and to put one more thing is they would struggle with that so um as of right now I I can't support this I would love to have some continuing conversations so I can have some discussions with uh some of my school
health teachers see exactly what they are teaching um and uh go from there but right as of today I I cannot support this thank you uh thank you Senator Senator Kunes yeah when we talk about um age appropriate you our schools and our experts know that they know you know at a kindergarten level we wouldn't be teaching a sixth grade level um curriculum and so uh I think we have to put our faith and our our um support into the experts in the schools and that's why the school districts will have the
opportunity to choose at what grade level they will talk about different things I mean we're going to talk about I me the the young kids learn about their skeletal system their um Ander consistent they learn about their bodies at different uh age levels and and and as a library media specialist we did a lot of fun activities so that they knew how their bodies were working how it's important to drink lots of water drink a well um balanced diet get exercise why you need all this good sleep all of
those things build up until you know until that's an age appropriate sort of thing um this is to create the St the uh the standards so there will be a lot of discussion along the way and as we said there will be opportunity for input from the public from the experts so it's not just a quick oneandone let's look at a few different curriculums and and say maybe this is the right one um there'll be plenty of time and and opportunity for a discussion um thank you sen I think Senator follow go ahead
than thank you madam chair and um I agree 100% that our local school uh school boards and teachers have uh a lot of expertise in this area and that we should be relying on them um and I it reminded me as we heard some of the stories um I think some of the stories we heard Express the need uh for uh the bills that we heard earlier this year and helping uh get more school counselors and folks to help in that nature um more so than uh the the a a ba you know a base for health education um I think
those stories really spoke to the need for uh kids to be able to have someone to reach out to and speak to um when things are coming forward especially uh you we the social media aspect I think I was at a seminar this Summer that talked about uh some things like around that you know whether we ban a certain social media for young kids because they can't handle some of the messages that are coming through they're getting such uh bad information about their bodies and about uh behaviors um those a
re difficult discussions uh to have um you get a lot of uh parents who uh continue to uh Advocate that their students or their kids should be able to have access to that but I think that is those are some discussions um probably more important uh right now for us to be having I think that gets at uh the RO root of some of what we're seeing here uh probably more so um again as of right now I I can't support this but I I get what you're coming at but I think there are some uh even bigger deeper di
scussions that uh we should probably be engaging in uh to help our students with things they're facing um thank you Senator Eric Senator Kunes follow up yeah I think I think we have to think about our schools as a almost a a community of support systems uh when we ask for more counselors in our schools they can't do it on their own they also need resources that they can share with their teachers with the their parents with their students um when when you adopt a curriculum there's often suggeste
d additional resources that a school could choose um and so it's not just relying on one person to fix what ails us uh if we have library media Specialists again to talk about um responsible media use if we have counselors that can help students um with the issues that they're having if we can have well-rounded meals so that they have healthy it all works together but if there isn't a basic standard of um of of requirement of what we basically want our students to learn uh in health and it's it'
s their bodies it's their minds it's their Spirits it's their their everything um we have to talk about it and we have to look at where those resources are in our schools where they aren't and uh how we can make sure that we are addressing all those different buckets that you you address but we can't do it until we have a basic standard to start working from uh thank you Senator kunish and I'll just add before I go to our next um member of the committee that we had standards Health standards in
Minnesota up until 2003 until I was a junior in high school and then they were removed and and Senator Kunes I really appreciate your bill because Health isn't subjective it's not uh you know you know I think that cigarettes are good for me and you think that they're not that you know that's it's objectively they're bad for you and learning about how your body responds to nicotine and how your body responds to alcohol and what it does to your brain and what it does to your developing muscular sy
stem and your nervous system and all those things that is that is so much more than a person asking for help from a counselor and and it is not a subjective thing it is a um it is a knowable area of Science and evidence and research and and things that we know about our bodies and our minds and our lives and so when I'm looking at your bill cardiopulmonary resuscitation and um AED education vaping awareness you know I learned recently that my generation I graduated from high school in 2004 we ha
d really low rates of smoking and then um cigarette companies figured out that children now don't associate vaping with smoking so they don't smoke they Vape right um that is a specific kind of education that we need to get into young people's hands to keep them from smoking cannabis use and substance use education we appropriated so much money in the cannabis bill last year to make sure that peer-to-peer education was happening and education was happening in schools and if there's not standards
for that how can we ensure that students are are getting this this education um mental health education how would a student know to ask for help if they didn't know what they experiencing is actually anxiety or depression right it your brain doesn't know those words your brain doesn't associate the things that you're thinking or doing or feeling with a clinical diagnosis you just know something doesn't feel good and and so if we don't give these this education to students they don't have that b
asis to reach out and ask for help so I I think this is a super important bill um that just brings an area a subject area for learning up to all the rest of the standards that we've had something we did have uh up until about 20 years ago and we've seen the effect of not having this basic health education and I'm I think your Bill's going to do a lot of good uh Senator wasinski you're next um thank you madam chair thank you senator for bringing this bill forward I think it's a great idea it's be
en about 50 years in your opening statement you used a phrase I haven't heard in about 50 years and it was blew my mind um so it's not a you've showed your age but that's a APT um way to describe cuz my mind was blown as well when I found out recently that we don't have um Statewide Health standards for our youth and a lot of thoughts have been going through my head during my 30 some years of teaching about times in class where um having taught um Juniors and seniors that kids that maybe came fr
om a different District got a different Health curriculum than the kids that were in my class and that came through um the district I taught in and it was just unfortunate that they didn't get the same education that the kids were getting in um in Eden Prairie at that time and um there were incidents that you know I don't know I um I'm I'll take it offline but anyways um I think if we've learned anything in the last couple years um we're going to get back to the holistic child and our kids aren'
t just academic beings they're they're um homo sapiens and the health needs aren't different in northern Minnesota from Southern Minnesota and Eastern Minnesota from um Western Minnesota our their this our species their health needs are the same no matter where they live so um thank you for bringing this bill forward and it's a long time coming and I didn't know it was required prior to 2003 but I'm glad to see it being required after 2023 so thank you thank you Senator zinski Senator K thank yo
u madam chair and I'll be brief just some statements just in the interested time here um just uh note that for we have a letter for organizations oppose this bill the Minnesota school boards Association the Minnesota Association of school administrators the Minnesota Elementary School principles and the Minnesota Association of Secondary School principles and uh it's unfortunate that they're not here to expound upon their opposition and I just think it's important for school board members uh acr
oss the state to realize iiz that that they're not here at the table and um I've not been reached out to by them either so all I can really do is um kind of just give some comments about my perspective on this as a former School Board member um and our local Health standards from our school district curriculum course off course offerings around Health was built up over time prior to when I got on the school board actually um and it was based heavily on community input um our community is very ha
ppy with uh with our health standards and our local school board um we did it locally um it fostered Community engagement uh met diverse our local needs unique to our school district um and it made us as school board members more accountable to the public um I actually did receive compliments uh while I was on the school board about um our offerings I I don't I didn't receive a single complaint so I guess you know local control now here is is being diminished once again I suppose residents we we
'll have a Ru making process and residents um if they want to provide any input into that they they they can do that or if they have a complaint I guess they can go to mde about that but that's kind of like a black hole for an average citizen in Blaine and so um instead you know I would prefer where there was accountability uh by the school board member uh which is direct and meaningful those are just my comments thank you thank you Senator k um Senator Kunes final remarks onor Bill thank you an
d thanks for this really I think um a really robust discussion around this this topic and really the the vital um need for it in spite of the fact that um that many of our school districts are going to look at this as oh now we have to do one more thing but um that's our job as teachers that's our job as uh Educators is to make sure that we are addressing all of the needs of our students in the best way possible while allowing for community and parent uh input and so I'll just uh End by saying a
nd reminding everyone that students in Minnesota have a right to an education that enables them to understand and make well-informed decisions not only about their own life but those around them we believe that and I believe that adding Health to the list of subject matter in Minnesota with the Statewide standards will accomplishment this and um I appreciate all the discussion thank you um thank you SAR Kunes and with that we will lay uh Senate file 3746 as amended over for possible inclusion in
an Omnibus Bill um Mr heler did you want to speak for maybe third UH 60 seconds on this okay we got to wrap up because we're five minutes over so I'll give you one minute um hello everybody in the Senate my name is uh Rick heler unofficial represent the twice acceptional people with print disabilities you may find language in Senate file 2694 or 5222 which was introduced yesterday one thing I think School District could possibly apply and public feedback would be uh health literacy in 1991 the
president did an executive order regarding that I'm not quite sure how that dub Tails into this but I think if the school districts are listening to this piece perhaps that's maybe a piece they could consider uh in the future years about uh what does it mean to read well by third grade and perhaps uh what point uh the remediation and modification basically stops and accommodations are provided such as read out loud and Braille and last thing to remind is that in 200 uh 19 Congress approved the m
arish treaty and then 2019 Library Congress Services got involved and they emerged blind in print disability and now they're called eligible people thank you again for this opportunity to speak thank you Mr holler and with that uh members we are adjourned [Music] [Music]
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