1 00:00:01,310 --> 00:00:08,310 Hi my name is Mary Hartnett I am with the Commission of Deaf --> Deafblind and Hard of 2 00:00:08,990 --> 00:00:15,990 Hearing Minnesotans. We are a small agency that advocates for and with for people who 3 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:23,520 are deaf --> hard of hearing and deafblind. Brein asked me to explain the new bill that was 4 00:00:25,509 --> 00:00:32,509 developed to help solve a problem that MDS-MNSA has. MDS-MNSA has a cash-flow problem. They 5 00:00:37,690 --> 00:00:43,170 are well run well managed --> they are not in debt --> but they have been forced to borrow 6 00:00:43,170 --> 00:00:50,170 money because of several problems that happened this year. First the governor unallotted money 7 00:00:54,440 --> 00:01:01,440 to balance the budget from the schools all over the state. That meant that 27% of the 8 00:01:01,990 --> 00:01:08,990 money that schools have earned by teaching students is held back. So the schools are 9 00:01:09,509 --> 00:01:16,509 only getting paid 73% of the money and have to wait and borrow until the end of the year 10 00:01:18,229 --> 00:01:25,229 to get paid the 27% of the money. Regular school districts can borrow money through 11 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:33,640 levies. That means they can tax the people and borrow the money at only 1% interest. 12 00:01:36,270 --> 00:01:42,850 It is cheap to borrow the money. SO it is not a lot of pain for school districts. But 13 00:01:42,850 --> 00:01:49,850 charter Schools cant levy. They have to borrow money from banks from a line of credit at 14 00:01:55,709 --> 00:02:02,709 about 6% interest. If MDS-MNSA had to borrow the money they need to pay their bills money 15 00:02:07,310 --> 00:02:14,310 they would have to borrow up to 700 --> 0000 dollars. The interest for that would be around 42 --> 0000 16 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:22,819 dollars. And they couldn't get money for that --> they would have to fundraise to cover 42 --> 0000 17 00:02:22,819 --> 00:02:29,819 dollars. if that happened every year the school would fold. They had a problem and they met 18 00:02:30,670 --> 00:02:35,819 with the Dept. of Education. The Dept. of Education agreed they needed to develop a 19 00:02:35,819 --> 00:02:42,819 bill to solve part of their problem. They have another problem that would cause 12% 20 00:02:45,939 --> 00:02:52,569 of their budget was held back for different reasons. The school could not predict when 21 00:02:52,569 --> 00:02:58,299 they would get paid. one of the reasons was the Dept. of Education required the special 22 00:02:58,299 --> 00:03:05,299 education teachers to prove they know sign. There is a certification they have to take 23 00:03:05,650 --> 00:03:12,060 in october. That means the teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing start working in 24 00:03:12,060 --> 00:03:18,840 August they take the test in October and they don't get to results and they didn't get paid 25 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:25,840 to the district teachers until November of last year. They worked almost 5 months without 26 00:03:27,370 --> 00:03:33,530 getting paid. That is a lot of money to be held back. The Dept. of Education has agreed 27 00:03:33,530 --> 00:03:40,530 to pay the teachers regardless of the proof of the certification and will try to change 28 00:03:42,010 --> 00:03:49,010 the timing of the test to earlier in the summer so there is no delay. So that help solve some 29 00:03:50,950 --> 00:03:56,859 of the problems. The Dept. has also agreed to write policies and procedures that are 30 00:03:56,859 --> 00:04:03,859 easy to understand with timelines so the process will go more smoothly. So about 12% of the 31 00:04:05,909 --> 00:04:12,909 problem of the holdback will be solved with these processes. So the 27% holdback problem 32 00:04:15,019 --> 00:04:22,019 is still there and it is a problem for MDS-MNSA because they are one of two 100% special ed 33 00:04:24,860 --> 00:04:31,860 schools. that means that most of their money comes from spec ed revenues and very little 34 00:04:33,270 --> 00:04:40,270 of their money comes from regular ed revenues --> about 2% because the parents do not place 35 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:53,530 the kids there most of the time --> the district places. District places the kids. This means 36 00:04:53,530 --> 00:05:00,190 that the district will pay for transportation which is great --> it is very expensive to pay 37 00:05:00,190 --> 00:05:07,190 for the transportation. But this also means that there is less general ed revenue that 38 00:05:07,699 --> 00:05:14,699 gives most districts flexibility. MDS-MNSA doesn't have that kind of flexibility that 39 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:22,240 most schools even charter schools have. The reason is it so important to have district 40 00:05:22,300 --> 00:05:29,300 placed kids at MDS-MNSA is because they have kids from 39 different school districts around 41 00:05:31,280 --> 00:05:38,280 the state --> that is a lot. So the new bill that has 2 wonderful chief authors. The first 42 00:05:42,650 --> 00:05:49,650 is Senator Saltzman and the other is Representative Mariani. That bill will help the school get 43 00:05:52,430 --> 00:05:59,430 90% of its payments each month. So that will help solve the cash-flow problem. It only 44 00:06:01,580 --> 00:06:08,580 impacts charter school that have 100% special ed enrollment. That only affect 2 schools 45 00:06:13,240 --> 00:06:20,240 in the state right now. And the house has adopted that language in its Ominous Bill 46 00:06:25,750 --> 00:06:32,750 this week. The Senate hasn't taken action yet --> they haven't written their Omnibus Bill. 47 00:06:35,030 --> 00:06:40,979 When that happens we will need to community to contact legislators on the senate education 48 00:06:40,979 --> 00:06:47,979 committee and ask them to include this important bill in their omnibus large education bill. 49 00:06:50,750 --> 00:06:57,750 The process is a bit slow at this point because the lead legislators have not yet decided 50 00:07:00,389 --> 00:07:07,389 how much money to give to the education budget this year. We are not anticipating the bill 51 00:07:08,099 --> 00:07:14,830 to be signed until the middle of May. But it is important to keep watching --> listen to 52 00:07:14,830 --> 00:07:21,830 the emails that we send out that provides information about the bill. Again the school 53 00:07:21,909 --> 00:07:27,909 is well run. They have a borrowing problem because they were forced to borrow because 54 00:07:27,909 --> 00:07:34,909 of the governors unallottment and a combination of administrative problems that occurred in 55 00:07:36,889 --> 00:07:41,789 the department of education and communication with the department of education. Those administrative 56 00:07:41,789 --> 00:07:48,789 problems are solved and will be smoother in the future --> but the 27% problem is still there 57 00:07:49,229 --> 00:07:51,830 and this bill will help solve that.