Transcript Highlights:

• With the passage of HB 1 in 2023, Florida's school choice program entered a new level of size and complexity
• And if so, we do advise them that they cannot remain in public school and be in the programs.
• And if so, we do advise them that they cannot remain in public school and beyond the programs.
• And from my experience with our families, the schools usually, especially under the unique ability program
• school.

Summary: The Pre-K through 12 Budget Subcommittee met to continue reviewing how Family Empowerment Scholarship students are funded through the FEFP and the role of scholarship funding organizations. Staff gave a statutory overview of parent, SFO, and Department of Education responsibilities, including application deadlines, eligibility verification, quarterly payment timing, cross-checks to prevent duplicate funding, and the 99% district FEFP limitation for certain awards. The committee then heard demonstrations from Step Up for Students and AAA Scholarship Foundation showing their parent portals, application workflows, reimbursement systems, school enrollment/invoice processes, and marketplace tools for tuition, tutoring, and approved goods and services. Step Up reported major growth since HB 1, saying its scholarship population expanded from about 260,000 to more than 440,000 students, with application processing averaging about 10 days. It also highlighted faster tuition, provider, and reimbursement payments, multilingual support in English and Spanish, and resources such as videos and a call center. Members asked about support for Creole speakers, optional Florida ID numbers, student identifiers, marketplace pricing, tutor qualifications, background screening, and how awards differ from funded status. Step Up said it does not currently support Creole, does not do background screenings for tutors, sets no marketplace prices itself, and uses a unique internal student ID separate from the state ID. AAA demonstrated its revised software for the 2025-26 school year, including an eligibility screener, household and student application steps, messaging with staff, reimbursement requests, and administrative review and payment batching. AAA said the new system is custom-built, more transparent about award value versus available balance, and designed to better handle quarterly funding for UA students. Members questioned AAA and Step Up about student ID numbers, public-school cross-checks, fraud controls, school fee schedules, whether schools must participate, and reimbursement timing. Both organizations said they report quarterly to DOE, receive public-school cross-checks, and recover funds when students return to public school; AAA said its average reimbursement turnaround is about 14 business days, while Step Up said its reimbursement approvals have improved significantly. The committee also requested follow-up information, including one-pagers, data on income levels and demographics, and additional details on forecasting and system costs.

Transcript Highlights:

• This program while still in high school.
• It's a grow-your-own program, to invest in schools.
• It's a grow-your-own program to invest in schools.
• It's a grow-your-own program to invest in schools.
• Own program to invest in schools.

Keywords: 958, all

Transcript Highlights:

• The private schools are subsidized by the EFA voucher program.
• The private schools are subsidized by the EFA voucher program.
• course in their school or as an after-school program.
• course in their school or as an after-school program.
• and making them after elementary schools and making them after school<00:33:26.080> programs<

Keywords: 1189, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• So if someone says the medical school, they're thinking our MD program. But we have Dr.
• Medical schools will talk about MD program in phases. That's our curriculum by months.
• Medical school, I don't know. New program.
• We know that if they go to our medical school and they go to a training program in the state, we have
• So they'll have a one-year master's program, which means that if they don't get into medical school,

Keywords: 908, all

Summary: The Higher Education Funding Committee met to discuss possible changes to North Dakota’s higher education funding formula, with a particular focus on separating the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences MD program from the general formula. Dr. Jenkins outlined several options for the MD program, including a fixed-funding model, a hybrid model, or keeping it in the formula, and emphasized the need to preserve strong support for medical education while making future funding clearer. He also discussed efforts to increase the share of North Dakota students in the MD program through ND85, expanded recruiting, early acceptance pathways, MCAT prep, a four-plus-one program, and the Primary Care Accelerated Track, along with future cost pressures such as AI licensing and residency growth. The committee then reviewed a simplified funding model from the University System Office that would base funding more heavily on student FTE, credentials awarded, and a few incentive factors such as small institution and research adjustments. Members questioned the use of placeholder numbers, the lack of a clear methodology for the small institution and research factors, and whether the model would adequately account for differences among institutions, high-cost programs, and graduate education. Several members raised concerns that arbitrary factors would be hard to defend politically and could distort funding or create competition between schools, while others said the exercise was useful as a starting point for discussion. Alex presented a second alternative that kept the current SIP-code structure but increased CTE weighting, added a progressive economic size factor, and separated out the MD program. His model also added an on-campus face-to-face headcount component and a credentials component, with the intent of rewarding in-person enrollment and completions. Members questioned the use of headcount instead of FTE, how hybrid, online, dual-credit, and off-campus students would be treated, and why face-to-face enrollment was weighted more heavily than completion. No formal votes or final actions were taken; the committee instead continued discussion and asked members to provide direction on which elements, if any, should be developed further.

Transcript Highlights:

• to join you today to talk about our zero-emission school bus program.
• In 2024, the legislature codified the zero-emission school bus grant program into state law.
• And in addition to codifying the zero-emission school bus program, it also required...
• codifying the zero-emission school bus program, it also requires that once the cost of diesel school
• Unlike EPA's Clean School Bus Program, Ecology was actually an eligible applicant here.

Summary: The House Transportation Committee held a work session focused on Climate Commitment Act transportation spending and electrification programs. Staff first reviewed overall CCA transportation allocations, saying about $2.2 billion has been allocated over three biennia, with major categories including public transportation, active transportation, ferry electrification, zero-emission vehicle programs, rail/ports, and planning. Members asked for additional breakdowns comparing CCA dollars with total program costs across categories. The Department of Ecology presented on the zero-emission school bus grant program. Ecology said the program was codified in 2024 and supports the transition from diesel to electric school buses, including buses, charging infrastructure, and training. For 2025-27, Ecology received $38.3 million in CCA funding; $21.4 million is already obligated or spent, replacing 91 diesel buses in 28 districts, with the rest to be awarded by the end of the biennium. Members asked about cost parity, exemptions for rural and extracurricular routes, health data, and whether the funding covers chargers as well as buses. Ecology said OSPI is developing the parity formula and exemptions are available when electric buses cannot meet district needs. The Department of Commerce described its clean transportation role, including EV rebates, tribal charging and electric boat projects, and the EV Coordinating Council. Commerce said its rebate program was designed to lower monthly costs and prioritize low-income households, with 89% of recipients saying the rebate was essential to their purchase. It also reported strong demand for charging grants, progress on tribal projects, and concerns about utility interconnection timelines, vandalism, and range anxiety. The Department of Enterprise Services reported on state agency EVSE projects, saying it has completed 82 sites with 567 Level 2 ports and 46 DC fast chargers, and that current projects will add 152 more Level 2 ports; members asked about replacing aging chargers and the state’s EV fleet purchasing mix. WSDOT closed with updates on charging, transit, and port electrification. It said its corridor charging program has awarded 23 sites this biennium, with 13 in overburdened communities and five tribal sites, and that the Washington Zero Emission Incentive Program opened with $112 million for vouchers for zero-emission commercial vehicles and equipment. WSDOT also described transit grants, including bus and bus facility funding, commute trip reduction, paratransit, tribal transit, and zero-emissions access car-share projects. The rail freight and ports division reported $89.8 million for port electrification projects, including shore power and drayage trucks, but noted only about 10% has been spent so far because projects are still in design and permitting. Members raised concerns about funding gaps, supply-chain delays, utility capacity, and whether the programs are sufficient to meet broader electrification needs.

Transcript Highlights:

• My name is Maddie Anderson, and I am an alum of the ProStart program at Shakopee High School.
• <00:04:09.159> I proart program at Shaky High School I proart program at Shaky High School
• I'm a student in the ProStart program at Oak River High School.
• I'm a student in the ProStart program at Oak River High School.
• 00:14:25.160> I<00:14:25.320> thought School um uh program and what I thought School um

Keywords: 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• unique programming in our school that will suspend some of the minimum school approval standards for
• They would go for logical reasons like that school has a theater program that's state-recognized.
• They have an automotive program, or maybe we live 2 miles from that school because we're on the end of
• <01:22:03.760> that's that school has a theater program that's that school has a theater program
• or maybe we live 2 miles from program or maybe we live 2 miles from that<01:22:11.199> school

Keywords: 1189, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• , which is an excellent program that helped pay for our Rochester Public School staff to earn social
• We know that we have significant mental health needs in our schools, and this was an excellent program
• We saw meaningful results within 2 years of beginning our school-based mental health scholars program
• If a school wants to have a program<01:08:48.480> like<01:08:48.680> this,<01:08:49.160
• program? program?

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• The School-Based Violence Intervention Program is a mentorship program that is operating full-time in
• The School-Based Violence Intervention Program provides the ability to have mentors on school campuses
• The School-Based Violence Intervention Program has been operating in the schools that we've seen, APS
• the SBVIP program graduate from high school.
• Seven one five two to expand the school-based intervention program to every single high school in the

Transcript Highlights:

• The two systems are also working on a direct admit program with the high schools.
• We picked up students under this program who were having trouble adapting to the public school environment
• Here's the programs and schools that offer those programs.
• offer the programs and schools that offer the programs and schools that offer those<00:40:50.440
• There’s conversation around, ‘I want to start this program; what’s at your school now?’

Keywords: 1189, house, all

Summary: The Public Higher Education Study Committee held an organizational meeting and received an update from the university and community college systems on implementation of recommendations from the governor’s higher education task force. The systems said the task force report contained about 40 recommendations, and they have focused first on operational items while continuing to work on larger policy issues, including better alignment of public higher education with workforce and economic development needs. The committee also discussed reporting requirements under the amended law and whether quarterly reports are required or whether annual updates are sufficient unless the committee requests more. A major topic was expanding Early College and dual-enrollment opportunities. The chancellors reported strong growth in Early College participation, significant student and family savings, and state scholarship support that they described as producing a strong return on investment. They said the goal is to build clearer pathways so students can earn college credit, reduce debt, and stay in New Hampshire for postsecondary education. They also noted ongoing work to simplify admissions and transfer processes, including about 100 transfer pathways between the systems, direct-admit efforts for community college and university students, and continued development of transfer equivalency tools. Members pressed the systems and the Department of Education on direct outreach to high school students, especially juniors, so students would know they are eligible for direct admission and other opportunities. The main obstacle discussed was access to student contact information, with officials saying the issue may involve contract limits with the College Board and possibly statutory constraints on sharing data. Department of Education staff said they are meeting with the systems and vendors to determine what changes are needed. Committee members urged faster action so students and families can receive letters or other notices about in-state options, affordability programs such as Granite Guarantee, and pathways to community college and university enrollment.

Transcript Highlights:

• Outreach Program, which already works with high schools and provides college-preparedness services to
• And so UC already has a program that does reach out to high schools and help the students understand.
• The program works with current high school students for four years to make them prepared to apply to
• In order to get into the First Star program in high school, they have to be currently foster youth.
• The program works with current high school students for four years to make them prepared to apply to

Keywords: 987, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• Then on lines 142 and 143, we see the school breakfast and school lunch programs.
• Then on lines 142 and 143, we see the school breakfast and school lunch programs.
• Then on lines 142 and 143, we see the school breakfast and school lunch programs.
• lunch school breakfast and school lunch school breakfast and school lunch programs<00:14:58.120>
• education program uh uh school districts education program uh uh school districts are<01:30:19.840

Keywords: 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• And then home-to-school transportation, the state changed, the ASES program.
• It doesn't tell you that this nonprofit is at every school site and is doing a robust program.
• spending, the after-school ELOP programming, the universal TK.
• community schools program.
• There is, I think, in the Community School Partnership program, the development of local capacity for

Summary: The joint hearing focused on coherence in California’s education planning and reporting systems, especially the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) and related grant plans. Committee chairs and members described widespread frustration with duplicative, lengthy, and sometimes conflicting reporting requirements, while emphasizing that the goal was not to reduce accountability but to make planning more useful, stable, and student-centered. State Superintendent Tony Thurmond also previewed the Governor’s education budget priorities, including expanded learning, community schools, universal transitional kindergarten, literacy supports, and concerns about the proposed Prop. 98 deferral. Panelists from the State Board of Education, Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, and the Legislative Analyst’s Office said the LCAP was intended to balance local flexibility with statewide transparency, but has become overloaded by repeated revisions and additional requirements. They argued for fewer core reporting elements, more stability over time, better alignment of planning cycles, and integrated systems that reduce duplication. Fresno County staff described a multi-year calendar and support tools that help districts manage timelines, but said these tools only ease the burden rather than solve the underlying problem. The LAO noted that some newer plans, such as expanded learning and transportation plans, are narrative-heavy and often less informative than separate reporting requirements. Local district leaders and county officials described the practical effects of the current system: staff time diverted from instruction, multiple portals and forms, audit risk aversion, and planning documents that can exceed 100 pages. Several superintendents said coherent systems work best when districts have clear priorities, stable governance, and aligned budgets, and when state requirements are predictable and tied to outcomes like literacy, attendance, and student achievement. The California Federation of Teachers added that coherence also depends on meaningful collaboration with educators, classified staff, parents, and communities. Committee members repeatedly asked whether the state should streamline reporting, create a uniform portal, or develop a more unified grant-reporting structure, and Thurmond said the department was piloting a simplified common form and was willing to work with the Legislature and districts on broader solutions.

Transcript Highlights:

• A dropout retrieval program helps high school dropouts complete a diploma at their own pace, sometimes
• , which provides annual funding to school districts to establish or expand programs to detect and respond
• PCS for HB 969 seeks to enhance the accountability and effectiveness of school-based mental health programs
• schools, which are also public schools.
• This requires the school boards to continue to do the healthy sleep deprivation educational programs,

Summary: The Education Administration Subcommittee heard and advanced a series of education bills focused on transparency, accountability, attendance, school start times, student well-being, and career planning. HB 1321, by Rep. Salsman, would remove public-records and public-meeting exemptions for university presidential searches, eliminate the Board of Governors from those searches, require Board of Governors members to file full financial disclosures and be Florida residents, and expand syllabus posting requirements; it passed 15-0. HB 1079, by Rep. Botana, as amended, broadened eligibility for dropout retrieval programs to include students who withdrew and did not reengage in education, and it also passed 15-0 after a strike-all amendment and supportive testimony from a program provider. The committee also approved PCS for HB 969, by Rep. Kassel, which shifts evaluation of school mental health services to the Department of Children and Families and requires more detailed outcome data, surveys, and reporting related to the Mental Health Assistance Allocation program; it passed 15-0. HB 1367, by Rep. Booth, creates a statewide attendance policy with uniform definitions and reporting requirements to address chronic absenteeism; it passed 15-1 after support from business and education groups and some concern about state control over district policy. PCS for HB 261, by Rep. Gerwig, revises the 2023 middle and high school start-time law by allowing districts to document compliance efforts and unintended consequences rather than fully meet the mandated later start times; it passed 16-0. The most debated bill was HB 1483, by Rep. Valdez, which would align Florida’s school grading scale with the familiar 90/80/70/60 letter-grade standard over a five-year transition and require school grades to appear on student report cards. Supporters argued the current scale is misleading and too lenient, while opponents warned it would sharply increase failing school labels, create costs and turnaround mandates, and confuse parents and students. Despite extensive testimony from school board members, teachers, students, and advocacy groups on both sides, the bill passed 12-4. The committee then quickly approved HB 1245, a one-year Hunger-Free Campus Pilot Program for three universities with the highest share of Pell-eligible students, and HB 571, which expands career planning, paid work experience, and credit-transfer review for students; both passed unanimously.

Transcript Highlights:

• , our public schools, our charter schools.
• The out-of-school programming was recommended to be beefed up.
• have with... ...operating programs, and we do have a public school capital outlay formula that tries
• Whereas, like, you're not going to build a construction technology school, a CTE program, if there's
• It's about rolling out a model that mirrors a universal program that parents access like public school

Keywords: 996, all

Summary: The meeting began as an informal education budget work group focused on reviewing a revised House Appropriations and Finance Committee scenario and flagging concerns rather than taking votes. Staff outlined the main changes from the LFC recommendation, including moving the statewide student information system appropriation, adding funding for the Black, Bilingual, Multicultural and Hispanic Education Act, universal school meals overrun costs, an evidence-based CTE pilot with a 50% local match, STEM network funding, wellness room pilots, Martinez-Yazzie action plan items, and changes to innovation zone and out-of-school time appropriations. A separate handout on the seven-year CTE pilot explained spending patterns, reversions, and possible federal maintenance-of-effort concerns if the state continues funding beyond a true pilot. Members then debated CTE extensively, with several arguing it improves attendance, graduation, and career readiness and should be sustained or expanded, especially in rural areas, while staff and others emphasized that much of the current funding has gone to general operational costs rather than intentional program design and that regional or matched funding models may be more effective. Members also discussed STEM and math initiatives, the need for more industry involvement, and whether the proposed match requirements would be too burdensome for smaller districts and BIE schools. The discussion also covered the Black, Hispanic, and Multilingual Education Acts and the Martinez-Yazzie lawsuit. Some members stressed that the acts should be explicitly named in the budget language and not merely implied, while staff said the scenario reaffirms prior commitments by building the costs into agency operating budgets. Members raised concerns about charter school hold-harmless funding, declining enrollment, and the need to align spending with the needs of at-risk students. The work group ended the education portion without any votes, with staff noting they would incorporate the feedback and return with clarifications, including on CTE funding, the educational acts, and the charter hold-harmless item. The meeting then shifted to the child well-being and early childhood work group, where staff presented a revised Early Childhood Education and Care Department scenario. The proposal moved money toward child care assistance and early pre-K, kept the FIT program funding level unchanged, and used a mix of trust fund, TANF, federal, and operating-budget adjustments to close part of the gap between the executive and LFC recommendations. Members questioned the policy direction, especially the shift toward infant and toddler care and pre-K expansion, the impact on school-age child care, and the implications for continuity of care and provider costs. Staff explained that the scenario prioritizes younger children and at-risk families, includes language for a wage and career ladder, and would require legislation to raise the early childhood trust fund distribution cap from 500 to 525. Members also discussed a separate proposed CYFD pilot bill (HB 65), which would be distinct from ECECD funding. No votes were taken, and staff said they would return with more cost information on full pre-K plus wraparound care. A final work group reviewed C2 and Department of Information Technology-related appropriations. Staff compared the LFC and executive recommendations for new funding and reauthorizations, noting that the LFC generally limited new projects while the executive funded more. Members discussed several IT modernization requests, including the Secretary of State’s voter registration and election management systems, the Spaceport Authority, Game and Fish, the State Engineer’s WATERS system, ECECD’s FitKids and EPIC replacement discovery, and Aging and Long-Term Services’ enterprise system modernization. The main themes were whether to fund planning versus full replacement, how to avoid piecemeal spending, and whether new systems should wait for incoming leadership. The Secretary of State’s office said its system is nearing end of life and the planning funds would help prepare a realistic replacement request, while other agencies described aging infrastructure, cybersecurity risks, and the need for modernization. The work group did not vote on any of the items and ended with staff noting additional follow-up on funding needs and reauthorization details.

Transcript Highlights:

• My name is D... and I'm a district program facilitator for Minneapolis Public Schools.
• with you since launching public schools with you since launching our<01:14:16.199> program<01
• is also beneficial license this program is also beneficial to<01:20:15.440> schools<01:20:15.880
• Thanks to this program, I'll be able to teach in Minnesota schools next fall when I return to the U.S
• Thanks to this program, I'll be able to teach in Minnesota schools next fall when I return to the U.S

Keywords: 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• > which this um school choice program um which this um school choice program um which allows<01:23
• of public school and into the program; they cannot do both.
• <01:51:04.560> that<01:51:04.800> can school, I don't have a program that can school
• So now you're talking about if you're in the EFA program and you want to go to your public school to
• at a program color garden high school at a program that<03:40:18.080> we<03:40:18.239> did

Keywords: 1189, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• school meals program.
• school meals program.
• school meals program.
• meals program began in fiscal year 2024, the school breakfast and school lunch lines would already include
• appropriations for the free school meals program prior to the introduction of the free school meals

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Summary: The Senate Education Finance Committee met on January 21 with a quorum present for the first meeting of the 2025 biennium. The co-chairs described the temporary power-sharing arrangement in the tied Senate, introduced committee staff and pages, and had members briefly introduce themselves and share what subject they would teach. After the introductions, the committee moved to a presentation from State Demographer Susan Brower. Brower reviewed Minnesota’s school-age population trends and projections, noting that the state had just under 1 million children ages 5 to 17 in 2023 and that, for the first time, the older adult population exceeded the school-age population. She said the school-age population is concentrated in the Twin Cities metro and other regional centers, and projected an overall decline of about 5% over the next 15 to 20 years, driven mainly by declining birth rates and long-running net outmigration of young adults. She also explained that growth is expected in some areas, especially along the I-94 corridor north of the metro, while northern regions are projected to see the largest declines. She clarified for members that her figures measure resident children, not school enrollment, and that boundary changes are not reflected in the district-level data. The presentation also covered demographic change among students. Brower said about 35% of Minnesota children ages 5 to 17 are children of color, with growing multiracial populations and increasing linguistic diversity. She reported that about 20% of school-age children have at least one foreign-born parent, and about 18% of enrolled students speak a language other than English at home, with Spanish, Somali, and Hmong the largest home languages. She also discussed child poverty, saying Minnesota’s rate is just under 10%, below the national rate of about 15%, and that poverty is concentrated in Minneapolis-St. Paul, some first-ring suburbs, and parts of northern Minnesota, including districts with larger Native populations. Members asked questions about whether the projections accounted for migration and whether open enrollment affected the figures; Brower said the data reflect where children live, not where they attend school, and that the projections are based on recent migration and birth patterns, with future changes more likely to come from international immigration than from domestic migration.

Transcript Highlights:

• This bill also addresses the barriers schools face in implementing a stock epinephrine program.
• They should conduct two or three programs over the next months for all the school districts in Minnesota
• Our school districts and school boards are not allowed to set their own policy.
• high school.
• The question is regarding how the schools promote this program for students during their high school

Transcript Highlights:

• LIKE IDENTIFYING THOSE MIDDLE SCHOOLS PAY LIKE APOLLO SCHOOL.
• SO THE SCHOOL IS REPORTING. WHY WOULD THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR FOR THE LICENSE BE REVOKED?
• WHY WOULDN'T YOU GO AFTER THE SCHOOL AS OPPOSED TO THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR?
• YES THE SCHOOL MAY HAVE A BOARD OF DIRECTORS OR SOMETHING ALONG THOSE LINES BUT THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR
• THERE ARE SOME PROGRAMS THAT GET A BAD LOOK BECAUSE OF SOME BAD PROGRAMS.