Agenda - Council - 08/13/2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Legislative Initiatives (REVISE?) Past Legislative Changes State general education aid is determined biennially. The 2011 legislative and special sessions set the budget for fiscal (academic) years 2012 and 2013. The current legislative session began on January 8, 2013, and adjourned on May 20, 2013. The 2013 legislature has set the State's biennial budget for fiscal years 2014 and 2015. As in prior years, for 2012-13, the State imposed a "holdback" (i.e., deferral) of a portion of the total funding. In other words, a portion of the current year funding was not disbursed until after July 1 of the next following academic year. This policy was adopted by Minnesota in part to deal with certain State budget issues as well as to allow for a reckoning or "true -up" process after the end of the year to account for fluctuations in actual student population during the year. The amount of the holdback has varied over time. Beginning in academic year 2010, the State increased the amount of this holdback to 27%. That was increased to 30% for FY 2011, and then to 40% for FY 2012. Since July 1, 2011, Minnesota education funding has been distributed by electronic wire transfer twice a month in 16 essentially equal amounts over eight months. As a result, public schools were to receive 60% of their annual allocation between July 1, 2011 and February 28, 2012, but no funds were distributed between March 1, 2012 and 30, 2012. State Building Lease Aid is calculated as $1,200 per "weighted" average daily membership ("WADM") or 90% of the school's lease obligations, whichever is less. As with funding for operations, the "weighting" formula provides that a high school like the School receives 1.3 times the funding for their students grades 9-12 compared to the funding provided for schools having only grade k-8 students. The Building Lease Aid is not paid separately from general education funding. Rather, charter schools receive marginally different disbursement amounts on the 15th and 30th of each month through February 28 of each fiscal year. All public school financing data in Minnesota is public under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. As result, any person can determine the components of any disbursement to the School (or any other Minnesota public school) by going onto the MDE website. There is some variation and unpredictability with respect to these disbursements. However, the School has determined that neither variability of payments to the School nor the absence of State payments between March 1 and 30 of each year will cause any cash flow difficulties for the School. Changes by 2013 Legislature The main components of public charter school education funding in Minnesota are "general education funding" and "building lease aid." The 2013 Minnesota legislative session ended on May 20, 2013. Legislation approved by the Governor (i) increased general education funding to Minnesota charter schools; (ii) provided for a reduction in State holdback of funding to 10% and for the distribution of State funds in 24 bi-monthly installments over 12 calendar 34