Rep. Pat Garofalo included a plan to kill all special funding for school integration as part of the education “omnibus” bill that he plans to put before the house. There will be hearings about this bill at the capitol on Monday 3/21 at 9am. There was a brief article in MinnPost. Shari Thompson writes “House Representative Pat Garofalo, chairman of the House Education Finance Committee, announced that the House’s main education finance bill includes the elimination of integration revenue. The full bill will be posted sometime over the weekend possibly as early as this evening. Testimony is being taken on Monday. Superintendent Mark Robertson from the Northwest Integration Collaborative will be testifying on behalf of the metropolitan area integration collaboratives.”

Clearly, testimony from parents, or even just our presence in the room, would be very helpful. If you would like to testify please contact Aaron Solem (aaron.solem@house.mn; 651-296-5524). If you would like to organize to testify, please feel free to use our list families@emidfamilies.org.

This is a big deal, since EMID is founded on integration funding.