A group of suburban lawmakers—who all happen to be Republican—are advocating for what they call a creative and pragmatic approach to helping school districts across the state retain teachers in an increasingly demanding work environment.
The Suburban Solutions Caucus in the Minnesota House gathered at the Capitol last month to promote a package of teacher pension bills that they say would honor pension promises made to teachers across the state and provide funding for those long-serving teachers who wish to retire at age 62, instead of 65.
One of the bills, HF2318, would provide teachers with an unreduced pension at age 62 for those with 30 years of service. The pension would be funded by a 1 percent increase in the employer contribution.
Another proposal, HF2329, would provide a more affordable opportunity for educators who need to retire at age 60 by expanding the current Special Early Retirement provision for teachers with 30 years of service. It includes a three-year cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) delay, aligning with the current normal retirement age policy to contain costs.
That bill, whose chief author is Rep. Danny Nadeau, R-Rogers, includes five DFL co-sponsors: Dan Wolgamott, of St. Cloud, Josiah Hill, of Stillwater, Kaohly Vang Her, of St. Paul, Brad Tabke, of Shakopee, and Keri Rehrauer, of Coon Rapids.
Republicans are pushing for both of those proposals to be funded by savings from reforms proposed in another bill, HF2201, which sponsors say “aims to make commonsense adjustments to the state’s universal school meals program.” That bill has yet to gain support from any Democrats in the House, which is tied 67-67 between the GOP and DFL.
Rather than continuing to provide taxpayer-funded lunches for high-income families, the bill, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Myers, R-Tonka Bay, would maintain free breakfast for all students and place an income cap on free lunches for households that are 500% or more above the poverty level. That means a household of four that earns more than $156,000 in annual income would have to pay for their children’s school lunches.
Prior to the universal school meals program’s creation in 2023, the average cost for school lunch was about $3 in most districts across the state.
According to a new fiscal note produced for the bill this week, the savings estimated from that income cap would total $112 million in the first year of the biennium, and $470 million over the next four years. Myers said that revenue would be reallocated to helping schools where they need it most.
“When you listen to parents, you hear a lot of them say, ‘I am frustrated because I can pay for my meal, but what I can’t do is give the school more money to hire more teachers,’” Myers said during a committee hearing on HF2201. He told colleagues in the House Education Finance Committee he worked on development of the bill with the help of many school administrators, teachers and parents.
“What I try to do here is bring a pragmatic approach to school meals, while also trying to provide that balance of fully funding our schools,” Myers added.
While the House Education Finance Committee held the bill over for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill, Democrat legislators expressed an unwillingness to support the bill, with some saying they refuse “to go back” to any means-tested approach.
“This is something that we need to not mess around with right now when we are not sure what is going to come our way, given the Trump-Musk administration making all these cuts (to federal spending),” said Rep. Lucy Rehm, DFL-Chanhassen, who likened school meals to how public libraries treat their users.
“I do not want to see kids feel the stigma of going to school and not knowing if they can have a lunch,” Rehm said. “You go into a library, no one checks what your family’s income level is.”
Rep. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville, disagreed with Rehm’s premise, and also said Myers’ proposal is a smart solution to solving a looming $6 billion budget deficit.
“We are talking about households that earn at least $150,000 per year,” Hudson told his colleagues. “If you can’t feed your kid lunch on that income, there is a more fundamental problem here.”
“We are not taking food away from kids; we are talking about reallocating funds that never needed to be spent on households that can already provide for their own children and applying them to the classroom, where they are desperately needed.”
The deadline for standalone bills to move to either the House or Senate floors came and went last month. So for the proposals to see approval in the legislature this session, they would have to be included as a provision in an omnibus bill.
Myers told Alpha News on Tuesday that he plans to introduce his bill as an amendment to the larger omnibus education finance bill that has yet to be taken up on the House floor.
“This is a pragmatic solution that would help our schools have more teachers, smaller classrooms and not having to do that by raising property taxes,” Myers said.
This article was updated to reflect a new fiscal note for HF 2201 and additional comment from Myers.
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
