Committee on Higher Education - Mar 24, 2026

4629. Senator Hemingson. Yeager, welcome. You may proceed whenever you may begin your testimony.

Thank you for having me. I'm Amanda Hemingson Nagar. So newbie on the block, but pleasure to present this to you and have your attention. So every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood or platelets. Can be from anything from trauma to surgery to cancer treatment. Your standard blood donation of one pint often can save more than one life. According to the American Red Cross, blood supply has decreased by over a third just this year alone. And like I mentioned, it's critical for an array of medical needs. And that brings me to my bill. This bill is fairly straightforward in that it strikes the last sentence on lines 1.14 to 1.15. And by removing this sentence, it would ensure that employees at the Minnesota. The Minnesota state system are no longer considered exempt from blood donation leave statute. Right now, the state of Minnesota employees are afforded three hours per year of blood donation where they don't have to use their vacation or sick time. We just want to make sure that the employees in the Minnesota state system have that same opportunity. Changing the statute would not allow only greater parity between state employee benefits, but will better reflect the changes in workforce and the practical ability to participate in such an important societal need. So with that, I can turn it over to my testifier.

No.

Good afternoon.

Go ahead.

Thank you so much. Are there any questions from members? Senator Kupik?

Not, not and not.

Senator?

Senator Quebec.

Thank you so much, Senator. And any other questions from members. Any closing comments, Senator?

So appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Chair, I'm Josiah Letante, executive director of the Minnesota P20 Education Partnership. I want to confirm that you can see that and I plugged it in correctly. Thank you. Well, Senators, thank you for having me today. I'm excited to talk with you about the Minnesota P20 Education Partnership and the work we do. You have hopefully a copy of our annual report that we submit to the legislature every January. Today I want to talk a little bit big picture about our work and what we provide to Minnesota. I also want to note that one of our Senate seats on the P20 is filled by Senator Umu Verbatin. So pleased to have you here. Thank you. Want to talk today about starting with the challenge that you all face and the work we DO in the P20 education partnership. So Minnesota's education challenges and opportunities span multiple systems and legislative committees. We know that the challenges we face in helping our students to exceed and improve outcomes for each and every Minnesotan doesn't sit in just one committee, but policy often does. And so you're being asked to solve problems that cross multiple sectors. In the case of our work, early childhood, K12, higher ed and workforce development, but with siloed tools. And so that's where P20 really looks holistically across all of those sectors to try to address fragmentation and inefficiencies and inequities. Putting the whole learner at the center of our work and asking from a high level policy perspective across our partners, what does this mean for the outcomes for a learner across the entirety of the learner lifespan? Our focus is on strengthening the entirety of that pathway from birth through the rest of lifetime engagement with education. So the P20 education partnership connects cross sector insights to state level policy conversations. I do want to note we are a nonpartisan entity consisting of 25 member organizations. You can see their logos there on our screen representing education institutions, systems, state agencies, nonprofits and advocacy organizations across the state. And a particular highlight of the P20 is that we have bipartisan and bicameral legislative representation. As I mentioned, Senator Umu Verbatim is a designee to the P20 partnership. I would also be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to mention that we have an open seat for a Republican Senator to sit on the P20 partnership and we'd be delighted to have someone step into that role. And we have two House Representatives, so we are working across all of these key partners to collaborate across sectors and drive change and foster innovation. Our work is focused on identifying those priority issues across education and workforce. In particular, we talk about our work as working at the seams of education, looking at those transitions between different sectors, between different ages and stages as our students and learners move forward in the education system, and identifying how we are uniquely positioned to bring all of our partners together to come to the table to offer solutions and innovative strategies to solve challenges. So, as I mentioned, our mission is to work to influence change, foster innovation and advocate for policies and practices to address priority issues in education and workforce. We were codified by the legislature in 2009, so we have existed in statute for 17 years with the statutory obligation to identify legislative policy recommendations to strengthen student outcomes. A lot of our work also includes working at what I call the lowercase P policy level, looking in terms of collaboration across systems and silos and entities to where we can strengthen alignment and collaboration across our sectors. So we are really focused on the future workforce of Minnesota, future citizens of Minnesota, from our youngest learners up through those who are engaging with education throughout their lifetime, ultimately looking at that connection between the stages of education up through employment. One of the things that we've been working on this year and will continue doing throughout the summer is beginning to track early indicators and how those link to long term outcomes. The P20 partnership has existed for 17 years. I've had the privilege of serving in this position for the last three as our inaugural Executive Director. And part of the conversation we've had is all right, how do we show the impact of the work we are doing? How do we show how that coalition is helping to inform, influence and lead change in our state? The P20 partnership does not have any authority. What we have is the influence of the group, of the voices at our table and to help bring that knowledge to to all of you in our work? So one of the things we're looking at is what are those indicators within our sphere of influence, within the work we're doing that show who's at our table and how we're working together, how those feed our strategies across the P20's work and how we believe we can connect that to key outcomes for learners at each age and stage of the learner lifespan. So things like looking at access, looking at attainment, looking at workforce readiness. We we are taking a whole systems approach to ask not just what are the indicators in early childhood or K12 or higher ed, but how are they connecting to one another? How are we showing how one outcome's leading to another or not? What are the places that students are not being successful or we are losing students or certain students along the way? So we are developing that as we speak to help provide those metrics to indicate the impacts of our work. Right now, our current priorities are highlighted in the report. I won't walk you through all of them. You can read through them in the report. We have a number of areas of emerging policy work that will be leading to a number of legislative recommendations in the 2027 legislative session. We're always looking towards statewide alignment and I want to be clear about what I mean by that, which is what are the opportunities to align strategies, practices, maybe sometimes policies, or remove barriers, while also ensuring that we're always working to provide maximum local flexibility and and nuance and implementation. Whether we're talking K12 or we're talking in higher education, how do we support that local work? Here you can see a map of some of our current priorities and how they map across the P20 sectors. As you can see, I mentioned those seams earlier. Our work really straddles multiple sectors intentionally because the P20 exists not to be redundant, not to be. We're not programmatic. We don't want to do work that's already being done. We, we look to help fill those gaps and serve as a hub to bring folks together who are working in these spaces. There are two projects on this list I want to lift up and highlight for this particular committee. The others you can read about in your report. The first one is at the top, Dual enrollment. I just wanted to tell you a little bit about work we're doing around dual enrollment. Dual enrollment is a terrific example of something that doesn't just fit squarely in K12 or higher education. Right. It crosses both of those sectors. The opportunities and the challenges of that work fit in both sectors. Last year, the Minnesota P20 Education Partnership in the state of Minnesota were selected to participate in a national cohort through the College and High School alliance for a project called the Next Phase of Dual Enrollment Policy. We are one of seven states participating in that work and the focus is on helping our state to develop a vision for dual enrollment and identifying recommendations to strengthen the intentionality of students dual enrollment experiences and and improve access and success outcomes for students in dual enrollment. This is work we've been leading for the past year and working through multiple methods to have statewide engagement informing that work. You'll see some of that in the report. Some of the literally thousands of folks, administrators, teachers, students, families who are engaging and giving feedback to our work that will result in a series of recommendations. We'll be putting out a report this fall and then the P20 partnership will work through that report and decide which of those ideas they want to endorse to send on to all of you as recommendations to strengthen dual enrollment. So it's one example of an area where we really are acting as a hub to help facilitate that work across sectors. The other example I want to give towards the bottom of the slide is on the post secondary attainment goal, which I know is of particular interest to this committee. Minnesota had a 10 year long post secondary attainment goal that expired last year and you will see in our report we actually speak to this attainment goal. The P20 partnership's leadership strongly recommends renewal of that goal. And one of the pieces that we've talked about with our members and look at is we know post secondary attainment is critical for social and economic mobility for each and every Minnesotan. We want to be really clear that that post secondary outcome is the result of early childhood and K12 and higher education. So we strongly recommend thinking in those terms and looking at how can we make what is currently implicit more explicit in how we think about the journey of a learner to get to that post secondary learning outcome. So we're excited to continue conversations about the attainment goal and what that might look like for all of you. Ultimately, what I want you to I hope you'll take away from today is that our cross sector lens can be really advantageous for for legislative decision making. There are few entities in the state that are looking across all ages, systems, schools and institution types. Every corner of our state, all at once. We are also a public private partnership. We have members of mindependent, Minnesota Private College Council, other the Chamber of Commerce. We have public private representation. And so we are well poised to help you all see how policy choices interact across those silos over time and throughout a learner lifespan. So we hope that your takeaway is that we can be a tremendous tool for legislators and certainly for educational leaders in our state. And we encourage you to consider us as a resource as this session and beyond as workforce and education issues arise we're happy to help advise, connect the dots and help improve the outcomes for each and every one of our learners in Minnesota. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am really grateful that we were able to have Josiah Laton here today to present on the great work that the Minnesota P20 is doing. I have really enjoyed sitting on the partnership and hope that we'll be able to fill the vacancy that we have here in the Senate so we can get a member from the other party as well. But the bill that I have before you today will fund the Minnesota P20's core operations. As you heard in the presentation, this is a really important multi sector, independent coalition of leaders representing everything from early childhood to K12, higher education, nonprofits, women, workforce development and government. The partnership, of course, is bipartisan, bicameral. It has those spots for legislators and it was created by this legislature. The issue is that it has not been funded. And so this bill would provide the requested roughly $1 million annual appropriation necessary to fund its core operations. I want to just mention that the Minnesota P20 is truly unique. There's really not another entity working in the education space that's doing exactly what they're doing. I think we really need a structured space for Minnesota's education policy community to really foster that collaboration, help set some priorities and advise on policy. And ultimately this is about benefiting Minnesota's students. In your packets you will see letters of support from a number of organizations. Epc, United Way College, Possible ecmc. One thing I want to highlight is there's a joint letter from the University of Minnesota, Minnesota State and the Minnesota Private College Council. So I think it's really impressive to see all the systems in support of the Minnesota P20 and speaks to the great work that they're doing that there are so many partners who've been at the table who sit on the Minnesota P20 that really want to make sure that this work continues and that it those those basic core operations are funded in order for that work to continue.

That's for the next one.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Josiah Letante, executive director of the Minnesota P20 Education Partnership. Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today in support of SF4481 in 2009, the legislature saw an opportunity to pair two things often at odds with one another. Innovation and efficiency. In that legislative session, you formalized the P20 education partnership with to strengthen outcomes from birth through higher education. By launching this cross sector coalition, you set Minnesota at the forefront of change and sent a clear message. Real progress happens when we work in collaboration across the seams of our education system. We exist to help you make informed policy decisions. Our Coalition brings together 25 statewide organizations and agencies leaders who rarely sit at the same table altogether. And our membership is strengthened by the inclusion of bipartisan legislators, ensuring our direct connection to policymakers and to the legislature itself. Together, this coalition turns shared knowledge into policy ready recommendations through alignment across Minnesota's education and workforce systems. A place where no single agency owns the transitions but every learner feels them. From early childhood to K12, from high school to post secondary, and from credential to career, P20 offers policy leaders something invaluable. One trusted, nonpartisan place to turn for guidance on improving student outcomes. In this biennium, stakeholders have seen the benefits of this approach and you have called on us more than ever, including naming us as key participants in five bills over the past two legislative sessions so far. This is not by chance. It happened because Minnesota sees that the only way to solve complex educational challenges is through true cross sector collaboration. Through generous philanthropic partners, the P20 has developed a proven and powerful model. But one time grants alone cannot maintain, strengthen or scale this work. This bill recognizes that Minnesota needs sustained capacity to collaborate on solutions to to education's most sticky problems. Without alignment, Minnesota risks fragmentation and inefficiency. And Minnesota's updated economic forecast gives us room to make strategic investments that strengthen systems and reduce duplication. Funding the P20 partnership does not create new bureaucracy. Instead, it invests in the transformative work we have already been doing. It supports further improvement in education policy, ultimately leading to stronger student outcomes. It is my great privilege to build on the visionary efforts that this legislature began 17 years ago. And today I testify in Support of Bill SF4481 and I thank each of you for your continued commitment to all of Minnesota's learners. Thank you.

Welcome.

Thank you so much. My name is John Fanning. I am the director of the Education Partnerships coalition of Minnesota. EPC testifies in strong support of Senate File 4481 to increase investment in the Minnesota P20 Education Partnership. EPC is a bipartisan coalition of nine cradle to career membership partners, partnerships across Minnesota. Our collective impact model engages more than 600 partner organizations covering a service area that includes more than 300,000 young Minnesotans and their families. We are in many different parts of the state, so we're in greater Minnesota, metro Minnesota, urban Minnesota. We are in communities that are predominantly red, predominantly blue, and a mix of the two. We take our bipartisan stance really seriously, coming together across these communities to do what we should be doing, supporting young Minnesotans and their families. The Minnesota P20 partnership is absolutely one of our most important partners. We share a cradle to career scope of work. We share a statewide geographic range and we share a commitment to serve all Minnesotans toward higher, better and more equitable outcomes. We are in continuous communication with P20, right, with the staff, with the members, and in collaboration we move work forward more efficiently and more effectively. We're also part of a national network named Strive Together, called Strive Together. And this informs another reason why it's really important to make these investments in the Minnesota P20. We are able to see from this vantage point all the dollars, the private dollars that flow to other states that have done the work already to really organize, coordinate across sectors, their education, to workshop, to workshop, workforce sectors. So I'll give some examples that I've shared in other hearings. Gates foundation right now is releasing $53 million across the country and California just got 9 million of that, far beyond their proportional share. But that's because they've done a bunch of this work already. They've organized it into career ladders and the Gates foundation is investing in that. Moving to the for profit side, Toyota Corporation is opening its fifth plant. Actually, they've, they've already opened it. Their fifth plant in Kentucky with a $225 million price tag. And to listen to why that's happening, both listening to Toyota and listening to the governor and lieutenant Governor of Kentucky, it's about the coordination that has happened mostly in rural communities in Kentucky to make sure that education and workforce are working together so that when these plants are built and employing hundreds, if not thousands of people, they're not running into labor shortages. What's happening here with P20 is already working well. You heard Mr. Latante talk about the dual enrollment. Seven states nationally that you were chosen to be in that group, 43 states didn't get chosen in another way. And you didn't mention this, but we were together earlier this week. The Commission of the States is highlighting this kind of coordinated work for states nationally, four states across the nation, and Josiah and his team are one of them. So in closing, I just want to thank you and say this is not just critical, of course, for the well being of young Minnesotans and their families, but also for our shared economy, for our workforce and for the future of our state. Thanks for your consideration of my testimony.

thank you, Mr.

And because this has got money in it, I got questions related to funding. Has the state, did the state fund this last year or has it funded at any time in the past back to the original date that it started?

No, Senator akin Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Senator Omar verbain Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I will pass it to Mr. Laton to share a little more information about how they've been pulling together funding.

Yes.

Chair, I got one more question. This has got a request for $1,060,000. What portion of your annual budget is

Senator McLean or Artest so far? Mr.

Senator Keith.

Chair.

Mr. Lafont.

Senator Plenum has also volunteered money from the AG budget as well.

No, then it could be. I mean, this could go sky high then. AG's got a lot of money.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the request here is for a million dollars. And I'm sorry, maybe I'm a little bit simple here. So looking at what you do, it says we collaborate across sectors to drive change and foster innovation by identifying priority issues in education and workforce development. A lot of educational buzzwords in there.

Are you like a think tank? I'm just wondering, what is this funding actually going to be used for?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator. I'm so glad you asked that question. So we do a number of things. We talked earlier about the coalition of members that we have. We gather them quarterly to share information between them. They advise on projects we're doing. Ultimately, they also provide the vote on recommendations that we will bring to you around policy. So that's one piece of it. Another piece that we do is coordination of efforts. I mentioned the dual enrollment project. I probably could list about 15 others. They are listed in your annual report of work that we are doing that requires bringing different entities in the state together and providing that additional capacity and coordination and continuity to get the work done in projects and areas that don't sit squarely with just one of them. So we are providing that. And even for the small amount of staff that we have right now, that added capacity for those shared kind of projects is critical because we know at our agencies, our institutions, our schools, nobody has extra capacity to do that work. So there's a lot of that facilitation happening. We're also having a lot of cross conversation constantly with our legislators that serve on the P20, with our P20 members, about connecting the dots, seeing where there are shared opportunities, things that are being done, maybe in silos and supporting the work. So not just, yes, there's a think tank component, but not just saying this is a good idea. We should do this, actually doing the work to bring folks together and provide the continuity to get that work done. So I encourage you in that annual report, you'll see a list as an example of the numerous projects we've led the last year, which I think will help sort of fill in those lines a bit more.

Thank you, Mr.

I. I don't see. Is there a report in here? I see letters. Otherwise, I mean, do you just have some examples of some of the projects that. That you've done?

I don't know if you have the annual report in front of you. It was attached. I can make sure to get sent again if you don't. Those are our slides, but there's also an annual report that I. That I sent in. So apologies if you don't have that. Yeah, absolutely. Great question. So, for example, right now we have a task force that we are leading jointly with the Governor's Workforce Development board, consisting of GWDB members and P20 members looking at the educator workforce. So that group has been working over several months to develop a set of recommendations for the legislature on what we can be doing to strengthen our educator workforce in early childhood in K12 and with our partners in higher education who are training our educators, looking across the educator journey. So we've got small teams working on looking at each stage of that educator journey, from exploring to becoming a teacher, to growing and thriving as a teacher educator. That's one example. Another example, about two years ago, we developed a report called Credentials of Value, analyzing credentials of value in Minnesota post secondary credentials that lead to family sustaining wages and several other factors, and identifying a proposed matrix of how would we assess credentials of value? What does that mean? How do we make sure that credentials that students are earning in post secondary learning experience are leading to families sustaining wage and other important outcomes for Minnesotans. Some of that work is now being used and referred to as the basis for things like the workforce Pell. Right. And so part of our work sometimes is pulling those folks together to do that work, to look at the research, the best practices, make sure it's rooted in the Minnesota experience, understanding what our communities across the state best need and developing those frameworks. I could probably go on with a number of others and I'd also be happy to talk to any of you offline if you would like to have more examples of what that work has looked like. There are initiatives again across that P20 spectrum to make sure that we are coming together strategically, collaborating consistently, but also delivering results, tangible results for Minnesota.

Thank you, Mr.

And thank you for that. That is helpful. I mean, I think it's probably a good idea to know what the funding is for or what it's gonna be used for. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to mention and remind folks that, you know, we as a legislature did create the Minnesota P20 because we still saw the value in having this sort of cross sector collaboration to look at everything from early childhood education to K12 higher ed workforce, bring the stakeholders together to do that work. And this bill is really funding the small core operations to sustain the great work that Josiah Latton and the staff are doing. They certainly would continue to seek other sources of funding to grow and expand that work. And I also wanted to make sure that, I believe Commissioner Olson wanted to say a few words in support of the bill as well, if we could have him come up.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Dennis Olsen, proud to serve as the Commissioner of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education. I will just preface my testimony here briefly by saying this is not a recommendation included within the governor's budget, but as the past chair of the P20 partnership and a current member of the Executive Committee, I was kicking myself a little bit when I saw all the letters of support in the rack behind me and included in your packets. I wanted to make sure I at least offered my support as well for the. For the bill in front of you and for the P20 partnership overall. I will just say that, you know, this bill, like you've heard a couple of times, just represents the long term vision of not only the executive committee. You heard Mr. Latton talk about the members of the executive Committee, University of Minnesota, Minnesota State System, the Department of Education, as well as the Office of Higher Education, we really view this along with all the member organizations and partners of the partnership, we view this as the logical next step to really meet the original intent of the legislature in creating this partnership. You know, and as we had the funding discussion, how the current funding structure is put together, we believe in this so deeply, we being not Only myself as an agency leader, but all of the executive committee members believe in this so deeply that, you know, we have committed resources that frankly are tight to make sure that we are sustaining the partnership here until there is a long term appropriation that is predictable and sustainable for the partnership. And so we have, you know, in addition to philanthropic support, have been contributing amongst our agencies here and so would be in full support of this going forward to make sure that it is sustainable.

Chair.

Thank you, Mr.

I think this is, you know, we're waiting to see what targets will look like, but I wanted to make sure we started having this conversation early in this committee about the. The work that the Minnesota P20 is doing and given what the legislature did in creating this, what it would take to fund core operations. I think this is a really small appropriation that would go a long way. Considering all the folks that this partnership brings together and the work they've been able to produce just by kind of piecemealing things, this would be a tremendous help. And again, the staff support is really overwhelming. Seeing all three systems come together to put together a joint letter of support for this, a number of organizations that are members and part of the Minnesota P20 partnership, I think really speaks to its value. So I hope we'll be able to find resources for that.

Thank you so much, Senator. And with that, Senator, Umu Verbain moves that SF 4481 be recommended to pass and onto the committee on Finance. No. And re. Refer to the committee on Finance. All those in favor say aye.

Those opposed? The bill is passed. And then we're going to move on to SF4738, which is also. Senator Umar, verbatim, I believe you have the A1amendment, Senator.

Chair.

Yes.

Thank you, Senator. And with that, Senator Bain moves the A1amendment. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? The amendment is adopted. Our first testifier is Sean Anderson. Welcome. Please introduce yourself for the record, Mr. Anderson. And you may begin.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Next up we have Jasmine Devora. Welcome. Please introduce yourself for the record and you may begin.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Are there any questions for our first two testifiers? Nope. Okay. Senator Duckworthy.

Probably for the.

Senator Omerban.

Senator Duckworth, does it distinguish between enrolling in undergraduate courses versus graduate courses? And the only reason I ask is. I know sometimes, obviously folks in graduate programs might find themselves in a different situation. Situation. Or you might have a lot more students in graduate programs that have children already. And so are we trying to focus on folks that have children who are dependents? Or if they're no longer dependent, does that matter at all? Just ask them for a little bit of clarification there. I guess if I was a higher education institution, that's maybe one of the questions I would ask.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Senator Duckworth, for the question. I was trying to get a Little bit more information about how this is working across the system right now. Part of why I'm bringing the bill together, bringing the bill forward, is because there's been some different approaches across the Minnesota State system. So there are certain campuses where they do have that priority at that level, but this is focusing on undergraduate students.

Senator Umar Verbain I think the intention and I worked closely with Students United, our student organizations on bringing forward this bill and then Minnesota State for some of that kind of technical assistance was to focus on undergraduate students first. I think I would defer to the student organizations if they're continuing to see that issue at other levels and would like to see priority registration across the system.

Senator OMERGAN thank you Mr. Chair. I'll just defer to our testifier to talk through their process of verification at Minnesota State.

Chair, Senator Minnesota State. At the beginning of every semester, a student through E. Services, which is a part of our student portal, a question pops up that asks the student are they a parenting student? And the student has the option to answer yes, no or decline to answer. Once they've answered yes. That would make that automatic. That would then carry through. That's the verification point. It is a self disclosure by the student because to your point it is a sensitive matter and that that is how we would do it is through that question. And that data is then also reported in terms of parenting students as part of that process that we report to the Office of Higher Education. Excuse me, Office of Higher Education is a number of parenting students.

Thank you Mr. Chair. Just a quick follow up then. Any idea what percentage of students enrolled self select that they are parenting student

Mr. Chair. Senator, at this point we don't. This fall was our first semester of that question being live for our students and we did discover we had to do a rewrite because we had a number of parents of students who were answering the question in the affirmative for their student. And so at one of our universities, there was a disproportionate number of students who indicated they were parents. So we, we reworked the question and we hope to have better data at the end of the spring semester.

Chair.

Chair. Thank you, Senator. Thank you so much. Senator Omar vane.

Welcome.

Thank you, Senator Farnsworth.

Chair.

Senator obermann, thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for the question. Senator Farnsworth, not aware of any exemptions or if that would be in conflict. I would just point out that we do already have those protections for student parents in statute already. I would think they would have been challenged at this point if there was that conflict. This bill is really trying to put it into practice and make sure that the system is more proactive about the protections that they are entitled to.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And you might be right. I mean, it may have been challenged or maybe because it, it's never really been in practice, nobody's noticed it. And I mean, it's possible that Senator Duckworth's mom could have tried to register him and be like, whoa, I didn't get in my class because this group took up all the slots. And then, you know, that's sort of when somebody would challenge it, is when they discover that it maybe is negatively impacting them. But I was just wondering if maybe, if maybe there was one of those exceptions because familial status is one of those priorities protected groups. So thank you, Mr.

Thank you so much. Any other questions from members? Senator Putnam?

Senator Mitten, thank you. You do bring up a good point, Senator Putnam, of just this is, this is a practice that exists and making sure that it aligns with our values. And we're, and we're ensuring the folks who really do need this priority registration are getting it. I just lastly want to say that I know Students United lead MN did have their lobby days and saw a lot of support across the legislature for this issue. So I'm hoping that we're, we're able to move forward and make sure we're support our working families and students who are having to navigate a lot of things in order to complete their degrees.

I'm supposed to remind you to cross

Enter snarky remark here.

Wow, he's always close to the hair. You're just jealous.

Sure.

So Mr.

There's a little bit more detail into this than just your basic, you know, comma correction authors amendment. This is, is more explicit about the nature of the pilot program that we would use to kind of test the concept to make sure that it would work for the rest of the state. So it does make more clear which counties in particular we're going to deal with. There's a couple, you know, musts. There always has to be a must versus a may. There's one of those in there too. And then there's a little bit more discussion of what the actual dates would be and some of the eligible entities and those kinds of things. That's the in total, the sort of high level summary of the A3amendment. Mr. Chair, okay.

So Mr. Chair, members, as I suggested earlier, basically what this does is it sets young people up with an opportunity to be successful. You know, a lot of us I think wonder why we pursued some sort of post secondary education. I do all the time. You know, neither my parents went to school, went to college, graduated from college. Excuse me, but I remember when I was a kid my mom taking me to school with her and I could take notes with my crayons when she went back to college. That's what put the seed for me into thinking about going into higher education. Members, for a lot of folks in our communities, just having 50 bucks in a bank account when you were born, that's now maybe a couple thousand dollars when you turn 18 is enough of a reason to make you start thinking about the possibilities of post secondary education. So members, this, this bill and this idea, this concept is exceedingly important as we think about the long term success of our student population and of our state members. You may or may not know this because we haven't talked about this yet in this committee, but Minnesota has, Minnesota's jobs has the highest requirement of post secondary education than any other state in the Midwest. 74% of the jobs in Minnesota require some degree of post secondary education. If we don't get young people thinking about and prepared for post secondary education as early as possible, we can't meet that goal. We can't employ the people who need to be employed in our state. And so Mr. Chair and members, this is a bill that would enable us to do that, to change people's lives starting in their earliest days. And with that, Mr. Chair, our friends here can provide some testimony as well.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Erin Martin and I serve as the Director of Policy and System Transformation at Youth Prize. And I'm also here today representing the Many Kids Coalition in support of the many Kids Act, SF3120, which creates a vital infrastructure for children's Savings Accounts or CSAs in Minnesota and builds off of previous legislation for many kids. This is actually the third bill that's been moved over the past six years on CSAs. There was a pilot in St. Paul in 2019. Many folks now know about college bound St. Paul and design grants in 2023 that were, that worked with Greater Minnesota and Hennepin county to build out what a program could look like at a statewide level. And so now this bill that you have in front of you is really thinking about the expansion and infrastructure in order to scale many kids statewide. This, this proposal is really the result of years of intentional design and collaboration with deep community roots. It was written with significant input from families, young people, philanthropy and local businesses. We've worked closely with communities involved in the original CSA pilots. That bill from 2023, which was in Senator Putnam's district, was one of the communities up in the kind of St. Cloud, Central Minnesota area, Bryce county area and Hennepin County. And we've worked with the coalition, which has representatives from more than 40 organizations and businesses statewide and, and the support of many individuals and families from every corner of the state, including the metro suburbs, rural areas and tribal communities. The proposal before you today is also informed by our work with the Midwest CSA Consortium, learning from best practices across the country to ensure that Minnesota's model is both rigorous and effective. We're following a proven path based on those states that have gone before us. 19 other states currently have statewide provisions, CSA programs and numerous more local programs exist nationwide, including right here in St. Paul. This includes nine red states, seven blue states and three purple states that all have statewide programs. So it really is a bipartisan issue when we think about what it looks like to scale a program statewide. Research shows that children from low to moderate income Backgrounds with even $1 to $499 saved, between $1 and $499 saved for college are three times more likely to enroll and four times more likely to graduate from college by using an automatic opt out design instead of asking folks to opt in to having these accounts. We ensure that the 18 year growth clock starts immediately. This removes the administrative and psychological hurdles that often prevent families who face the most barriers from ever starting a college savings plan and allows nonprofits, corporate entities, and eventually hopefully government to seed and add bonus deposits into those accounts to help them grow those those accounts even more quickly. The savings is then held in a kind of offshoot of the Minsaves 529S accounts and can be used for any eligible expense including two year and four year programs, technical certificates and registered apprenticeships. And the amendment introduced today reflects the current administrative realities and incorporates vital technical input from the Office of Higher Education and the Minnesota Department of Health who we worked closely with to make some adjustments to this bill to make sure that it could be implemented and narrowing our focus this year to those counties that Senator Putnam mentioned, Stearns Wright, Sherburn, Rice and Benton, as well as Medicaid eligible births in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties. This represents nearly 14,000 of the 65,000 babies born each year in Minnesota with the intention that hopefully over the next two years we'll be able to scale to a full statewide rollout of the program. The Bill also includes $300,000 for pilot grants to empower urban, rural and tribal communities to conduct their own outreach, gain additional key insights and build on the great work of the communities that went before for them. Members, this means that your local community could apply for a planning grant to become a local Mini Kids affiliate site, ensuring that your community's voices are heard as we continue to scale this program. This pilot is strategic. It's a necessary step to ensure and test the infrastructure before a full statewide rollout, which we hope will follow over the next two years. A Mini Kids act is about more than just a bank balance. It's about improving the aspirations a child has to for themselves and a parent has for their child. I urge you to support SF3120, the many kids act today. Thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you and good afternoon Mr. Chair and members of the Committee. My name is Leandra Estes. I am a college boundary parent, participant and ambassador. I am a direct descendant of the Randall community and a Frogtown homeowner. Seeing a $50 seat in a bank account has changed my thinking, my dreams, my goals, my life and more. Importantly, gives hope for my son's future. I would love for all Minnesota families to feel that same hope. I have three children, a 24 year old whom I sent off to college but because of the cost, she did not make it past her first semester. I have a 19 year old. She is currently taking a trades program and carpentry, but she is working two jobs to help fund that. She is door dashing when she has time and working with children and after school programs and on weekends. I also have a four year old and with him I am no longer afraid of his outcome because I know that having this college specific pot is going to increase his likelihood of going to school, going to college, going to further his education and it will be supported, it will be done. We won't have to remove him from school because of the cost. I first learned of College Bound right at the birth of my son. I continue to hear and learn the information with the ambassadors now being inside of the St. Paul Public Schools. I mean the information is there and the parents can have access to it. These accounts change the minds. You no longer have to say if but when my child goes to further his education. These accounts influence family activity, they influence, well, checkups for your children, they influence childcare and education and they also build financial literacy. I am an ambassador because it's a common dream and I am sharing the common knowledge, the hope in the dream that our kids can have a bright future. I speak with parents all the time, at work, at events, in the neighborhood. Today I am speaking to you because together we have the power needed to bring the success to all Minnesota children. A child's zip code should not determine whether they have a savings account. Investing in our children because they are our future is the right thing to do. And I urge you today to please Support Senate File 3120 so that every parent can have that same head start that I have for my child.

Thank you.

Chair, just a couple of questions. Is this a program that would be available to everybody here in Minnesota, every child upon their birthday?

Chair. Chair Kupak. Senator Duckworth, I think that is the eventual plan right now. Obviously we're talking about expanding the prior pilot to make sure that more kids are able to get this head start. But I think the eventual hope is that every kid in the state of Minnesota should have this opportunity. One last sort of data point that I think should significant is that if a child has at least $1 in a CSA by the time they turn 18, they are three times more likely to go to post secondary education of four times more likely to graduate. We think simply in terms of return of investment, how cheap it is for us to put $50 into someone's account. Even if it is every child in the state of Minnesota, that's still a lot cheaper and a lot better for our economy than if we did not.

Senator Putnam, welcome.

Thank you, Senator.

Senator Putnam?

Senator DUCKWORTH thank you, Mr. Chair. So just a quick follow up. Would that include universities and colleges outside the state of Minnesota?

thank you, Mr.

Senator Duckworth yes, they the 529 is established at the federal level, so it does include any eligible program in the U.S. Mr.

Thank you so much, Senator Putnam.

And Exile St. Cloud. Thank you so much.

any final questions? Senator Omar rabin.

Thank you, Senator. Omg. And so if there's no other questions. Any final comments, Senator Putnam?

Thank you so much. Senator Putnam moves that SF3120, as amended, be passed and re referred to the Committee on Health and Human Services. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? The bill is passed and we refer to Health and Human Services. And next up, Senator Putnam, you also have a second bill. Thank you so much. SF 2330, welcome.

Senator Putnam moves the A2amendment. Would you like to speak a little bit before we pass it off? Senator Putnam?

All those in favor say aye. Those opposed? The amendment is adopted. Senator Putnam.

Thank you so much, Senator Putnam. Our first Testifier is on Zoom. Mr. B.G. tucker.

Thank you.

No, that's Totally fine. Senator Fajik, thank you all so much for taking the time. It's a incredible privilege to be presenting today on College Possible. My name is B.G. tucker. I serve as the executive director of College Possible Minnesota. And just listening to the themes of the legislation being put forward today, it's incredibly moving to see such an investment in our state's education systems. So I really appreciate that. I'm going to share my screen to provide you all a quick overview about College Possible and specifically looking at how we might impact the work being proposed in SF 2330.

I can't see you all anymore. Chair Fab, would you mind just acknowledging that you can see my screen?

Thank you all. So, College Possible, we are a 25 year nonprofit. Many of you know us, I know two of our wonderful program alumni are sitting in front of you. But our goal is to facilitate, you know, a space where a student's future is no longer is determined solely by their talent, motivation and, and effort, so not by where they're from or their family's income. And specifically, we're deeply committed to supporting that academic journey for low income students across the country and specifically here in Minnesota. We are an organization that, you know, has served almost 100,000 students since the year 2000. But we were founded here in St. Paul, Minnesota. We are the flagship site, we are the trendsetters and we are the largest site of all the College Possible sites. As we look at our impact across the state in a given program year, which mirrors the academic year, we're looking at serving, you know, 1300 plus high school students, 3700 plus college students. And in terms of our reach going back to 2000, right. We've graduated and served over 8,000 of our program alumni and that equates to 6,000 degrees earned here in Minnesota. That's incredibly powerful. You can see our reach really does cover the whole state. If you look at this graph graphic, what we're looking at is really thinking about the challenge that it still exists within higher education. Right. And thinking about the impact that a college degree can have on those as they navigate, sort of getting to a spot where they are living in a way of having a family sustaining wage. Right. You can see here some data points that I'd love to call out. Students with a college degree are three and a three and a half times less likely to live in poverty. Specifically if we look at Minnesota, right, those with a post secondary degree increase the GDP by over almost $150,000. These are powerful statistics that come to fruition once that degree is earned. We heard Senator Putnam reference that the demand of jobs in the state of Minnesota require this credentialing. Right. It's a huge percentage. 74%. And so we know that our residents in Minnesota need a college degree to move to that place where they are living with a family sustaining wage. That being said, we have some big gaps in our state. Right. Specifically when we look at the college enrollment rate for Pell eligible students. Right. So you can see some numbers in front of you here. They trail the state average by almost 20 percentage points. College possible. We pride ourselves in the fact that our students who are Minnesotans, who are low income Minnesotans, are enrolling in college at a rate of 85%. So that counseling that we are providing that Senator Putnam referenced is incredibly powerful in making sure that students actually show up on campus and begin their journey through higher education. When we also look at a major resource gap across our state is that our student counselor ratio is anywhere between 544 to 1. Sometimes I've seen it stated as high as 570 to 1. The reality is that we sit at the bottom three states in the country year after year for student councilor ratio. American School Counselor association recommends a ratio of 250 to 1. At college possible. Our high school ratio is 28, 1. Our college student ratio is around 200 to 1. So we are prioritizing that personalized relationship. Having a coach who is with you through every single step in your journey to make sure that you get the return on investment in your education and that you as a college possible student are receiving a college degree. How we do this is we prioritize young people, right? We train and support young folks to step into coaching roles and we provide a six plus year commitment to our students. Our students join our program in their junior year of high school. We serve in almost 20 high schools in the metro and roughly 40 high schools across the greater state of Minnesota. And our students are low income students. Program eligibility is 275% of federal poverty guidance and additionally, we are looking to support any child who has a dream to go to College. The minimum GPA to get into our program is a 2.5. We pride ourselves in serving the academic middle. We are not looking to only support those high academic achievers who might be looking at full rides to institutions. We're looking at those students who see themselves in college and maybe haven't had that coach helping them all the way through their high school education to be

We also provide a committed support to our students in that we know when their path through higher ed is perhaps not linear. Maybe they stop out because they have parenting responsibilities, they are income providers for their family and they're managing school in a job. They still receive coaching from us. So we support students no matter if they are enrolled in college or not. Once they graduate high school, they are a college possible student for as long as it takes them to get a degree. And the last thing I want to call it is that we are always free to students. We are free to our college students, we are free to our high school students. We will not charge them for the support which we feel is critical to them gaining that return on investment. Specifically, you all may know about College Basel because of our robust high school program, but in the context of this legislation, I want to call it our college program. Specifically, our college coaches who are advising specialists. They are that students champion through any phase of their higher ed journey. They are place based coaches, so they carry a caseload where they are specializing in the academic experience that that student is participating in. For example, on a given year we have over 600 students at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. We have two, almost two and a half advising specialists who are carrying those students on their caseload. They are the experts in knowing what it means to be a first year student at the U versus what it might mean to be maybe in your fifth year at the U because you had to stop out and maybe you're coming back in. Their goal is to be quite literally the world's greatest referrers and helping students understand the resources that their tuition dollars are paying for. Helping them access mental health supports, helping them access credit recovery should they need it, making sure that they're making satisfactory academic progress and maintaining their financial aid, making sure that they remember to apply for financial aid every year and then connecting them with those resources that exist on their campus. I know that I'm running short on time. You all have these facts and figures in front of you, but just knowing that College Possible is incredibly proud of our results and how we serve students across the state and that our alums are coming and giving back to the state of Minnesota. And I will yield the rest of the time because I would like you to hear from our students and recognize that this is something we really prioritize and making sure that our students are actually getting that return on investment and receiving their college degrees.

Thank you Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Lao Lee. I was a College Possible student at Camden High School and today I am proud to serve as College Possible staff member supporting the same program at Camden High School that helped me get into and graduate from St. Thomas. I'm here today to speak in support of College possible and SF 2330. Financial Investment have improved access and have made college more affordable. But many students still face challenges navigating the system like figuring out major requirements, meeting critical deadlines, renewing and understanding their financial aid, and locating and receiving campus resources. College is often the first step into adulthood for many students and a coaching and structure support gives them the chance to learn independence while still having the guidance they need to stay on track. From my experience as a College Possible student and now working directly with students, I've seen how much of a difference consistent coaching and guidance can make. When students have support, they are more likely to stay on track, persist in their studies and graduate. I know firsthand that without the constant guidance I received from College Possible during my time in college, I would not have finished my degree. That's why I believe straining students support alongside financial aid is so important. It helps ensure that the promise of college affordability stays truly leads to degree completion for Mississippilla students. This session I hope you will support SF 2330 which will strain student persistence by providing targeted coaching, mentorship and navigation support to help college students who need the additional support to stay on track and complete their degree. Thank you for your continued work supporting Minnesota Student and for taking the time to hear from Constituent Light Balance.

Brandon Goh. Thank you Senator Fate and members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to share my experience with college possible Minnesota and to ask for your support for SF 2330. I'm here today to tell you my story because I almost didn't make it to college. Not because I lacked ability, but because I didn't know how to navigate the system. I joined College Possible during my junior year at Champlin Park High School. I knew I wanted to go to college, but I didn't know what FAFSA was. I didn't know what the ACT was and I didn't know where to start. Then I was matched with my coach, Mi fa. She walked me through everything. Because of that support, I was accepted into the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. But Getting into college wasn't the hardest part. Staying on track was at the U of M. My College Possible coach supported me when I felt overwhelmed and kept me accountable. That support made the difference, and it's why I graduated with a degree in IT Infrastructure. Today I work at CHS Inc. As a cloud engineer. And my story isn't just about access, it's about persistence. My experience showed me that financial aid alone isn't enough. Students also need help understanding degree requirements, staying on top of deadlines, managing financial aid, and using campus resources to succeed. College Possible Minnesota helps students navigate the system successfully. It gives students the guidance and support they need, not just to start college, but to finish. I'm here today because someone invested in that kind of support for me. And I hope my story shows how much this kind of support can matter. I urge you to support SF 2330. Thank you for your time.

Mr.

Just a brief one for Mr. Lee. Did they tell you who you would be sitting next to?

When you would come to testify on this bill?

I think, if I may interrupt for a moment, that Senator Duckworth is concerned about the smell of Johnny that I might have, and that might be concerning for a St. Thomas graduate.

Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Senator Farnsworth.

Chair.

Thank you, Senator Farnsworth. Any other members, any other shots at St. John's seeing none. Senator Putnam, for the last word.

Thank you so much, Senator Putnam. And with that, Senator Clark moves that SF 2330, as amended, be passed and re referred to the committee on Finance. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? The bill is passed on to the committee on finance as adopted.

As amended. Next up, we have my bill, the state grant program, supplemental funding provision that I think I'll just be presenting from up here. I will be keeping it brief. I had an opening statement, but in the interest of time, we're a little bit over time. I'll be very quick. We've had a shortfall the past couple of cycles, and last year we worked to adjust the program parameters in a way that would be the least hurtful for students. This year, we got word again that there is an additional shortfall. My goal is that I don't want to see any more

On the behalf of the students, I would like to see us fill in the gap. I've been having those conversations with leadership and our caucus members, and so I'm hoping that the testifiers can talk a little bit about that. And if anything is missing, then I can. Our members can also fill in. But our first testifier is Nikki Oliver from Ohi. So welcome, Ms. Oliver. Please introduce yourself for the record. And you may begin.

Or.

Nicole, thank you so much. Sorry about that.

Is it okay?

Welcome. Please introduce yourself for the record. And you may begin.

how we got here? Correct.

Okay, so just to start us off, the state grant program this year is projected to spend $292.5 million, which exceeds the annual appropriation by about 50, not quite $50 million. 45. $45 million. What our office has chosen to do is transfer funds from fiscal year 27 into fiscal year fiscal year 26 to fill that gap, which leaves us short in fiscal year 27. If the state grant program were not rationed in fiscal year 27, we do project a spending of around $333 million for an annual biannual, excuse me, for a biannual deficit of around $131 million. So what our agency has done is we have rationed the program according to the parameters that are set in law for us. In doing that, we bring down grants for all students. We also put a lot of stress on the North Star Promise program, increasing the anticipated expenditures in that program. So in that program we have instituted a priority deadline of June 1. So some of the reasons why our state grant program is spending so much money, really. I want to look back to some changes in enrollment that we've had over the past several years. So if you look at, and we do have some figures that we can pass along as well after this, but I'll just reference my slides and speak to them. If you look at enrollment in this state over the past, let's say 15 years, we've had a significant period of declining enrollment. All that changed, however, in 2025, where we saw a, we went from a one percentage point year over year decline in enrollment in fiscal year 24 to a 5, almost 5% spike in enrollment in fiscal year 25. So that in and of itself is a very large change that typically you see results in increases to state grant program spending. Coupled with that though, we have a couple other things happening at the state. So one of them is that we have the highest FAFSA filing rate among Minnesota undergraduates in over a decade. We had 66% of Minnesota undergraduates file apply for a state grant last year. Whereas typically that number is hovers between 55 and 60%. So that's, that's a jump. And what we're seeing is that of the students that are filing, they are typically have an assigned a family need that is greater than we've seen in the last couple of years. With the changes to the FAFSA in 2025, what that ended up doing in practicality is we did see a large jump in the number of students who have a negative or zero dollar family contribution. However, what we also saw was that the entire distribution of need shift shifted for the program. So for students in our primary income range for state grant eligibility, that entire distribution has shifted to the left. So what that means from a practical perspective is that almost all state grant eligible students saw some sort of decrease in their family contribution and that in turn increases their state grant. So this represents a baseline shift in need. It's not like so higher education is typically Considered countercyclical. So if we do have slumps in the economy, higher education enrollments tend to go up. This baseline shift in need to me indicates that this is not just a slight dip in the economy that we most likely will have continue. We most likely will continue to see projected deficits in the program in future years. And so the state grant program really does need a realigning, I would say, of how we assess family need and how we fund the program.

Hi, Mr.

I didn't know if you wanted us to also mention the governor's rec, even though we're going to talk about them on Thursday. Because we're talking state grant. Essentially the governor's recommendations are policy changes in absence of new money to mitigate the level of rationing that we would do in the absence of money. Regardless, students will see some sort of reduction in their aid award. It's just about how much and who based on the different policy levers. So I just wanted to mention that and then also to note, I know Nicole mentioned earlier about this, this academic year, this fiscal year. And one of the things we did get a chance to do is discuss with the different systems what their preference would be instead of us doing a mid year change, just ourselves rationing, ask them what they would prefer. The option was we could like we did, pull money from fiscal year 27 to cover 26 and push out the deficit into 27. And that's exactly what we, we did, per recommendation from all the system sectors, to not interrupt the student's financial aid in mid year.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate it. When you say we ration dollars, what

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Senator Duckworth. So for the state grant program, there is language in state statute that addresses if there is an insufficient, if there is insufficient funds in the program to meet program demand. There are two levers in the state grant program that we may adjust in order to. Essentially, I mean essentially we are lowering awards to students in order to maintain spending within appropriations. The two levers that we're adjusting are the assigned student responsibility, which governs how much, what percent of the student's state grant budget the student is responsible for as opposed to the state or family as well as the assigned family responsibility, which governs how much of the, how much of the student's remaining need should be paid for by the family as opposed to the taxpayers. And so what we've done is we've adjusted both of those items as per state statute, essentially increased them both, which then decreases the state tax share of their education and lowers grant awards. So those and those two items must be done in roughly equivalent amounts so that the different students are kind of impacted equivalently.

Yeah. I'll wrap up if I can just ask one more question. So based on that, when you ration or reduce awards to students, are we reducing those awards the same across the board or some students seeing larger reductions than others?

Thank you, Mr.

The reductions do vary. The dollar reductions do vary by student. In both cases, they are percentage based modifiers. So in that sense they are adjusted relative to the baseline. Like, how can I phrase this? I can definitely send you a breakdown of how those award reductions would differ by different student characteristics. But yeah, it's. It is unfortunately kind of complicated.

Chair, thank you so much, Senator Duckworth. And I appreciate your flexibility on that and thank you so much for your testimony. Next up we have Mr. Oh, sorry. We have Ilham Mahmoud, who's our staff. Oh, sorry. Mr. Paul Serafindek. Welcome. Senator Utke.

But

so this is the amount that would prevent any rationing from occurring.

Yes.

Thank you so much. Senator, welcome. Mr. Sir, please introduce yourself for the record. And you may begin.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much, President Sir Kmanik. Our next testifier is Ms. Ilham Mahmoud. Welcome. Please introduce yourself for the record and you may begin.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Our last testifier is and I apologize if I butcher the name Bao Ku Young. Welcome. Please introduce yourself for the record and you may begin.

Thank you so much for your testimonies. And are there any questions for the president or students? Senator Duckworth, I promise to be brief.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you. Senator Duckworth, any final comments from any of you?

And with that, SF 4638 will be laid over and it will be the vehicle for our omnibus finance bill that will be up on Thursday. So with that, the bill is now laid over.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

So SF4757, in the interest of time, is all of four sentences long and

which regents he wants to appoint to the board. This would restrict him to only candidates

list if we fail to call the

The University of Minnesota.

Absolutely. And this is a bill that my name is supposed to be on this. I apologize I have not signed it on time. I will be doing so. But we had a situation last year in which we had many candidates go through the process that went through RCAC process, went through the joint committees and was prepped for the floor. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do that, which led to the governor appointing members that were also have not appointees that have also not gone through either the RCAC process or the legislative process. And so we're hoping that this solves that problem. And so I appreciate Senator Barr for bringing this up. Are there any questions from members? Senator Umar verbain.

of candidates that were recommended.

candidates that were chosen outside of that pool.

Thank you, Senator. VAN Any other comments or questions from members?

Thank you, Senator Duckworth.

Thank you, Senator Otke.

Thank you. Senator Kupak, any comments from St. Cloud? Thank you so much, Senator Barr and Senator Putnam moves that SF4757 be recommended. Passed. Recommended to pass onto the floor. All those in favor say aye. Those opposed, you're going to the floor. Senator Barr, thank you so much.

Thank you.