Two months of the legislative session down, only two and a half to go! Here is a recap of what LeadMN has been working on at the State Capitol.

Testimony on LeadMN Legislative Priorities (January 14th and January 20th)
LeadMN President Priscilla Mayowa, Vice President Axel Kylander, and Amanda Schermerhorn (Mstate-Fergus Falls) testified on LeadMN’s 2021 legislative priorities in both the Senate and House Higher Education committees.

LeadMN 2021 Advocacy Day (February 15th and 16th)
LeadMN held its annual State Capitol Advocacy Day virtually for the first time ever. Over 80 students attended and had meetings with nearly 40 state legislators.

Hunger Free Campus, Workforce Development Scholarships, and Automatic Voter Registration (March 2nd)
LeadMN President Priscilla Mayowa testified in the Senate Higher Education Committee in support of on SF1103 a bill to fund the Hunger Free Campus Act and expand the designation to public universities. LeadMN Vice President, Axel Kylander testified in support of SF1301, legislation to expand the Workforce Development Scholarships to students in construction and other high demand programs. LeadMN Executive Director, Mike Dean, testified in the House Transportation Committee in support of legislation to create an Automatic Voter Registration process in Minnesota.

Z-Degree Expansion (March 3rd)
LeadMN Vice President testified in the House Higher Education Committee on SF1599/HF1536, a bill to expand the Z-Degree program to an additional two colleges and universities. Supported by LeadMN during its original passage in 2019, the current Z-Degree program is expected to save students over $1.5 million a year.

LeadMN Basic Needs Reduction Legislation (March 9th)
LeadMN Vice President, Axel Kylander testified in support of SF1631, our legislation to help reduce the impact of basic needs insecurity on student’s success. This legislation will help create basic needs hubs for students at every college and provide at-risk students with information on available basic needs support as soon as they enroll in classes.

Federal Legislative Update

American Rescue Plan
Today the House of Representative is expected to pass the American Rescue plan and send the bill off for President Biden’s signature. This most recent Covid-19 relief package includes important support for higher education institutions, students, and student loan borrowers including:

  1. $40 billion in funding for higher education. As with the previous Covid-19 relief packages, colleges must provide half of their funding to student emergency grants.
  2. Any student loans forgiven in the next five years would be exempt from taxes. This is a critical step in the ensuring that borrowers are not forced to pay taxes should the federal government implement any type of student loan forgiveness.

FCC Comments on Emergency Broadband Benefit Program
On January 25th, LeadMN joined with Higher Learning Advocates and other organizations across the country in submitting recommendations to the FCC on how to improve access Emergency Broadband Benefit Program for Pell Grant students. On February 26th the FCC announced that they had accepted four of the five recommendations.