By – Joel Crandall, President & CEO, MnTech

What’s happening in the session?

      • Last Friday was the deadline for policy bills getting through legislative committees.
      • This Friday is the deadline for all appropriations bills to make it through committee hearings.
      • As this activity completes, various omnibus (packaged) spending bills are debated and developed by committee leaders before being ultimately shared for public comment.
      • Some of the proposed omnibus bills have already been released in the Senate.

What we’re watching:

MnTech is monitoring legislation on competition, privacy, data centers and many other topics. As we review released omnibus spending bills, MnTech is extremely disappointed in what we’ve seen, particularly as it relates to two of our key 2025 initiatives: funding for computer science education and the SciTech internship program.

Computer Science Education

Why it matters: MnTech believes that all students in Minnesota need training and awareness on critical computing and problem-solving skills to compete in the economy and workforce of the future.

What we’ve done: For the past four years, MnTech has been working with our partners in the CSforAll-MN coalition to create expanded and equitable access to computer science education for K-12 students across Minnesota. We successfully secured a $1 million appropriation in 2023 for the current 2024-25 biennium that paved the way for the creation of a full-time Computer Science Supervisor position at the MN Department of Education and the development of a statewide CS strategic plan.

Where we’re at: As I covered in my blog post from last week titled Zero Dollars for CS Education? This Puts Minnesota’s Future at Risk, the budget proposal from the Dept. of Education cut ALL funding for CS education and eliminated the computer science coordinator position at MDE.

Last Thursday, MnTech shared its concerns related to CS education being defunded at the Senate Education Finance Committee meeting in hopes of convincing committee members to include CS funding in the Senate education omnibus bill. We called out all the reasons why we need more funding to prepare Minnesota students for the technology-driven jobs of the future, not less, and came away feeling somewhat optimistic that cooler heads would prevail and the minimal $1 million of funding continued for the next biennium.

Today, the Senate Education Finance omnibus bill was released (SF 2255) and there is no money appropriated for computer science education. To say we’re disappointed is an understatement, particularly when Minnesota already ranks 48th in the country in CS education. Rather than investing to address this serious issue, it’s as if MDE and our legislative leaders have simply given up. It’s both astonishing and embarrassing — for our state, and for the students we are supposed to serve.

What we will do now: MnTech and others will be testifying before the House Education Finance Committee on Thursday to convince the House to at least maintain the existing $1 million for the next biennium. This would then create an opportunity for conference committee leaders from both the House and Senate to reconcile differences between the two education omnibus bills which opens the door for CS funding to potentially be included. It’s still an uphill battle, but one we continue to fight.

How you can help: Stay tuned for ways you can personally support legislation to fund computer science education in K12.

SciTech Internship Program

Why it matters: MnTech believes that giving young adults relevant STEM work experience in Minnesota increases their earnings, sharpens their trajectory, and encourages them to pursue STEM careers in Minnesota.

What we’ve done: MnTech has hosted SciTech since its inception. Since the program’s launch in 2012, more than 3,300 interns have been placed in 672 small companies in more than 150 cities across Minnesota. In 2024 alone, 255 interns were placed in 123 hiring companies in 58 Minnesota towns, with the average company size being 43 employees. Notably, 64% of the interns hired were women or people of color, further engaging underrepresented populations into the STEM field.

Where we’re at: After sailing through the workforce and jobs committees of both the House and Senate in recent weeks with bipartisan support and great testimony and letters of support from dozens of students and small business leaders, we were confident the request for continued funding for the SciTech program in bills HF1957 / SF2112 would be included in all omnibus funding bills. But we were wrong. Much to our surprise, the Senate’s Jobs & Economic Development omnibus proposal released on Monday had zero dollars for the continuation of the SciTech Internship Program.

What we will do now: We have yet to see the House version of its workforce omnibus bill and hopeful that funding for SciTech will remain for the next biennium. In the meantime, we’re reaching out to other legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle and in both houses in hopes of getting this back on track.

How you can help: Stay tuned for ways you can personally support legislation to fund SciTech as a resource to small businesses, students, and our state.

In short, it’s been a tough week. With just a few weeks left to influence appropriation decisions as legislative leaders look to pass a budget before May 19th that balances fiscal restraint with the need to make smart investments in Minnesota’s future prosperity, much work remains to drive MnTech’s policy priorities forward.

I look forward to sharing more legislative updates in next week’s blog post. Until then, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at joel@mntech.org with any questions or concerns.