Support for education has been a priority for Minnesota lawmakers this session — but there may be some different opinions on how best to do that, legislators said this week.

Education funding will be among the budget topics that legislators work to hash out before the end of session. Conference committee meetings were planned to take place Friday and today.

“There is some common ground as far as general vision” for supporting education in Minnesota, Rep. Chris Swedzinski (R-Ghent) said Friday. However, he said legislators had different visions as far as how schools should be funded, and how much to budget for.

Both Swedzinski and Sen Gary Dahms (R-Redwood Falls) said they were in support of funding models that would be more equitable for schools in both greater Minnesota and the Twin Cities.

“We need to treat students across the state equally,” Swedzinski said. Both he and Dahms said they also supported funding schools in such a way that individual districts would be able to choose how to meet their needs, as opposed to funding specific programs.

However, there are some specific programs that area school districts have said they hope get funded this session, like continued funding for voluntary pre-kindergarten.

Marshall Public Schools is one of 128 school districts across the state that are currently funding for voluntary pre-K. MPS received more than $311,000 in voluntary pre-K funding, which allowed the district to expand its preschool programs for 4-year-olds. However, without action from the Legislature, that funding would not be available next school year.

Rep. Dave Pinto (DFL-St. Paul), chairman of the Minnesota House Early Childhood Finance and Policy Division Committee, was positive about the level of support for voluntary pre-kindergarten. On Friday, Pinto said support for programs like voluntary pre-K was a high priority for him and his colleagues. Gov. Tim Walz’s budget proposal included $47 million for voluntary pre-K. Pinto said funding for the program was also included in a budget a proposal that passed the House.

It’s clear that there are opportunity gaps for education in Minnesota, Pinto said, and early childhood education offered a chance to help close the gaps.

“Pre-K has made such a difference for young learners. There’s no reason that the funding for it shouldn’t continue,” Pinto said.

The state Senate’s budget proposal for education does not include funding for voluntary pre-kindergarten. However, Pinto said there were other ways that the Senate proposal was unrealistic. It wouldn’t keep up with inflation, he said. The Senate proposal would also include less of a funding increase for schools than the House proposal. For example, Pinto said, Marshall Public Schools would receive about $200,000 more in than its Average Daily Membership funding in fiscal year 2020 under the Senate proposal; compared to about $1.04 million more than the Average Daily Membership under the House proposal.

Dahms said Thursday that he was less certain whether voluntary pre-K funding would be passed this year.

“There are too many unknowns right now,” he said. He wouldn’t be on the conference committee dealing with education funding, so his knowledge about how negotiations were going was limited.

“I’m not sure where that’s going to go,” Dahms said of the discussion.