Advocates say hourly school workers were left out of a deal the Minnesota Legislature approved Friday to replenish the state’s Unemployment Insurance Fund and send COVID “hero pay” bonuses to front-line workers. Bus drivers, food service workers and other hourly workers employed by school districts can’t draw unemployment benefits — either during the summer, or Democratic Senator Mary Kunesh from New Brighton says when the pandemic hit and schools closed, “how many of those hourly workers were in instant panic because they weren’t able to access the unemployment insurance.”
Democratic Representative Mohamud Noor from Minneapolis vows “this is not the end” of efforts to make hourly school workers eligible for unemployment benefits.