Senator Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) sharply criticized the Democrat approach to education after recently released student test scores revealed that the majority of Minnesota students are not meeting math and reading standards. Results show that less than 50% of students can read, just 45% are proficient in math, and only 39% have passing performance in science – a drop of about 10% in each subject since 2019. Over the last decade, these scores have experienced very troubling steady decline despite significant increases in per-student spending. 

“While Democrats may try to blame Covid for these disappointing scores, the trend of steadily declining student performance has been around a lot longer than Gov. Walz’s forced school closures,” Senator Drazkowski said. “As a matter of fact, the decline continues well after Covid. This is the result of failed Democrat policies, period. Years of huge funding increases have yielded disappointing results because Democrats have prioritized crushing mandates and imposing their left-wing political agenda in the classroom instead of helping kids learn the basics. We need to let teachers do their jobs and focus on the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic – not get bogged down in distracting political agendas like CRT.”

During the 2023 session, Senate Republicans proposed the Students’ First plan which funded students without mandates and put $100 million towards literacy training for teachers and students to get them back on track.Schools sounded the alarm that the mandates in the Democrats’ education bills along with their one-party control agenda would leave schools underfunded. One suburban superintendent told his school board, “This is potentially one of the most damaging sessions I’ve seen since I’ve been a superintendent.”