As a former teacher and former chair of the Senate Education Committee, I’ve spent years working to make sure young learners succeed. This work has always been deeply personal to me. And right now, I believe Minnesota’s K-12 system needs a reset.
Despite historic increases in education funding, we’re seeing layoffs, program cuts, and more students falling behind. I’ve heard directly from superintendents, principals, and teachers: they’re being stretched thin by a growing list of mandates that come with no funding. Many of the biggest mandates were imposed in 2023 when Democrats had total control of state government. Those decisions have pushed school budgets into the red all across Minnesota.
The money is there. But too little of it is actually reaching classrooms and students.
That’s why my Senate Republican colleagues and I recently introduced the Students First plan. It gives schools the flexibility to opt out of unfunded mandates and lets local school boards decide which new requirements make sense for their communities. These aren’t partisan ideas. They’re practical ones. This is about restoring focus, restoring trust, and making sure every dollar helps a child learn.
Sadly, the education plan Senate Democrats unveiled recently only deepens the concerns I’m hearing. Their plan proposes $600 million in per pupil formula cuts in the near future.
They removed the inflation adjustment that was added just last year. And despite all these cuts to students, their budget proposal still finds room for increases in bureaucracy — like boosting the Department of Education’s legal office by $6 million and continuing a $4 million per biennium funding stream for internal administration.
Their proposal also makes deep cuts to charter school facility funding and offers no support for nonpublic school students — no transportation, no textbooks, not even basic health aid. These aren’t the kinds of decisions that put students first.
Right now, about half of Minnesota students are not reading at grade level. That should stop us in our tracks. It’s not just a statistic. It’s a warning sign. A Mayday flag.
Which is why the literacy funding shift in their budget proposal is so troubling. Under the Senate Democrat plan, new literacy aid would be directed to low-income districts, rather than the schools that are lowest performing. I agree that a district’s income matters. But if we want to move the needle on literacy, we have to target the schools where students are falling furthest behind, regardless of income.
We also must protect what’s working. I’m grateful for the continued bipartisan support for P-TECH this year, which is included in the Senate Democrat proposal for both of the next two years. I helped launch Minnesota’s first P-TECH program when I was chair of the education committee, and I’ve been proud to watch it grow. It brings together schools, colleges, and employers to put students on a real path toward high-demand STEM careers. It’s innovative. It’s effective. And it works.
Over the last decade, Republicans and Democrats have both committed significant funding increases to Minnesota schools. We may not agree on every policy, but when it comes to our students, I truly believe Republicans and Democrats have a lot of common ground.
Education is the great equalizer. It really is the moral, racial, and economic issue of our time. A great education is the best tool we have to set students up for future success.
Let’s keep that in mind as we move forward. Let’s keep the focus on our students, not on bureaucracy. And let’s make sure we’re building an education system that works for students, for families, and for the teachers doing the hard work every day.