The legislative session has begun and the first week has wrapped up. Though it appears that the start of session has been less hectic, Democrats have come forward to ensure folks that they have a big agenda for this year. As a reminder, Minnesota went into 2023 with nearly a $19 billion surplus, which Democrats ran through last year. Not only did they spend the surplus, they did it while raising taxes. As a result, we are looking at a deficit in in 2025. Minnesota families have repeatedly asked for relief to combat inflation, and this unsustainable spending is the opposite of what they wanted. I’m concerned this will lead to other tax hikes down the line. But taxes are not the only long-term issue facing Minnesotans – schools are also struggling with recent legislation.

One issue we’ve already started work on is a fix for Student Resource Officers (SRO). Last year Democrats passed legislation that changed the way SRO’s were able to operate on school grounds. As a result, we saw many schools losing access to their officers due to a lack of clarity and guidance needed for them to perform their jobs. This has caused issues for many schools across the state. Now, Democrats are bringing forward a “fix” that does not provide clarity, but further muddies the waters. Instead of just eliminating that line of law, Democrats are seeking a “solution” that turns decision-making over to the Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST Board). Local governments, school boards, teachers, parents, and students all want SRO’s back in the schools, but the Democrats’ solution offers a band-aid to a problem that deserves a cure. Our students deserve better.

That’s not the only education-related issue we have to tackle. Our schools are reeling from the mandates passed last session. On the surface, the education funding passed last year looked great. But once schools started taking into account the costly nature of many of the mandates, they realized they are actually in a worse place financially than they were before these mandates went into effect. Record funding for schools cannot be celebrated if new mandates and requirements are so costly that they’re eating through those funds, yet that is the reality. Because of this, there’s no money left for educators to access the raises they had been promised. Throwing money at education will not help our students if that funding is not enhancing their education. This is leaving students with the short end of the stick.

It’s clear that we have a lot of repair work ahead of us. Many of the things Democrats have wanted to do over the last five-to-six years, they did last year. And the unfortunate truth is that a lot of our schools are worse off because of it. Oftentimes these bills come with nice names and descriptions, yet after they go into effect, we realize how harmful they were. Our students deserve better, and families deserve to know that we are prioritizing education. Unfortunately these bills have done the opposite, and have made the landscape of education even harder to navigate. The bills that were passed did nothing to improve education and learning, but have instead made it harder for schools to balance their budget, and have made some schools less safe for students and teachers.

This is certainly just a preview of what’s to come. As we move into future weeks, senate Republicans will advocate for repairing these broken bills and policies because it’s the right thing to do.