Every student’s dream deserves a chance
Strong public schools that give every Minnesota student an equal opportunity for success—no matter what they look like or where they come from—will strengthen our communities and improve the lives of children and their families. But decades of dwindling state support for our public schools threatens not just our students’ futures, but all of ours.
School districts have tried to pick up the slack, but, with tax bases that can vary wildly, that’s only created a system of haves and have nots.
Year after year, we see cuts to critical student programs and services, as well as a widening racial equity opportunity gap. We also see the support and resources given to our educators chipped away at with every budget cut, and too many are leaving the profession all together because of it.
There are several issues this funding deficit may have created for your school district. Please take the three-question survey to see how funding levels have impacted your district in specific areas and learn what it would take to fund your district at the best-practices level that would begin to give our students and educators what they need to succeed.
Federal and state governments have strained the financial health of public schools in Minnesota by continuing to underfund students and educators. These are ONLY A FEW areas we must address to start the long process of building schools worthy of all educators and students, regardless of race or address. And now is the time to do so.
* Unfortunately, data for Minnesota’s intermediate districts, co-ops and ed districts is not available using this tool. Because these districts lack the ability to levy and because they do not get direct state aid in certain categories due to tuition billing or arrangements with their participating districts, we have incomplete or missing data for the areas of information shown here. We regret this situation, as these districts are very much an important part of public education in Minnesota. Parents and educators can look up any of their member districts to see how they can help advocate for their students.