In February of 2025, a MDE Funding Task Force issued a report to the legislature entitled "Providing all students with a world-class education Recommendations from the Task Force on Financial Supports for Low-Income, Multilingual Learners, Students of Color and Indigenous Students" The "Funding Task Force" report warned that Minnesota is grossly under-funding school districts, especially those serving large enrollments of those student. The report finds that those funding shortfalls are a major contributing cause to Minnesota's persistent achievement gap.
A second 2025 task force, the legislatively commissioned EL Task force, then also issued a 2025 report, titled English Learner (EL) Task Force: Challenges and Recommendations Report to the Legislature, That report too highlighted the impact of inadequate funding for English Language Learners:
"As base funding has gone up for all students, the categorical funding stream for ELs has remained static. Even with the recent increase in EL state funding, there is still a large deficit, and the funding is inadequate for EL students to meet all state standards. Since the funding is based on the number of students, this gap is most problematic for Local Education Agencies (LEAs) with a higher density of English learners (20– 30% or more of English Learner population in their district). Caps on EL concentration revenue and compensatory revenue further compound this issue. This lack of funding tells EL students and families they don't matter."Unfortunately, the findings of these two task forces appear to have had no impact whatsoever on the Walz administration or the legislature. Indeed in the Governor's 2025 mid-session address, Governor Walz touted past and present education budgets stating:
"We’ve passed unprecedented funding for public education – and worked on a bipartisan basis to make sure our kids are actually getting the benefit of that funding through our literacy programs..."
The Governor's speech completely ignored Minnesota's persistent achievement gap, as did his budget. Now it is absolutely true that the Governor, and a bipartisan coalition of legislators deserve tremendous credit for passing and funding the Read Act; the Read Act is likely one of the most promising education reform in decades, assuming it is carried forward with diligence and accountability and adequate long term funding. However, both 2023 and 2025 education budgets fail adequately to address the educational needs of lower income students.
There are multiple irrefutable indicators that Minnesota's education budget is financially cheating the educational needs of lower income students, English language learners, and students of color. This post focuses on two of them: (1) Statewide inflation adjusted general fund dollars per pupil has not increased from 2003 to 2025, despite the fact that the proportion of students with higher educational needs has significantly increased. Public schools are educating a student population with far greater needs, while inflation adjusted funding per pupil has remained constant over the last twenty plus years. (2) The inadequate funding for EL's and lower income students is particularly harmful to schools and districts serving large enrollments of those students. Later in this post, will use the St. Cloud District as an example.
The Funding Task Force used data from MDE's "General Fund Revenue Master Worksheet" which tracks general fund revenue per student from 2003 to 2025. Using the Implicit Price Deflator, an official measure of the price of governmental services, MDE estimated that the inflation adjusted value of general fund revenue per student ($14,256) in 2024 was only 95% of the 2003 general fund revenue per student. In other words, the Implicit Price Deflator suggests that the real value of general fund revenue per student was less in 2024 than it was in 2003.
However, during this same period minority enrollment rose statewide from 20 to 40 percent, and Free and Reduced Lunch enrollment went from 24% to 39 percent from 2003 to 2024. . During this same period EL student enrollment increased 300 percent. In 2025, Districts are serving more students, far more students, with higher educational needs, for the same inflation adjusted revenue per student as the received in 2023, with far fewer such students.
To be clear, the revenue per student data reported here includes all general fund revenue, including basic revenue, compensatory revenue, English language learner revenue, extended time revenue and special education revenue.
In districts that have experienced large growth in low income, English language learners and students of color, the disparity is more profound. These districts are required to do much more without an increase in inflation adjusted funding. The St. Cloud District provides an example of how this problem impacts a district with significant increases in students with higher educational needs.
Inflation Adjusted Revenue Per Student Stayed Constant
While Student Need Grew Exponentially St. Cloud District 2003-2025
MDE data shows that St. Cloud's inflation adjusted General Fund Revenues from 2023 to 2025 remained essentially unchanged, while non-white enrollment increased five-fold, EL enrollment tripled, and low income enrollment doubled. This same phenomenon is found in a number of Minnesota districts were low income, EL, and non-white enrollment increased substantially.
A recent report on Minnesota's school finance system under the guidance of school finance expert Dr. Bruce Baker found that Minnesota's system is grossly unfair to the subgroup of districts serving students with higher educational needs. As reported in a Minnesota Public Radio discussion of the report:
“The least adequately funded districts in Minnesota include both Minneapolis Public Schools and St. Paul Public Schools, which is consistent with national patterns of below adequate funding in large, diverse, urban school districts. But the list also includes many districts outside of the Twin Cities, like Worthington, St. Cloud, Chisholm and Mabel-Canton–and suburban districts, including Columbia Heights and Brooklyn Center.” MPR Reporting on Century Foundation Data
The report continues:
Minnesota students who are English Learners, students of color- particularly Black students, and students experiencing poverty are significantly more likely to be enrolled in school districts where funding is below adequate. The pattern of inadequate funding across school districts is clearly identifiable by the proportion of students qualifying for free and reduced-price meals, identifying as a race or ethnicity other than white, qualifying for English Learner services or experiencing homelessness. M. Whitler, (MPR News 2-15-2023)
We'll have more to say about Minnesota's school finance system in the next post.
