A modest increase to school funding is on the ballot for all Minnesota voters this year.
A proposed constitutional amendment would increase the annual distribution of the state’s Permanent School Fund to public schools throughout Minnesota without raising taxes.
“In some districts, this is going to mean thousands of additional dollars, and in other districts, it will be hundreds of additional dollars,” said Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, at a Tuesday news conference. “No matter how much, it is going to make a difference.”
Rep. Spencer Igo, R-Grand Rapids, who championed the constitutional amendment in the House, said that he was “asking people to vote yes on this ballot question because it is going to increase funding education at zero cost to the taxpayer.”
Kunesh agreed. “It’s about making that commitment to our children, to our grandchildren, to our great-grandchildren, and as we say in the Indigenous culture, for at least the next seven generations.”
Here’s how the amendment would work — and what you’d be voting on.
What is the Permanent School Fund?
The permanent school fund was established shortly after Minnesota’s statehood in 1858. It dates from a piece of legislation initially passed by the Continental Congress that established a way to fund public education. As new states formed, the federal government granted them certain sections of land to be set aside to fund public schools.
Today, the bulk of Minnesota’s school trust lands are in 10 northern Minnesota counties. Under the state constitution, these lands have the specific purpose of generating revenue for Minnesota schools. They include forestland, mineral resources, agricultural land and wetlands. Timber and mining from those lands have been major sources for the fund over the years.
“Many of those lands … are in my backyard,” said Igo, who represents about half of the Iron Range.
The Minnesota State Board of Investment manages the funds generated from school trust lands. Since 2017, the fund’s market value has nearly doubled, growing from $1.3 billion to $2.4 billion.
Igo said the amendment was possible because of the growth: “because we’ve managed these lands properly, because we’ve grown a fund that is going to take care of not just this generation of kids … but the kids that are going to be in the future.”
How does the Permanent School Fund work now? And how would the amendment change that?
Under the current state constitution, about 2.5% of the fund’s value is distributed to schools per year, although the fund has averaged about 8% in annual investment returns over the last 10 years.
This amendment would increase the distribution of the fund to schools, so 4.5% of the three-year average of the fund would be allocated annually.
That would increase the per-pupil allotment from the fund from about $68 per student to about $101 per student.
Christine Tucci Osorio, superintendent of North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale School District, said the amendment would net her district about an additional $345,000 per year. She said with that money, she could invest in additional mental health support for students.
“One thing we’ve gotten really good at in recent years is nickel-and-diming,” she said. “When I say every single dollar counts, I am not even kidding you. We have conversations, really rigorous conversations, about who gets to print on a piece of color printing.”
Will this solve Minnesota’s school funding issues?
No. Tucci Osorio’s east metro district has cut $15 million from the budget in the last three years due to increased costs, she said. The additional $345,000 her district stands to gain from the amendment, she said, is a “drop in the bucket when it comes to the rising costs we are facing.”
She’s also pushing for a levy that would increase taxes in her district, and would bring in closer to $8 million annually — which she described as “much more significant.”
Still, she described the constitutional amendment as important.
“This is a nice opportunity we absolutely want to have happen,” she said.
Why does this amendment have to go to voters?
The Minnesota House voted in a bipartisan and unanimous move, 134-0, to send the amendment to voters — but the Legislature could not approve the measure without voter approval because it requires a change to the Constitution.
Jim Honsa, a social studies teacher at North High School in North St. Paul, provided a history lesson at the news conference.
“Back in 1898, which is the same year as the Spanish-American War — social studies lesson — a constitutional amendment was passed that you need a majority of all voters,” he said. “And so a blank vote is a no vote.” He urged voters to turn the ballot over and vote yes.
Igo praised the process engrained in the state Constitution.
“What vision to say that you can’t do this with a 201-member Legislature,” he said. “You do this as a state together, or you don’t do it. And that’s what this campaign is about.”
