New education spending sparks shift for Minnesota schools

DULUTH – Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan stopped in Duluth on Tuesday to tout Minnesota's two-year state education budget passed with bipartisan support in late June, which includes the largest per-pupil funding formula increase in 15 years.

"Schools are the epitome of what community looks like, and COVID challenged us as a community," Walz said during a news conference at West Duluth's Denfeld High School. "While there were times it brought out a little of the worst of us, predominantly it brought out the best in us, especially when it came time to protect our children and making sure education was a priority."

While the $554 million in new spending came too late for some, Duluth Public Schools Superintendent John Magas said the district was still able to offer transportation to its students taking summer classes for the first time. Denfeld is serving twice its usual number of students this summer.

Magas, who served his first year as superintendent of the Duluth school district this year, said the influx of new money for so many different areas is essential to helping students graduate.

"This is one of the most exciting times for education," Magas said. "We have had a major shift — a major reset."

Along with an increase to the amount of money districts receive for each enrolled student, new money is earmarked for budget gaps in special education, summer programs, early childhood, affordable child care, mental health support, programs aimed at diversifying teaching ranks and pandemic enrollment loss. The Duluth district's enrollment decreased by about 6% since the 2019-20 school year.

Not all cities were affected equally by the pandemic, Walz said, noting he's hopeful more money will become available to help address things like enrollment loss.

Flanagan said the budget focuses on "the whole child," investing in summer and after-school programs like the Boys and Girls Clubs to reach kids outside a regular school day.

"When children are not within the walls of a school they are in community, and we need to resource organizations appropriately," she said.

Denfeld senior Shayla Greensky said she was benefiting from summer school, enabling her to graduate on time next year.

"It's nice to know people actually care, and that it was really hard last year for us students," she said.

Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Heather Mueller thanked teachers for their adaptability and flexibility since the start of the pandemic.

"We've done things in education over the past 14 months we've never done before," such as remote learning, she said. "We've always thought education to be a slow-shifting process. ... We know that's not true at all."

When the budget measure passed in June, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake, said the last year was "a failure" at keeping kids at the forefront of policymaking.

"They were shifted from in-person to distance-learning to complex hybrid learning formats, isolated from their peers and struggling with inadequate support from excessive mandates and restrictions," Gazelka said in a news release. "Empowering local school districts to address the needs they see in their schools without burdensome new mandates will help students recover from a year of massive disruption in their education."

As Walz and Flanagan continue their tour of Minnesota schools this summer, the state's financial outlook keeps improving. The year-to-date tax receipts for fiscal year 2021 are now nearly $2.7 billion more than projected during the last full forecast in February. Tax revenue was far more than expected, with corporate and individual income tax well above past predictions.

"This is good news for Minnesota and proves that our economy is strong," Walz said of the latest revenue numbers, released Monday. "Minnesotans got through this pandemic with grit and resilience, and now our COVID-19 Recovery Budget will continue to drive our economic success by supporting small businesses, working families and students."