Minnesota’s next governor will face multiple education challenges when they take office, and few aspects of the job are more important. Funding for public schools comprises nearly 40% of the state budget and is the single biggest line item. That funding accounts for about two-thirds of all spending on public schools in Minnesota. 

Under Gov. Tim Walz, Minnesota’s students’ academic assessments declined significantly following the pandemic, with the number of students meeting grade-level expectations in reading and math down about 10 percentage points. Unlike students in some states, Minnesota students have shown no sign of academic recovery. Minnesota has long suffered one of the nation’s worst opportunity gaps between white and Black and Native children, which has continued during the Walz years.

Neither Republican nominee Lisa Demuth nor Democratic-Farmer-Labor nominee Amy Klobuchar responded to Reformer requests for interviews to talk about their education plans. 

Both candidates have put academic achievement at the top of their education agenda. Both candidates call for a continued focus on the use of what’s called the science of reading, an evidence-based method of literacy education that was mandated in Minnesota by the 2023 READ Act.

Both candidates also call for using evidence-based math instruction. Demuth, the current Minnesota House speaker, advocates changing teacher preparation programs to focus on evidence-based practices. A key component of the READ Act changed how Minnesota’s teacher preparation programs teach educators how to teach reading.

According to a recent New York Times survey of education experts that ranked cost-effective strategies for improving academic outcomes, the science of reading and high-quality curriculum were both ranked in their top five for cost-effective ways to improve educational outcomes.

Demuth and Klobuchar also both support an increase in tutoring for students who are currently below grade-level in reading and math. While Demuth specifically mentions expanding the existing Reading Corps and Math Corps tutoring programs, Klobuchar, who’s been in the U.S. Senate for 20 years, does not explain how she would expand tutoring. 

Neither candidate explains how they would pay for expanded tutoring. While tutoring can be effective at bringing students up to grade level, small-group tutoring is expensive relative to other policies that can improve academic outcomes for students.

Klobuchar’s plan includes several other strategies to improve academic outcomes, like banning cellphones and limiting screen time in the classroom, increasing student attendance, and requiring schools to automatically opt students into advanced courses when they qualify. All three strategies are considered low-cost ways to boost student achievement, with expanded access to advanced courses another cost-effective strategy.

Teacher pay

Demuth has proposed linking teacher pay to performance, but her plan doesn’t include details. The Q Comp program, which started in 2005, already allows districts that opt in and unions to collectively bargain for compensation that is not based on the traditional system of years of experience and credentials. While pay for performance is one of the allowed uses, Q Comp funding can also be spent on teacher professional development, teacher leadership positions and teacher evaluation. 

Klobuchar’s only reference to teacher pay is about making healthcare affordable for all educators. While higher educator compensation is one strategy for boosting academic outcomes for students, these strategies are expensive, and neither candidate provides details about how they would pay for their plans.

Linking teacher pay to performance metrics like student test scores has a similar impact on student outcomes as increased pay for all teachers, but it’s cheaper, according to the experts interviewed by The New York Times. 

For about the same cost as performance pay, paying teachers more to work in high-poverty schools could provide a larger boost to academic outcomes.  

Neither candidate has proposed this strategy.

School funding challenges

Neither candidate’s platform addresses major funding challenges facing Minnesota school districts. 

Without a change in state law, the state will reduce its special education funding by $250 million beginning next school year. This would reverse a boost to school funding the Legislature approved in 2023, when lawmakers sought to help districts with burgeoning special education costs. 

The gap between the what it costs school districts to provide legally mandated special education services and what the state pays for is called the cross-subsidy. The 2023 Legislature closed about half of that funding gap by expanding state cross-subsidy aid. Legislation passed in 2025 requires the $250 million cut to cross-subsidy aid, and would require legislative action to reverse.

Neither candidate addresses the reduction in what’s called compensatory revenue that some districts are dealing with as a result of the universal meals legislation, also passed in 2023. The state no longer accepts paper forms completed by parents to qualify students for federal free and reduced price meals. Instead, the state is now relying solely on administrative data already collected when children qualify for benefits like Medicaid or SNAP. For some districts, however, a significant number of students who meet low-income guidelines are not recorded as low-income because they’re not enrolled in those other programs. As a result, in some cases, those districts have missed out on millions of dollars of compensatory revenue funding this year.

More broadly, school districts are confronting rising labor costs — driven in part by skyrocketing health insurance premiums — and rising special education enrollment, which tends to be more expensive. Because state aid is dependent on student enrollment, some districts are also facing budget challenges due to population stagnation. 

Extra credit

Demuth includes several other policies in her education plan, including expanding funding for student safety to include private schools; opting Minnesota into a federal quasi-voucher scheme; allowing districts to opt-out of state mandates; and removing “woke standards” adopted during Walz’s tenure, though she hasn’t offered specifics other than anything that is “pushing our kids away from the basics of reading, math and science.” 

Klobuchar includes her education plan as part of a broader program for workforce development. She would expand access to the teaching profession for Minnesotans with non-traditional backgrounds, and automatic and direct admissions to Minnesota colleges for qualified high school students, i.e., if schools admit anyone with a high school diploma and a minimum GPA, the student wouldn’t have to apply, they would just receive an acceptance letter. 

Klobuchar also says she would also develop a statewide plan to address student homelessness.

About the author

Melissa Whitler is a local education reporter with a background in economic analysis. She is a Minneapolis Public Schools parent.