Increasing education funding is a topic of discussion every year at the Minnesota State Legislature. In January, Governor Tim Walz proposed a 4% increase to the basic education formula allowance within the K-12 general education revenue program, the "education formula" that determines the majority of funding school districts receive from…

This study illustrates a method for evaluating the accuracy of performance metrics and identifies potential institutional and student attributes that may increase the likelihood of classification errors. Longitudinal data were obtained from the Integrated Postsecondary Eduation Data System for public 4-year institutions (N = 558) to evaluate…

In 2015, the Minnesota Legislature enacted a state postsecondary educational attainment goal: 70 percent of Minnesota adults (age 25 to 44) will have attained a postsecondary certificate or degree by 2025 ("Minnesota Laws 2015 Chapter 69, Article 3, Section 6"). The law also sets 70 percent attainment goals for all races/ethnicities. To…

As states reckon with racial enrollment and attainment gaps in higher education, some have made efforts to address them through their higher education funding. Two common approaches are outcomes-based funding (OBF) and Promise programs, as each can be designed with an explicit race equity lens. This report summarizes a two-year study examining the…

In response to the 2015 Minnesota legislative debate focused on increasing access to early education, this brief proposes a new policy approach that would prevent opportunity and achievement gaps and social, economic, and educational inequities.

This topic paper details how dual and concurrent enrollment programs can help states overcome workforce readiness and postsecondary access and completion challenges and how governors can strengthen these programs by using their bully pulpit, agenda setting authority and budgetary authority to do so. It concludes with a number of examples of how…

Minnesota needs drastically different and better approaches to learning in order to meet the needs of all students, and the challenges of the 21st century. That will require a move to more student-centered learning--that is, learning that is built on a foundation of strong relationships, responsive to basic needs, driven by students, respectful of…

Since 2011, Grantmakers for Education has offered a series of investigative programs designed to examine the role grantmakers can play in creating more equitable systems of education. GFE's programming included place-based programs in El Paso, Texas, Newark, New Jersey, Oakland, California, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. During this time, Grantmakers…

The 2015 Minnesota Legislature enacted a state postsecondary educational attainment goal: 70 percent of Minnesota adults (age 25 to 44) will have attained a postsecondary certificate or degree by 2025 ("Minnesota Laws 2015 Chapter 69, Article 3, Section 6"). To achieve this goal, Minnesota must address disparities across the educational…

This report misrepresents and then criticizes recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Education, a think tank and two independent study groups, each of which recently encouraged particular voluntary efforts to reduce concentrated poverty and achieve racial and socioeconomic integration in schools and housing in Minnesota. In building its…

In October 1988, 48 suburban and greater Minnesota school districts, representing approximately 20 percent of the state's public elementary and secondary school students, filed a lawsuit claiming that Minnesota's school financing system violates the state's constitutional mandate for equality of educational opportunity. (A ruling in the case is…

This summary describes the current status of Minnesota's early childhood care and education system. It is based on a review of several dozen plans and reports produced since 2000, and group discussions and interviews around the state with about 175 early childhood stakeholders. It also provides recommendations for how to improve upon assets and…

Joe Nathan, author of "Free to Teach: Achieving Equity and Excellence in Schools," argues in favor of educational vouchers; Lew Finch, superintendent of the Anoka-Hennepin Independent School District, Minnesota, argues against vouchers. (MLF)

This document presents findings of a General Accounting Office (GAO) study that reviewed the experiences of three states that had recently reformed their school-finance systems to make them more equitable. Case studies of Tennessee, Texas, and Minnesota were conducted. Methodology included a review of school finance documents and legislative…