- Maintaining current levels of compensatory revenue for one additional year
- Repealing reductions in automatic special education funding
- Amending the Minnesota Constitution to increase Permanent School Fund payments to school districts.
Special Education Funding Reductions — Minnesota law passed in the last session requires that state budget forecasts assume $250 million in special education savings beginning in the 2027-28 school year. If those savings are not achieved through reforming special education services or administration, the commissioner of education must automatically reduce funds for the special education cross subsidy (which only covers 50% of special education costs) to make up the difference. This reduction places school districts at risk of losing essential state aid used to fund federally mandated services, and would require districts to take funds from general education to fund the gap. The Governor's supplemental budget proposal increases the existing $250 million cut to special education beginning in 2028 by $50 million. A Blue Ribbon Commission is meeting to evaluate how to control special education costs statewide; this work should be completed before any automatic reduction in special education funding occurs.
Compensatory Revenue Reductions - Because of changes in how this revenue is calculated, 271 districts would receive a significant cut in compensatory revenue for the 2026-27 school year, which is the second-largest component of Minnesota general education funding. There is a Compensatory Working Group looking at how to sustain this funding. Compensatory revenue legislation would extend the "hold harmless" for one more year (meaning most school districts would not lose this revenue) and give the Working Group enough time to complete their work and get their recommendations to the legislature for consideration.
Permanent School Fund Payments — The Permanent School Fund maintains and distributes money to public schools from Minnesota School Trust Lands revenue, generated from minerals, forestry and real estate. The current value of the Fund is $2.3 billion. Every Minnesota school district receives revenue annually - $58 million was paid out in the 2024-25 school year. Proposed legislation would place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. If the amendment passes, it is estimated that the amount of distributions to districts would double, and every school in the state would benefit from increased, predictable, and stable revenues.