Education ________________________________________ Education should prepare students for real life, real work, and real responsibility. It should be stable, transparent, and accountable — not fragile, reactive, or dependent on emergency fixes after damage has already been done. Minnesota’s education system is full of dedicated educators and students doing their best inside a system that too often fails them. As Governor, my focus is not on blaming teachers, parents, or students — it is on fixing the systems that are supposed to support them. ________________________________________ Education Is an Investment, Not an Expense Education is the foundation of Minnesota’s future. Yet for far too long, it has been treated like a flexible budget line item instead of a public trust. We ask schools to do more every year — teach, mentor, manage classrooms, respond to trauma, ensure safety, and fill in the gaps created by underfunding — while offering fewer resources and less structural support in return. When leadership fails elsewhere, the consequences do not land in committee rooms in St. Paul; they land in classrooms. This approach is not sustainable, and it is failing students, educators, and communities across Minnesota. ________________________________________ The Reality of Our Schools: Lessons from Robbinsdale The recent crisis in the Robbinsdale Area School District is not just a local budgeting problem. It is a warning sign for Minnesota’s entire education system. A roughly $21 million accounting error, caused by compensatory funding being double-counted, went undetected until the consequences were unavoidable: school closures, over 200 layoffs, program eliminations, increased class sizes, and state intervention through statutory operating debt. Families lost neighborhood schools. Educators lost jobs. Students lost stability. This was not caused by students, parents, or teachers. It was caused by a lack of financial oversight, transparency, and early intervention. Minnesota cannot keep running schools on a model where districts are pushed into crisis management after irreversible harm has already occurred. Accountability does not mean punishment — it means building systems that catch problems early and protect classrooms before they collapse. ________________________________________ A Grown-In, Sufficiency-Based Education System Minnesota does not have an effort problem in education. It has a systems problem. I believe in what I call a grown-in budget plan — a sufficiency-based approach that ensures schools are funded properly from the start, instead of forcing districts and educators to absorb gaps quietly until the system breaks. Educators should not be subsidizing public education out of their own pockets. If a police officer doesn’t have to pay for the lead in his bullet, a teacher shouldn’t have to pay for the lead in her pencil. That principle is not a slogan. It is a governing standard. ________________________________________ Stable, Transparent, and Protected Funding Education funding must be stable, predictable, and resilient. As Governor, I will defend inflation-linked per-pupil funding so districts can plan responsibly instead of scrambling year to year. I support significantly increasing the per-pupil formula to reverse decades of underfunding and ending the practice of shifting state responsibilities onto local districts. I also support real-time financial oversight and early-warning systems that identify problems before classrooms are closed and communities are disrupted. Education funding should never hinge on hoping the numbers work out. ________________________________________ Education as Essential Infrastructure Education policy is economic policy. When we weaken schools, we weaken workforce readiness, public safety, health outcomes, and long-term economic stability. Supporting education is not charity — it is an investment. That investment requires fully funding special education so districts are not forced to cross-subsidize from general education, fully funding English learner programs so students receive the instruction they need, and ensuring districts are not disadvantaged by property wealth or zip code. A serious state treats education as essential infrastructure, not a discretionary expense. ________________________________________ Respecting Educators as Professionals Teachers are professionals, not political props. Respect means competitive pay, meaningful pension security, workable class sizes, protected prep time, and policies that address burnout before it drives good educators away. Teachers give decades of service, emotional labor, and personal sacrifice. In return, they should not be left wondering whether they can afford to stay in the profession or whether retirement will ever be possible. Burnout is not a personal failure. It is a system failure. ________________________________________ Education Support Professionals and Students Schools do not function without education support professionals. Counselors, social workers, psychologists, nurses, paraprofessionals, and school safety staff are essential to learning and safety. These professionals deserve living wages, stable funding, and recognition as core members of the education team. Supporting the whole child requires a full team, not a single teacher standing alone. ________________________________________ School Safety and Educator Protection School safety does not end when an incident occurs. When educators are injured due to school safety incidents, they should receive full pay while recovering, without being forced to exhaust sick leave or face financial hardship. If we expect educators to protect students, the state has a moral obligation to protect educators when harm occurs. ________________________________________ Lower Class Sizes and a Stronger Educator Pipeline Lower class sizes improve learning, safety, and educator retention — but they cannot be achieved by mandate alone. Minnesota must strengthen and expand the educator pipeline by creating realistic, structured pathways into teaching without lowering standards. This includes paid student teaching, mentoring, alternative licensure routes, and allowing people to work in schools while progressing toward full licensure. Smaller class sizes only work if we also have enough qualified educators to staff them. ________________________________________ Higher Education Access Without Debt Traps Higher education has become what a high school diploma once was — a basic requirement for opportunity. Minnesota must control tuition growth at public institutions, reinvest public dollars into public colleges and universities, preserve geographic access to campuses across the state, and reduce reliance on tuition as the primary funding mechanism. Education should open doors, not chain students to lifelong debt. ________________________________________ Technology Must Serve Education, Not Replace It Artificial intelligence has a role in education, but it must remain a tool, not a substitute. A machine cannot replace the judgment, care, and adaptability of a real educator. Teachers see what no algorithm can — when a student is struggling, disengaged, or quietly falling through the cracks. Education is, and must remain, a human endeavor. ________________________________________ My Commitment I am not approaching education as a politician checking a box. I have worked inside public education systems in both Arkansas and Minnesota. In Arkansas, I worked as a substitute teacher, substitute paraprofessional, and school security officer. In Minnesota, I have worked as a substitute teacher and substitute paraprofessional. I have seen firsthand what happens when systems support educators — and what happens when they don’t. I have also served as a Proctor Instructor for ServSafe and the ManageFirst Program, responsible for administering assessments, maintaining standards, and ensuring real-world certification outcomes. That experience reinforced a simple truth: education works best when expectations are clear, support is sufficient, and accountability is built into the system. As Governor, I will put students, families, and educators ahead of bureaucracies. If we fail our children, nothing else we promise matters. Education should be a promise we keep — not a burden we shift onto those who care the most.