Now is the time for change. Education Minnesota is calling on lawmakers to support our educators and fully fund our public schools. We want to give our educators healthier learning spaces, the compensation they deserve, and the benefits to do their job – which includes a strong pension that recognizes their value and allows them to retire with dignity.
- Now is the time to give educators more time with their students.
- Now is the time to ensure our public schools are healthy spaces both for educators and students.
- Now is the time for enhanced pensions that honor the work of educators.
- Now is the time to provide every student with access to great educators.
Most of all, now is the time to take a once-in-a-generation step forward.
Help support these goals by contacting your legislator.
Fully Funding Public Schools
Students and educators should have access to the resources they need, whether they live in the city or a rural area.
With more funding we could:
- Reduce class sizes.
- Provide much-needed mental and physical health support.
- Have a clean and healthy learning environment for all.
ELEVATING OUR EDUCATORS
We are already seeing teachers leave their careers to find better-paying jobs with better working conditions. By investing in educator recruitment and retention, with an increased focus on bringing in more educators of color, we ensure a better future for our students.
In addition to better wages, funding would let us improve safety and mental health support for educators, an improved pension system, and more professional resources like training, prep time, and other perks.
Beyond classroom teachers, we need to attract more public school counselors, licensed school nurses, psychologists, special educators, and all other professions within our public schools.
Improve Special Education
Every student in Minnesota deserves a world-class education, including students with disabilities. For too long, our special education programs have not had the resources that they deserve.
We want to give special education teachers more prep time, a reduction in the amount of required paperwork, and more state funding for special education costs.
Fund More Support Personnel for Students
Minnesota’s physical and mental health professional-to-student ratios are among the worst in the country. Given our expanding opportunity gaps and our students reporting deeply distressing physical and social-emotional needs, our schools are in desperate need of more school counselors, licensed school nurses, school psychologists and school social workers.
Pay ESPs What They Deserve
Education Support Professionals (ESPs) are the glue that holds our public schools together. ESPs include:
- Paraprofessionals
- Clerical
- Custodial
- Food Service
- Transportation and many others
Often they are the first people students see in the morning when they arrive and the last they see before they leave. Yet many ESPs need to work two or more jobs just to make ends meet.
Let's pay our ESPs a livable wage while providing them with health coverage and the benefits they need to thrive.
Students in MN Public Colleges are Struggling
Higher education isn't immune from the challenges we are seeing in public schools around the state. Over the last few years, students are taking on greater challenges outside the classroom. Things like housing, food insecurity and mental health. Simply put, our public colleges don't have the resources to keep up.
We want to bring the focus back to education, providing students and professors the tools they need to learn while maintaining their own physical and mental security.
