Opportunity Scholarships Would Give More MN Families Access to Better Schools

As support for educational freedom continues to grow nationwide, it’s time for Minnesota to adopt new strategies that tackle education shortcomings.

Legislation introduced in both the House (HF 1894) and the Senate (SF 1872) would provide Minnesota students access to better schools and quality education. The Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit legislation is focused on one thing: helping students. There are too many students that cannot access the school that best serves their needs because of economic challenges. Opportunity scholarships would remove these financial barriers.

Funded by taxpayer donations made to qualifying non-profit organizations, these scholarships would help eligible families cover the tuition and fees at a participating nonpublic school of their choice. According to Opportunity For All Kids, over 20 states—including our neighbors Iowa, South Dakota and Wisconsin—are providing similar scholarships to thousands of families.

Governor Walz has pledged to plug gaps in education and address the discrepancies in academic achievement. But this vision is not possible until more Minnesota students have access to a quality education. Nearly two-thirds of Minnesotans have said they support opportunity scholarships, and it is time for our state to take this great step forward in creating more educational opportunities for our next generation of leaders.

Minnesota pioneered an educational model for the rest of the country to follow when it passed the nation’s first charter school law in 1991, but we can do more to better serve our students most in need of new opportunities.

Check out the short video below to see how tax-credit scholarships work.