Gov. Walz’s budget draft takes aim at private schools

Gov. Tim Walz’s budget proposal cuts funding intended to “promote equal educational opportunity for every student in Minnesota.”

Nonpublic pupil education aid and nonpublic pupil transportation aid, established under state statutes 123B.40-123B.48, reimburse public school districts for providing instructional materials and support services to students attending a nonpublic school (including a home school) that operates within the district’s boundaries “so that every school pupil in the state will share equitably in education benefits.”

Textbooks, instructional materials, and standardized tests, all of which must be secular in nature, along with bus transportation and student support services such as health services and guidance and counseling services, are provided to nonpublic schools and homeschools upon request from their local school district. The state uses weighted rates adjusted for inflation to reimburse districts for their costs providing these educational aids, with established maximum allotments.

The nonpublic student aid allocation, which has been on the books for almost 50 years, for FY 2025-2027 totals less than half a percent — 0.4 percent — of E-12 education’s biennial budget (Minnesota’s biggest general fund expenditure).

Gov. Walz’s decided cut of this limited aid as a belt-tightening measure is another revelation of the administration’s willingness to hobble alternatives to the government’s preferred education vendor.

“Our students are our future, no matter what school they attend,” writes the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

Minnesota’s nonpublic students include 73,143 students attending traditional nonpublic schools and 29,062 homeschool students, but it is not clear how many private schools and homeschools participate in the aid program.

Our neighbors Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, along with two dozen other states, have similar provisions for nonpublic pupil transportation aid. Iowa and South Dakota, along with 18 other states, have similar provisions for nonpublic pupil aid for textbooks and learning materials.