By Margarita Rosales Alarcon
Minneapolis Public School students will likely face a lack of resources because their district will receive less funding than hoped for in Minnesota’s 2025 legislative session.
Minneapolis Public Schools has goals for this year’s legislative session, according to Josh Downham, the Director of Government Relations for the district. But he says MPS is likely to get much less than what it needs from state lawmakers.
Early last year the state was looking at a $17 billion budget surplus. By December that number had shrunk to $616 million.
Downham says that means schools will be competing for less money than expected with a lot of other needs in the state, like public safety and housing.
Given this year’s budget picture, he says he is taking a realistic, long-term approach to the district’s lobbying.
“Given the limited resources at the state level, a lot of what I’m going to be doing is trying to set the stage for 2026 in hopes that we can build momentum,” he said.
Karen Mendoza, a senior at South High School in South Minneapolis, has seen how a lack of funding affects education and hopes legislators will do more for students.
She wishes she had more opportunities that would have helped her during school and in preparing her for the future.
“I want to show just how import it is to be able to experience more things and take advantage of opportunities that my high school can offer with the help of more funding into schools this session,” she said.
Downham hopes legislators will invest in education despite the smaller surplus.
“Schools need revenue that focuses on kids who are behind and need that extra boost. They will also need English Learning funding, and special education,” Downham said.
“The way they’ve changed the formula actually hurts a number of Minneapolis public schools, particularly those schools that are serving new immigrant, new immigrant students,” he said.
Downham hopes students and the adults who care about them keep pushing.
He wants them to know that their voices matter in impacting the budget. He believes that teachers, students, and parents can make a much bigger impact on legislative decisions than he can as the district’s lobbyist.
”When I was staff in the House of Representatives, I worked for a woman named Becky Kelso, and she was a state legislator from Shakopee, Minnesota, and when we would get phone calls from constituents, if I got seven phone calls on just one topic, I knew that was just the tip of the iceberg, and that there were a lot of people that had the same concern,” he said.
One action people can take? Downham recommends students get in touch with their legislators and tell them what they care about.
“it is particularly powerful when it comes from students. They really want to hear how school is affecting you, and what they could do to do better. And so if you call up and say, ‘Hey, I’m in X grade, and I really want to improve my school for myself and for my brothers and sisters coming behind me.’ They will listen. So you have a voice, particularly at the state level, because they value the voice[s] of students and teachers.”
Margarita Rosales Alarcon, a junior at Venture Academy in Minneapolis, produced this story through ThreeSixty Journalism’s Capitol Reporting Workshop sponsored by the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation. Margarita worked with retired journalist Bill Wareham to complete her story.
