Paul Peltier knows how to show up with the numbers.
At a Hibbing School Board meeting in September, Peltier delivered a presentation chock-full of them. He broke down the makeup of Minnesota’s $2.4 billion Permanent School Fund. He explained the calculations behind the proposed increase in annual distributions.
And he showed the School Board members how Hibbing would receive $70,455 more each year if the proposed increase passed.
The Sept. 9 meeting was not the last stop on the tour for Peltier — and it wasn’t his first. Peltier is the executive director of the Range Association of Municipalities and Schools, a quasi-governmental nonprofit that represents the Iron Range.
He said within the region, he has presented on the school fund constitutional amendment at least 20 times.
“This is my home,” he said. “This is where I grew up. This is where I live, and it's important that the people up here understand the important role that the lands in our backyard are providing.”
In the 2026 midterm election, Minnesotans across the state will have a constitutional amendment on their ballots asking to increase the yearly allotment from the Permanent School Fund. But for the supporters of the constitutional amendment, the measure has become a decades-long movement uniting allies across party lines and state geography.
The school fund constitutional amendment asks voters to increase the amount withdrawn each year from the Permanent School Fund from 2.5% to 4.5%.
The Permanent School Fund is a Minnesota education fund that comes from school trust lands, which are public lands set aside in 1858 with the explicit purpose of generating funds for Minnesota schools.
According to the Minnesota Office of School Trust Lands, about $1 billion of the $2.4 billion fund is the “principal,” which includes revenue from forest products, real estate and mineral leases and royalties, among other industries.
The fund provides money to Minnesota public and charter schools on a per-pupil basis across the state. If the constitutional amendment passes, the approximate distribution per student would increase from about $68 to $101 per student.
Peltier called the increase a “modest yet meaningful” amount that may mean the difference in keeping a teacher or program. He said this comes at an especially crucial time when many districts are operating on “couch cushion time.”
“And ‘couch cushion time’ means we are looking under every couch cushion for every nickel and every dollar we can find,” he said, “and we are being efficient and honest and straightforward and transparent about how we're using that money.”
The state constitution requires the state to hold the trust “perpetual and inviolate forever,” which means it cannot be distributed in an unsustainable way without incurring legal action.
Supporters of the amendment report the fund is growing by an average of 8% annually, and they say the adjustment to 4.5% would bring the trust in line with modern management standards.
“This allows more of the fund to be distributed,” Peltier said, “but still does preserve the integrity of the fund, still preserves it for future generations.”
State Rep. Spencer Igo, R-Wabana Township, authored the bill that became the school fund amendment. He said he learned more about the fund’s current shortfalls after joining the Legislative Permanent School Fund Commission in 2021.
But he said the move to reform the school trust fund began decades ago.
“We didn’t just get this idea to tweak the Constitution this year sitting around the table,” Igo said. “It has been 20 years of bipartisan education and advocacy.”
While working on the commission, Igo found an ally in DFL state Sen. Mary Kunesh, who represents areas of Anoka, Hennepin and Ramsey counties in the north metro area. Kunesh also worked as a teacher for 25 years and chairs the Senate Education Finance Committee.
She said Igo was immediately on board with the idea of updating the fund.
“When we talked about it, he’s like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it. I’m all in,’” she said.
The legislators worked with members of both parties to pass the bill cleanly through the House and Senate in May of 2026. But constitutional amendments have to be approved by the voters, too.
Kunesh said this came with a massive communication challenge on several fronts. First, the amendment requires extensive background knowledge about technical, hard-to-communicate topics like education funding, economic investments and constitutional law.
Second, supporters of the amendment must convince a majority of voters to fill in "yes" on their ballots. This is because any ballots left blank will be counted as a "no."
Kunesh said it’s a lot for voters to digest.
“There are some that are like, ‘Mmm, this sounds too good to be true,’” she said. “’What’s the catch?’”
To combat these challenges, advocates of the amendment have assembled a massive education campaign since May.
“We all just brainstormed all the resources we could think of,” Kunesh said, “all the people we could reach out to — and organizations and companies.”
The coalition of advocates included seasoned campaign members, education professionals and political advocacy powerhouses, like Education Minnesota.
“A website was created to give information,” Education Minnesota President Monica Byron said, “and then coordination of just financial resources to get literature and everything like that out to people.”
The union hosted events to spread the word about the amendment, including one featuring the Minnesota Wild. The organization also set up a booth at the 2026 Minnesota State Fair, where their flyers reached over 14,000 people.
“We’re working with a group of folks that are really dedicated to getting the information out to helping support our students any way that they can,” Byron said.
Meanwhile, Kunesh said when traveling around her district, “99% of people” are receptive to the amendment after learning more about it.
“That just goes to show how great Minnesotans are at wanting to understand the issues and their willingness to listen and learn,” she said.
Up north, Igo and Peltier have also been spreading the word.
Igo said some constituents have approached him with concerns about the security of the fund or the prospect of the state government enacting restrictions on the money.
He said after going into the weeds on the distribution model, “those people that were opposed for those issues are either neutral or supportive.”
He also said when it comes to informing folks in the Northland about the amendment, he has an advantage over other representatives. According to the Office of School Trust Lands, about 92% of school trust lands are located in 10 Northern Minnesota counties. This means Northern Minnesotans live all around the lands that feed the fund.
“These are the public lands that we drive by, we go hunt on, we recreate on,” Igo said.
Peltier said this provides the region with an opportunity. Northern Minnesotans, he said, have a chance with the amendment to demonstrate care for their state and everyone in it.
“There is an important story to share with everyone across the state through this amendment that every place does matter,” he said. “And guess what? It shows up in your school district's budget every year.”
Election Day for the 2026 midterms is Nov. 3.
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