ST. PAUL — Minnesota lawmakers have begun considering the potential impact on school funding in the state as President Donald Trump vows to eliminate the federal Department of Education.
At a committee hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 4, staffers with the Minnesota Department of Education said the state is scheduled to receive $1.4 billion from the federal government in 2025, which makes up 10% of its total budget.
Of that $1.4 billion, $233 million is budgeted to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which aims to “assist in meeting the excess costs of providing special education and related services to children with disabilities.”
Around $18 million is slated for other sections of IDEA as well as $180,000 going toward the Minnesota DeafBlind Project, which helps provide education for children with combined hearing and vision loss.
At a press conference following Tuesday’s committee meeting, state Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights, vice chair of the committee, said schools and districts have already spent the money allocated to them. These districts have to go through a reimbursement process to receive the money from the federal government.
If changes are made within the federal Department of Education, Gustafson said schools could be at risk of not receiving reimbursement.
Trump has not yet signed an order to close the department, but he campaigned on a promise to do it. His choice for Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, has not yet been confirmed by the Senate, but Trump said when he named her to the post that he wanted her to “put herself out of a job.”
During the state Senate committee hearing, there was pushback from Republican committee members, including state Sen. Robert Farnsworth of Hibbing, who said that all they can do is guess what will happen and guess what funds may be cut.
There were more important things to discuss that aren’t as up in the air, Farnsworth said.
“This hearing is just an attempt to distract from the fact that everything this Legislature touched in education last year turned to crap,” Farnsworth said. “This conversation should be, ‘What did we do to screw up our schools and what we are going to do to fix it?’”
Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, said the funding questions were not a partisan issue and the uncertainty about what will happen in Washington impacts all Minnesotans.
“We need our Republican colleagues to join us, regardless of party, to say, ‘We cannot build a budget this way,’” Maye Quade said. “This Legislature has to build a budget for two years. We can’t even count on the next two hours.”
In the meeting, Sen. Jason Rarick, R-Pine City, suggested Democrats might be overreacting.
“What I’ve heard starting is panic about what might happen,” Rarick said. “Let’s get an understanding before we panic.”
Sen. Steve Cwodzinski, DFL-Eden Prairie, countered that.
“One of my colleagues this morning said we’re panicking,” Cwodzinski said to reporters later. “We’re not panicking, we’re being proactive.”
Report for Minnesota is a project of the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication to support local news in all areas of the state.