What if Minnesota schools could get more funding without your taxes increasing by even a single cent?
Yes, it sounds too good to be true. But a proposal along those lines will be on ballots this fall.
With bipartisan backing from the Legislature, voters will be asked if the state constitution should be amended so that schools would receive more support from a fund that has been growing since Minnesota鈥檚 early statehood.
Established in 1858, the Permanent School Fund provides annual disbursements to every public school district in the state. The fund grew to $2.3 billion as of 2025.
As big as that figure is, Minnesota鈥檚 constitution caps how much schools can draw from the fund. So lawmakers and school groups are campaigning to amend the constitution in order to free up additional funding.
Why do schools need more Permanent School Funds?
The state鈥檚 distribution of these funds has remained essentially the same since the program鈥檚 inception, said Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton. A former educator in her pre-Legislature life, Kunesh carried the constitutional amendment proposal .
鈥淚 think everybody recognizes the need for additional funding for public schools, and this is one way to do it without putting an additional burden on our taxpayers,鈥� she said.
Her companion , Rep. Spencer Igo, R-Wabana Township, agrees. Voting yes in November neither raises property taxes nor asks local residents to approve a levy or referendum, he said.
And, importantly, tapping more of the fund won鈥檛 deplete it, he added. A , empowered to review the fund in 2024, calculated 8% average investment returns over the last decade, while distributions are capped at 2.5%.
Amending the constitution could raise distributions to about 4.5%, Igo said.
鈥淩epublicans and Democrats alike will be linking arms in saying, 鈥榁ote for this,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淭he Legislature believes in it, too, and they believe in a bipartisan way. I think it鈥檚 the kind of policy Minnesotans want to see.鈥�
How much more funding are we talking about here?
Current allocations . On the high end, the Minneapolis Public School District received nearly $2 million in 2025. More commonly, districts take in hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
Although it鈥檚 not enough to entirely fund school budgets, an increase would make life easier for the many districts grappling with budget crunches. Schools averaged a 5.6% property tax levy increase this year, according to state data.
Levies and referendums, meanwhile, have been tough sells in Greater Minnesota districts, said Fred Nolan, interim executive director of the Minnesota Rural Education Education. Any bit of extra funding can relieve pressure.
鈥淚 suspect it will allow districts to not cut as much or reduce class sizes,鈥� he said. 鈥淔or the smaller ones it helps in minor ways to keep their funding going. Maybe they鈥檙e able to buy curriculum materials, maybe do teacher training, maybe bring in some new software.鈥�
Schools would use the funding to address specific needs, Kunesh said. A district with 2,000 students receiving $95 per pupil instead of $65, for example, would get a $60,000 boost.
鈥淚t might save a teacher; it might save a program,鈥� Kunesh said. 鈥淭he nice thing about these funds is that those schools can and the district can choose to use those dollars in any way.鈥�
What is the history of this fund?
While investment growth is the main catalyst for the fund these days, it鈥檚 inextricably linked to school trust lands. The federal government granted these public lands, which currently , mostly in northern Minnesota, upon statehood.
The idea behind this was to use land to fund education. Each township in Minnesota had acreage set aside for that purpose.
The land includes forests and both developed and undeveloped mineral deposits. Thus, money for the fund has historically come from timber, mining and other industries. Those activities still contribute to the fund, along with land sales over the last 160-plus years.
Some of the existing school trust lands are just about in Igo鈥檚 backyard, or at least in his district. The lawmaker has lofty ambitions for the fund.
鈥淢y dream for the school trust fund is one day we鈥檒l see that be giving $300-$400 per pupil across this state, and our forefathers that founded our state can be smiling knowing that we actually accomplished the goal of funding public education,鈥� he said.
Constitutional amendments require a majority of 鈥測es鈥� votes from all cast ballots in order to pass. Leaving the section blank counts as a 鈥渘o鈥� vote, which is why Igo, Kunesh and other proponents of the change will be educating voters on the question over the summer and fall.
Taking a question like this to the ballot isn鈥檛 out of the ordinary for the state. Minnesotans have voted on constitutional amendments 213 times, passing them on .
After his and Kunesh鈥檚 bills drew overwhelming support from lawmakers, Igo said he hopes voters follow suit on election day.
鈥淣o matter what side of the aisle you sit on, no matter which body you sit on at the Capitol, we look for the best way to support our students,鈥� he said.
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