Education Minnesota launches advertising campaign on educator health insurance crisis
For more information, contact:
CHRIS WILLIAMS
651-292-4816 (work)
651-247-5539 (cell)
ST. PAUL, Minnesota, March 26, 2026 — Education Minnesota launched a statewide advertising campaign this week calling for passage of the Educator Group Insurance Program, legislation that would create a single statewide health insurance pool for all Minnesota public school employees.
The campaign will run four to six weeks across most advertising formats. Three ads debuted this week and are available for viewing and sharing on Education Minnesota’s YouTube page. More information about the issue is available at www.BelieveInWeMN.com.
“Every year, school districts across Minnesota spend millions of dollars buying health insurance one district at a time, with no real power to push back on the price,” said Monica Byron, president of Education Minnesota. “This campaign is about changing that. The Educator Group Insurance Program would put Minnesota’s educators in a pool large enough to negotiate real savings and control future health care costs.”
The Educator Group Insurance Program, or EGIP, is proposed in Senate File 2909 and House File 2904. The legislation would consolidate health insurance purchasing for Minnesota’s public school employees into a single statewide pool modeled after the existing State Employee Group Insurance Program, which covers approximately 53,000 state employees and is administered by Minnesota Management and Budget. The EGIP pool would cover approximately 100,000 public school employees statewide.
The cost of benefits has emerged as a persistent driver of Minnesota’s teacher shortage. The 2025 Teacher Supply and Demand Report from the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board found that districts consistently cite salary and the cost of benefits as the primary reasons for failing to retain teachers.
About Education Minnesota
Education Minnesota is the voice for professional educators and students. Education Minnesota’s members include teachers and education support professionals in Minnesota’s public school districts, faculty members at Minnesota’s community and technical colleges and University of Minnesota campuses in Duluth and Crookston, retired educators and student teachers. Education Minnesota is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and AFL-CIO.
