Author: Sarah Cooke

Education Minnesota condemned the Trump administration’s decision to withhold $6.8 billion in congressionally approved funding from states, calling the move an illegal attack on public education that will harm Minnesota’s students, families and communities. 

Minnesota educators mourn the loss of a dedicated lawmaker and staunch champion of public education, House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, who was assassinated as part of a series of attacks early Saturday that also killed her husband and wounded a state senator and his wife. 

The Minnesota Legislature came together in a special session Monday night to support public education by passing a budget that kept the most important parts of the historic, pro-education budget of the 2023 session.

St. Francis Area Schools has agreed to return dozens of banned books to its libraries and classrooms to settle a lawsuit filed by Education Minnesota-St. Francis on behalf of eight students. 

The Minnesota Legislature has passed a historic improvement to pension benefits for most Minnesota teachers, including creating a career rule that rewards teachers’ decades of service to Minnesota students. 

Hundreds of members of Education Minnesota will rally Saturday in the Capitol Rotunda to call on Gov. Tim Walz and state legislators to fund the union’s priorities, including pension reform, in the next state budget. 

Linda Wallenberg, an English teacher at Eden Prairie High School, is the 2025 Minnesota Teacher of the Year. 

Richfield teacher Monica Byron will be the next president of Education Minnesota following an election Saturday at the union’s annual convention.

The latest threat to federal funding for Minnesota’s public schools shows the biases of President Trump’s administration, but isn’t binding on Minnesota school districts, Denise Specht, president of Education Minnesota, said Friday.