Minnesota voters support the promise of public education for all students in 2025 school board elections
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ST. PAUL, Minnesota. Nov. 5, 2025 – School board voters across Minnesota overwhelmingly supported union-endorsed candidates in Tuesday’s elections that promised to build safe, welcoming and effective schools for all students while rejecting candidates carrying the MAGA education agenda.
“Minnesotans want our students to have the freedom to be respected as their authentic selves in the classroom, to learn honestly about America, to receive support for their mental health and to get an education that allows them to pursue their dreams,” said Monica Byron, president of Education Minnesota. “Voters also put more trust in the endorsements of local educators who actually know the names of Minnesota students than in out-of-touch, big money groups and their agenda-driven, millionaire donors.”
A preliminary analysis of election returns showed that 44 of 47 candidates endorsed by local unions of educators won their races Tuesday, or nearly 94%. That’s an improvement over 2024, when union-endorsed school board candidates won 75% of the races. A list of 2025 school board candidates endorsed by local unions of educators is available at https://www.edmnvotes.org/voter-guide.
Byron noted that more local unions collaborated with parents and community leaders than in the past to recruit, screen, endorse and campaign for school board candidates. For example, hundreds of educators made more than 100,000 calls and talked to thousands of voters this year.
The trend of big spending on school board races by outside groups continued this year, with nearly $200,000 coming from the 1776 Project PAC of Virginia and the political action committees of the Minnesota Parents Alliance and Excellence Minnesota, which are led by the same person, a longtime Republican political operative, according to campaign finance records. Most of the money was spent on the Anoka-Hennepin School Board race, where the MPA recorded its only win of the night.
“Voters are tired of the relentless, baseless attacks on educators and students paid for by these groups and the candidates they support. Voters see through this national campaign to spread distrust in public schools and then defund them with vouchers,” Byron said. “But now, it’s done. I think every educator in these districts is ready to set politics aside for a while and focus solely on their students and their own families for the rest of the year.”
Education Minnesota staff worked with members in 35 local school districts on 51 referendum questions and passed 39 of them, or 76%, the highest success rate since at least 2019. Some notable wins for students were in Annandale, Crosby-Ironton, Farmington and Wheaton. All those school districts had lost referendums in the past. There were 72 referendums around the state on Tuesday, but Education Minnesota did not work on all of them.
“We knew this wasn’t a good time to ask hardworking Minnesotans to raise their taxes for their local schools, but hundreds of educators and parents came together to make the case for the value of public education. It worked,” Bryon said. “The voters in most communities said loud and clear that they valued their public schools and would pay a little more in taxes to retain educators and save programs. Educators appreciate the trust that Minnesotans put in us.”
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.
