Minnesota’s Governor’s Race: Where The Candidates Stand on Education

By Madie Spartz

All eyes are on Minnesota’s open Governor’s race this year, with Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth on the GOP ticket and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar running on the DFL side. Regardless of the election’s outcome, we are guaranteed new leadership and new priorities. So where do the candidates stand on education?

Senator Amy Klobuchar

Senator Klobuchar’s education agenda is nestled under the “Prepare Minnesota’s Workforce for the Future” section of her campaign priorities. The subsection “Raise Academic Achievement Across Minnesota” has a clear K-12 focus and is summarized below:

• Improve reading and math skills with evidence-based curriculum.
• Regular, small-group tutoring for students struggling in reading and math.
• Advance STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education by partnering with large Minnesota employers on internships and curriculum.
• Continue to “strongly fund our schools,” including making healthcare more affordable for school staff.
• Ban cell phones in K-12 classrooms and set “evidence-based limits” on screen time in class.
• Boost attendance via real-time attendance tracking, early intervention, and automated alerts to families.
• Prevent student homelessness by launching a statewide initiative modeled after “Minnesota’s bipartisan work to end veteran homelessness.”

Sen. Klobuchar also has policy proposals that touch on education in areas like the teacher workforce and college pathways, such as expanding dual enrollment, advancing direct admissions, and aligning workforce and higher education, which you can read about in the other sections of her workforce readiness plan. Her plan on lowering costs for Minnesotans includes a section on childcare.

House Speaker Lisa Demuth

Speaker Demuth’s education plan has its own section among her campaign priorities, titling it “Lisa Demuth’s Education Comeback Plan for Minnesota.” It includes: 

• Returning Minnesota to the Top 10 nationally, as ranked by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
• Safety for all students in every school, via school safety funding for every student in public and private schools, school security grants, and ensuring a School Resource Officer (SRO) is available in every school. 
• Opting in to the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, a federal program that allows taxpayers to donate up to $1700 to scholarship-granting organizations that give scholarships to public, private, and charter school students.
• “Focus on fundamentals,” listing the science of reading, evidence-based math, classrooms to careers, and tutoring and individualized learning.
• Auditing how tax dollars are spent in schools, in addition to reviewing “mandates providing little or no academic or instructional purpose,” creating a waiver system for districts to opt out of certain requirements, and reviewing all state academic standards.
• Empowering parents and local schools, including “promoting parental involvement in development and approval of curriculum and learning materials consistent with effective teaching and learning.”

Both candidates are promising improved educational outcomes for Minnesota students, though they have different visions for how to get there. In addition to new gubernatorial leadership, Minnesota will also have a brand new legislature in 2027, since all 201 seats are up for election in November.

After the election, be on the lookout for our report on how the new Governor and legislature can deliver the best outcomes for Minnesota kids.