The latest report on MCA scores from the Minnesota Department of Education has been released and the results are concerning. According to the new results, only 45.2 percent of students are meeting grade-level standards in math, and just 49.6 percent are meeting standards in reading. These numbers have remained flat for several years, and behind them are real children across our state whose futures depend on us getting this right.
Education has long been a bipartisan priority. Both Republicans and Democrats have worked together to pass record funding increases for our schools. Yet despite that funding, student performance has stagnated. That reality tells us something important: more money by itself will not deliver the progress our children deserve.
It is clear we need to get back to the basics. Students need strong reading, math, and science skills to succeed in life. Those are the building blocks that open doors and create opportunity. Teachers should be given the flexibility and support to focus on these fundamentals instead of being weighed down by mandates. Accountability must also be part of the picture so that parents and taxpayers know what is working.
We also have to keep distracting political debates out of the classroom. Families want their children to go to school to learn and to be prepared for the future. When classrooms become distracted by issues that do not belong there, students lose out.
Minnesota has some of the best educators in the country. Let’s get out of the way and let them do what they do best: teach. Our job as legislators is to make sure the system is set up to help them succeed and to put students first in every decision.
District court judge rules against Democrats' 1400-page monster bill
In the closing hours of the 2024 session, Democrats used their one-party control of state government to jam a 1,400-page bill into law. The bill was slapped together in secret, unveiled to lawmakers and the public with no time to read it, and rushed through before anyone could ask questions. They ignored rules. They cut off and shut down debate. And any sense of compromise or respect went out the window. The entire embarrassing spectacle was about one thing only: power.
Recently, a Ramsey County judge struck down a ban on binary triggers that was included in the bill. The judge said what most Minnesotans already knew: the process was a disgrace. Instead of following the constitution’s requirement that bills stick to a single subject, the Democrats crammed everything into one giant package and dared anyone to stop them.
The bill started as a normal tax proposal, 148 pages long. By the time Democrats were done, it had ballooned to nearly 1,500 pages stuffed with totally unrelated policies on rideshare rules, veterinary licensing, firearms, and more. It was secretive and sloppy, but they didn’t care because they planned to bulldoze anyone who stood in the way.
Many of us called it out at the time. We warned that it was unconstitutional. We warned that it would destroy trust and relationships. Unfortunately, those concerns were ignored.
Now the courts are stepping in. The trigger ban is gone, and the ruling makes clear that other parts of the bill could easily face the same fate.
While the court’s ruling is a good one, it remains disappointing we are even in this position. You should not have to rely on judges to remind politicians to follow the rules. You deserve better than backroom deals and 1,400-page monstrosities no one has time to read. You deserve leaders who respect the constitution and the people’s right to have their voices heard.
Stay tuned to see what happens next. For now, I just hope we never experience anything like what we saw in the final minutes of the 2024 session again.