Education has made Minnesota the state it is today. Our future depends on all students having the opportunity to graduate ready for 21st Century success – whether they go on to a college, university or technical school or head straight to the workforce.
At a time when the Trump administration has launched an unprecedented assault on education at every level – from efforts to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, to attacks on higher education institutions and research funding, and to targeting Minnesota schools for providing equal protection to transgender students – Senator Marty has continued to speak out and stand up for public education and civil rights. He is a strong, consistent advocate for more state investment at every level from early childhood through higher education.
All children need access to quality early childhood education. Senator Marty has worked to improve opportunities from birth through pre-K. To close the opportunity gap and help all children prepare for school, we must redouble our efforts in programs from Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) and Head Start, to universal pre-K, and dramatically increase support for Sliding Fee Childcare, so that all children have access to quality childcare.
Unfortunately, under the Trump administration our children and these education programs serving them face new challenges. ICE raids have shamefully targeted and disrupted early childhood programs, terrorizing young children and their caregivers. Senator Marty is working to keep schools and childcare centers as safe spaces. He is speaking out, standing up to the reality that armed federal agents are entering early childhood facilities and school buildings.
We need more state funding for E-12 schools, so schools are funded from progressive state income taxes instead of regressive local property taxes. The quality of a school should not be dependent on the property wealth of the community in which it is based, and the state has a constitutional obligation to provide for quality schools across the state with a fair funding formula.
For higher education, affordability is lacking when students are encumbered with massive debt. Senator Marty helped pass the North Star Promise, allowing thousands of low-income and lower-middle-income Minnesota students to attend public colleges and universities tuition-free.
John points out that Minnesota committed, in law, to providing 2/3rds of the funding for public higher education, but currently pays far less than half. Minnesota invested in education even during the Great Depression, and the entire nation did so after World War II, with the GI Bill. Education is expensive, but it is our best investment in the future.
John works for education policies that address the needs of the whole child and family. Children who are homeless, children who go to school hungry, children who go home to dysfunctional households are not able to thrive in school. John’s work in the Senate addresses these inter-related social needs: he has authored the Minnesota Health Plan that would provide comprehensive health care, including chemical dependency and mental health treatment, ensuring that students and their families get the care they need. He has been leading the fight to address hunger and homelessness, and works for economic and social policies to enable all students to be prepared to thrive in school.
John has pushed to provide significantly more support services in the schools, including mental health professionals, counselors, and social workers. Minnesota has lagged far behind other states, and these services are more urgently needed than ever.
In addition, Senator Marty seeks to ensure that schools teach more than just fundamentals such as reading, writing, math and science. These are vital parts of the core curriculum, but education must also include a broad spectrum of learning, including financial literacy, music and the arts, world languages, service learning, physical education, technical competence, and nutrition. Schools must ensure that students become caring, informed, knowledgeable, compassionate, and productive people, prepared for life and work in a global society.
