The Minnesota Reformer recently ran an article showing some of the ways the state has changed since Gov. Tim Walz took office in January 2019. Reporter Christopher Ingraham used a series of charts to show “Minnesota’s trajectory on a variety of metrics, before and after Walz, that together offer a birds-eye view of the quality of life in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.”
For education, Ingraham charted 8th grade average reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) from 2011 to 2022. Test scores have gone up and down prior to 2019 but have steadily declined since then.
Eighth grade average reading and math scores on
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
“Minnesota students’ scores remain above national averages, although the long-term data shows that the advantage has narrowed since the mid-2010s,” Ingraham reports.
The advantage has also narrowed for 4th grade math scores, and now the average 4th grade reading score is below the national average for the first time. (The NAEP reading test was first administered in 1992.) For readability purposes, I charted the fourth grade data below in a similar style as the Minnesota Reformer‘s 8th grade chart.
Fourth grade average reading and math scores on
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
Minnesota student scores on the state’s reading and math tests (the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, or MCAs) have also declined significantly since 2019, with now for the first time since the MCAs have been administered majorities of K-12 students not meeting grade-level standards in both subjects. Not helping academic challenges is the fact that Minnesota’s chronic absenteeism rate has more than doubled since 2017.
“Historic” education funding increases have not brought meaningful change to the state’s education system, and early estimates expect around half of the latest new money to go toward a slew of new mandates. (These mandates include requiring schools to stock menstrual products in boys’ bathrooms and provide free meals for all students regardless of income, which could impact the compensatory revenue intended to help students who are “under-prepared to learn” and who perform below academic standards for their age group.)
National education rankings also show Minnesota is losing its edge. CNBC’s annual ranking — heralded by Gov. Walz — dropped Minnesota’s education system three spots from last year, with it coming in now at 17th. In 2018, right before Gov. Walz took office, the state’s education ranking came in at 5th. (Consider that decline against Mississippi’s education ranking jumping up over 20 spots from 2018 to 2023, going from #43 to #22.)
Ingraham notes that in 2015, the Annie E. Casey Foundation ranked Minnesota’s education 6th overall in the U.S. It came in 10th in 2019 and for 2024 is now down to 19th.
Learning disruptions — exacerbated by school closure policies — are estimated to result in average individual economic losses of over seven percent, putting the state 8th highest in expected loss in lifetime income from interrupted learning.
Average individual economic losses by state
While these points are obviously not all the changes that have occurred in Minnesota education since Gov. Walz took office, they do capture very real challenges within the state’s K-12 system.