As federal pandemic funds expire, Minneapolis and St. Paul schools seeking help

For several years, school districts have known of the so-called “fiscal cliff” that would come with the drying up of federal pandemic aid, and the 2024-25 budgets approved by the Minneapolis and St. Paul school boards took those losses into account and sought to minimize the pain through the use of reserves.

Minneapolis is drawing down about $55 million, while St. Paul plans to tap $37 million in rainy-day funds. But the squeeze still is being felt. Classroom teachers, not specialists, are handling art and music instruction at seven St. Paul schools, and parents are growing increasingly frustrated over larger class sizes in Minneapolis.

St. Paul used pandemic funds to support struggling students through interventions grounded in the phonics-based “science of reading,” and learned that students who participated in the program known as WINN showed greater progress during the year than those who did not.

Now the district is spending $7 million of its own money to pay WINN teachers.

Altogether, St. Paul received $319 million in federal pandemic funds, and invested not just in academic recovery efforts, but also after-school programming, social workers and counselors, and staff retention bonuses, among other items. Cash-strapped Minneapolis relied heavily on its nearly $265 million to plug budget gaps and now faces tough decisions that could include school mergers and closures.

Omar noted how many school districts were forced to cut just a year after a historic $2.2 billion state investment in schools. Legislators must “keep their foot on the gas to fully fund our schools,” she said.