Increasing education funding is a topic of discussion every year at the Minnesota State Legislature. In January, Governor Tim Walz proposed a 4% increase to the basic education formula allowance within the K-12 general education revenue program, the "education formula" that determines the majority of funding school districts receive from…

The need for a larger labor force in Southwest Minnesota is at peak heights and employers are looking for strategies that keep local high school and college graduates in the region. The analysis of 38,154 southwest high school graduates shows that their post-high school paths and plans are related to whether an individual has meaningful workforce…

After a year of COVID, spiking unemployment, closed schools, and restricted businesses, rural Minnesotans may be looking at a unique opportunity in economic development. Since the Great Recession, rural employers have been dealing with an ever-growing job vacancy rate, which was discussed in the report, "The Pandemic Paints a Different…

The number of students choosing to open enroll in Greater Minnesota has been trending upward consistently since the policy was developed, but within the last ten years, these patterns have been intensifying, and in such a way that they are impacting how districts plan their programming, busing, and finances. Many districts are even be forced to…