Yr Wonkette likes to remind you from time to time that when voters elect Democratic trifectas in state government, a lot of good stuff can happen. Stuff like protections for LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, funding for schools and children and families, you know, your typical socialist madness that makes people’s lives better. So today, let’s return to Minnesota (Motto: “Not Quite Canada, Sorry”), where voters reelected Democratic Gov. Tim Walz in the 2022 midterms, and handed him Dem majorities in both houses of the state Lege to boot.
Wouldn’t you know it, Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, as the local Dems, Farms, and Labs are known, just keeps doing neat things, so now, for the first time in a dozen years or so, enrollment at the state’s public colleges and universities is increasing instead of declining — two percent systemwide and almost four percent at two-year colleges. As Inside Higher Ed reports, that’s thanks to “a record year of state funding and investment in a slew of new college-access initiatives.”
“We haven’t seen numbers like this in a decade or more,” said system chancellor Scott Olson. “It’s a good moment for Minnesota.”
For years, state funding for higher education remained pretty much flat, Olsen said, but last year the Lege increased funding by $650 million, for a total of $4 billion in higher ed spending.
That was largely made possible by the fact that Minnesota found itself with a $3.7 billion budget surplus for the current fiscal year, so instead of blowing it on tax cuts, Dems in the Lege decided it would be a good idea to invest in higher education, because of that whole “Government can do good things” approach they take.
The legislature also came up with a new financial aid program called “North Star Promise,” because Minnesotans and Alaskans never tire of reminding us they’re up at the top of the USA and lording it over people who never even get a glimpse of the Northern Lights or their quirky Northern Exposure fictions, which get over yourself was filmed in Washington and mostly on soundstages at that, PFFFT.
Oh, yeah, the financial aid program.
[S]udents from families making less than $80,000 a year will receive free tuition to any public college in the state they’re admitted to. The program takes effect in the fall, but students will begin receiving financial aid offers reflecting the waiver over the next few months. About 15,000 students are likely to qualify, according to estimates from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education.
And applications to schools in the system are also up 19 percent from last year. Also too, since we were left wondering and Inside Higher Ed didn’t mention it until down near the end, the “Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System” is separate from the “University of Minnesota system,” which operates the main campus in the Twin Cities and four other campuses. UNM hasn’t seen the same jump in enrollment, likely because the new initiatives are targeted at the lower-income population that’s primarily served by Minnesota State etc.
Good heavens! It’s as if Minnesota is treating public higher education like some sort of public schools, a good not just for students, but for the state as well. Sure would be great if that caught on, huh? Maybe more voters around the country should give some thought to electing Democrats.
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