EXCLUSIVE — Dozens of Minnesota school districts have adopted policies enabling, and in some cases requiring, public funds to be spent on race-based initiatives, the Washington Examiner has learned.
At least 50 school districts in Minnesota have adopted race-based funding policies, including some of the largest in the state, giving themselves the green light to distribute funds to teachers on the basis of their racial and ethnic identities, according to documents obtained by Defending Education and shared exclusively with the Washington Examiner. The policies, among other things, allow public dollars to be used to fund “additional stipends” and other incentives to aid the recruitment of non-white teachers, as well as financial support for racial affinity groups.
“These policies reflect a deeply entrenched far-left ideology throughout the entire Minnesota education system that flies in the face of long-standing jurisprudence and the historic sacrifices Civil Rights leaders and supporters have made over decades,” Rhyen Staley, Defending Education’s director of research, told the Washington Examiner. “These policies and practices are immoral and anti-American and must be stopped.”
As a condition of adopting the policy, many school districts have stated that they “must develop teacher mentoring programs” that privilege non-white educators.
Additionally, the policies state the districts “may use staff development revenue, special grant programs established by the legislature or another funding source” to provide “additional stipends as incentives to mentors of color or who are American Indian” and “financial supports for professional learning community affinity groups … for teachers from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups to come together throughout the school year.”
The policies also greenlight public funding specifically allocated for “increasing student achievement for students of color.”
If any state grants are received for staff development, according to the policies, school districts must “negotiate additional retention strategies or protection from unrequested leave of absences in the beginning years of employment for teachers of color and teachers who are American Indian.” Examples of retention strategies include grouping teachers together with members of their own race and offering them “financial incentives.”
The policies, which uniformly contain the number 425 and are titled “Staff Development and Mentoring,” or similar, appear to be based on a Minnesota School Boards Association model policy bearing the same number and name.
Teachers unions, long derided by conservatives as one of the primary vectors of left-wing ideology into public education, have significant influence over the MSBA.
For one, people who sit on school boards in Minnesota are largely the candidates that teachers unions want to see running education. During the most recent round of school board elections, for instance, 44 of 47 candidates endorsed by teacher unions won their elections. The MSBA also has a history of working closely with unions in state lobbying efforts, including on teacher retention issues.
Rochester Public Schools, the largest district to adopt the aforementioned policies, serves roughly 17,500 students, according to its website.
The Trump administration has shown interest in addressing racial discrimination in public education. In February, for instance, the Department of Justice joined a lawsuit brought by the 1776 Project Foundation, alleging that the Los Angeles Unified School District had violated the law by conditioning funding on the basis of student race.
