Last week, I mentioned how, in his final State of the State speech, Gov. Walz touted as achievements a laundry list of spending increases which, in some cases, are blowing up in the faces of state and county agencies and school districts. The universal free school meals program, for example, is now another source of pressure on school district budgets.
We are now seeing the same thing with higher education. KSTP reports:
A proposed multi-million dollar shortfall in the state’s proposed higher education bill could impact how your child pays for college.
Lawmakers say increasing enrollment, partly due to the North Star Promise Program, has contributed to the financial squeeze on the Minnesota State Grant.
The North Star Promise Program is the scheme enacted by the “historic” trifecta in 2023 which provides taxpayer funded tuition for people studying at Minnesota colleges whose families have Adjusted Gross Income below $80,000. It has lead to expanded enrollments, as intended, but also to greater demands on the Minnesota State Grant.
The program has a $131 million deficit for the next two years,” the Star Tribune reports:
…which will require college students’ financial aid awards to be reduced — with some students losing their entire grant…
It’s become a familiar refrain. This is the third consecutive year of multimillion-dollar shortfalls in the program, leaving some lawmakers scrambling to find funding while thousands of Minnesota college students wonder how much financial help they will receive the next year.
…
Last summer, when the deficit was $239 million, legislators made several last-minute cuts by changing who qualified for the grant and how much they got. They also boosted funding by $44.5 million, and while many were happy to see the cash infusion, students’ grants were still smaller.
In the 2024-25 academic year, the program provided grants to 76,000 low- and middle-income students attending any Minnesota college or university. Last fall, that number jumped to an estimated 88,000 students, Office of Higher Education (OHE) officials said.
The grant has a $131 million deficit, which will require reductions in college students’ financial aid awards. The North Star Promise would cover the remainder of their tuition and fees.
The Strib tells one student’s story:
Natasha Grad has been waitressing to pay her way through college for seven years and hasn’t had to take out a loan yet.
She knows she’ll have to apply for one next year. And if officials make cuts to the Minnesota State Grant, the state’s largest financial aid program, her debt could climb higher.
“I’m so close to being done,” said Grad, 31, a Gustavus Adolphus College student who will graduate next spring. “It’s really detrimental if they do do cuts to the Minnesota State Grant — I don’t know how that’s going to affect my tuition here.”
Last month, I called the “historic” 2023 trifecta “that gift that keeps on taking.”
