The 2026 Minnesota School Funding Amendment
/St. Luke’s Social Justice Committee wants you to be aware of a proposed state constitutional amendment on the ballot this November 3, so that you can understand the topic and how the vote is calculated before you vote.
The Goal: To increase annual financial distributions from the Permanent School Fund to public and charter school districts without raising taxes.
Current Rule: The state currently pays out about 2.5% of the fund’s interest and dividends twice a year based on student enrollment. The state cannot spend capital gains or revenue. This rate and stipulation has been in place since the state’s founding in 1858.
Proposed Change: To shift distribution to a fixed rate of roughly 4.5% of the fund’s three-year rolling average value, helping schools manage budget pressures while preserving purchasing power. This rate is more typical of current endowments.
Important Note for Voting: Under Minnesota law, leaving the constitutional amendment question blank counts as a “no” vote. You must fill in the oval for “yes” if you choose to support the change.
***For more information and the exact wording of the amendment, go to the Minnesota Secretary of State website. Search for Constitutional Amendment.
Background
Jacob Snyder Timmons, an educator in School District 622, writes:
There’s a whole history lesson to be had here, but the main point is that Minnesota owns land that generates revenue, and the state deposits this revenue into a fund and invests and manages it. This fund is restricted to supporting schools in Minnesota and is called the Permanent School Fund. Currently, about 2.5% of the investment is pulled to fund schools. This keeps the investment growing and stable. However, the fund has grown substantially over the last 16 years. In 2010, the fund was $675 million. Today, it’s $2.3 billion. A task force analyzed the potential to update the rules governing the fund and proposed upping the amount pulled from 2.5% to 4.5%. This is the question on the ballot. Do we up it by an additional 2%? The fund will remain stable, and schools would receive more money, all without raising taxes.
Putting the question on the ballot was a bipartisan effort and passed the MN House unanimously.
The tricky part is how the vote is calculated.
In Minnesota, constitutional amendments must pass with a majority of total ballots cast, regardless of whether a voter answers the constitutional amendment question. And so the important takeaway is:
If you skip the question, you’re voting against it.
In today’s politics, with most people focusing on voting for a party, questions like constitutional amendments, city questions, and school levy referendums fly under the radar. These questions also have a lot to unpack and very little explanation on the actual ballot. It’s very easy for people to just leave the question blank because they don’t really know what the vote means.
These blanks will all be counted as “no” votes, so do your research and don’t skip the constitutional amendment for the Permanent School Fund item on your ballot!
