Walz Fights to Fully Fund Public Schools While Jensen Fights to Defund Them

ST. PAUL, MN – Ahead of the start of early voting this Friday, the Walz-Flanagan campaign will be highlighting the Jensen-Birk ticket’s extreme and dangerous agenda – including their radical plan to defund public schools to finance a massive tax cut for the wealthy.

In May, when asked by MPR “Do you support more money for public schools or less money?” Jensen replied bluntly, “Less money. I think it's a black hole,” affirming his long-standing commitment to defunding public education.

Jensen and Birk doubled down on that when they released a plan that would convert public schools into private schools and create a voucher system that would use taxpayer dollars for public schools to allow wealthier families to send their kids to private schools. Students participating in voucher programs in other states have performed no better and sometimes even worse than their counterparts who remained in public schools.

Jensen’s support for defunding public schools predates the 2022 campaign cycle. In 2011, he led the campaign against a school funding referendum to help build new schools in Waconia, saying that public school budgets need to “share the pain.” It got so bad that the local school district even had to put students in warehouse space.

Governor Walz, on the other hand, is a former public school teacher and high school coach with a lifelong record of supporting public schools and students. The Walz-Flanagan administration has also passed the largest increase in per-pupil funding in 15 years, invested in mental health professionals for students, and supported after-school and summer learning programs to help students whose learning was impacted by the pandemic. In their second term, Governor Walz and Lt. Governor Flanagan will continue fighting to fully fund our public schools.