Democrats look to spend their way out of school culture wars

Democrats flexed their new power in state capitals this year by boosting public education funding to record amounts.

Now, as legislative sessions wrap up, they’re touting that infusion of dollars to attack Republicans who they say are fixated on harmful agendas like targeting transgender children and stoking other culture war issues.

In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz last month signed an education budget with more than $2 billion in new spending, the biggest increase in state history. Michigan lawmakers are debating two education plans that would each augment spending significantly. And in Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore launched a service year program for high school graduates and set aside $900 million for future education needs.

“The contrast couldn’t be starker,” said Minnesota state Rep. Dave Pinto, a Democrat who successfully pushed for big spending increases on child care in the state education budget. “We’re about lifting up all kids, ensuring that all kids have the great start they deserve … Meanwhile, [Republicans are] focused on demeaning some kids in people's families.”

The divergent paths on education will likely be a top issue in the 2024 election cycle. Republicans have used state and local education policy to great effect in recent elections, scoring political victories by agitating voters about what’s happening in classrooms. But now state-level Democrats believe they have a potent counterpunch by boasting about big funding hikes and new programs like free meals all aimed at improving student achievement.

Two of the states where new Democratic trifectas are pushing significant spending hikes — Michigan and Minnesota — will be crucial battlegrounds in the looming election cycle.

Republicans dismiss Democrats’ criticism as a distraction from deep flaws with their education plans and predict that their “far-left” agenda will cost them in the 2024 elections.

Minnesota GOP Sen. Julia Coleman, the ranking member of the Education Policy Committee, said that Republicans do in fact support “robust investments” in students, pointing to prior budgets passed by GOP-led legislatures as proof.

Coleman and other Republicans opposed to the latest education budget say that school districts don’t have adequate funding to meet new mandates such as allowing school employees up to 24 weeks of paid family and medical leave, putting school districts on the hook to pick up the tab for hiring substitutes. Districts will then be forced to dip into rainy day funds or pushed into bankruptcy, they argue, to meet the requirements.

“The issue we have is they’re tying record funding with record mandates,” Coleman said.

Record surpluses to spend

Michigan and Minnesota Democrats emerged from the midterms with more power than they had held in many years — and lawmakers capitalized on that opportunity by checking off much of their policy goals like expanding labor protections, enshrining abortion access and restricting guns. They ticked off long sought policy ambitions despite holding slim margins in the legislatures, notably diverging from well-established Democratic trifectas often paralyzed by party infighting like New York and California.

Democrats benefited from supercharged budget surpluses due to high tax revenues and federal stimulus dollars. Minnesota started its legislative session with a $17.5 billion surplus, one of the largest in the country, enabling the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party to bankroll its progressive agenda. Michigan is sitting on a $9 billion surplus, including $4 billion earmarked for education.

“When you look back and look at all we’ve accomplished since Jan. 4, you realize why we’re all so tired,” said Minnesota Democratic Rep. Cheryl Youakim, chair of the Education Finance Committee. “It was exhausting but exhilarating work this session.”

Minnesota Republicans, in response, argue that Democrats are not focused on the necessary basics like improving test scores and instead placed more burdens on schools by introducing new policies without attaching enough funding.

State Sen. Jason Rarick didn't deny, however, that Republicans are talking more about social issues in schools.

“There are a lot of Republicans — and I’m included in that — that are concerned about some of the things that are happening in schools,” said Rarick, the lead Republican on the Education Finance Committee. “That concern comes because we’re hearing it from parents. I believe we need to focus back on what the parents want in our school districts.”

GOP-led states presented a different vision for the U.S. education system this year. Republicans in states like Florida, Arizona, Georgia and Iowa oversaw the expansion of school choice and passing parental bills of rights, investing in education savings accounts to help send kids to private schools and giving parents greater oversight of what their children are taught in public schools.

Their social agenda also centered on passing legislation restricting the rights of trans children by banning minors from receiving gender-affirming care and requiring that student athletes play on sports teams correlating with their assigned sex at birth. More than 220 bills were introduced in states this year specific to trans people and a record 70 anti-LGBTQ measures were signed into law, including 15 banning gender-affirming care for youth, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is at the forefront of the education culture wars. Florida’s parental rights law was dubbed by opponents the “Don’t Say Gay” bill because it bars educators from teaching lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Republicans’ embrace of school choice will clearly be a line of attack for Democrats in 2024.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a term-limited Democrat, in a newly-launched TV ad chastised Republicans for seeking to “choke the life out of public education” by pursuing tax cuts and private school vouchers for “millionaires” rather than doling out raises for public school teachers and more funding for public schools.

In Michigan, politics are also ratcheting up around education, a policy area that has a politically fraught history. Democrats are attempting to reverse what they say is years of damage inflicted on public schools by the DeVos family, conservative Republican megadonors who advocated for the spread of unregulated charter schools with the backing of state money. Betsy DeVos served as former President Donald Trump’s education secretary and helped launch the school choice movement defining Republican policies today. Republicans argue that the rise of charter schools gives parents more freedom to choose what kind of education their children receive.

Michigan lawmakers are working on merging two different education budgets passed by the House and Senate in recent weeks that contain increases in per-pupil spending of several hundred dollars. Lawmakers could decide to boost spending at a record amount for at-risk students — meaning those from low-income families, English language learners or victims of abuse. The legislation also contains funding for expanding mental health services in schools, a priority of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

“We have a pro-public education legislature here in Michigan for the first time in 40 years,” said Thomas Morgan, spokesperson for the Michigan Education Association, the largest teachers union. “We're pulling ourselves out from the rubble.

States step in to provide meals

Outside of swelling school funding, other Democratic policy aims were embedded in state education budgets, like a multistate push to provide free school lunches for all students. During the pandemic, the federal government covered universal school lunches but that stipend lapsed, motivating states to step in and make those meals permanent.

Research shows that providing meals at no cost to students improves academic performance, improves the quality of students’ diets and relieves financial stress for families.

Republicans who voted against universal school meals cited the costs of implementing the change and concerns that it would lead to more food waste.

Nine states have passed a temporary or permanent universal school policy in the last year. Another 23 have seen legislation introduced since the pandemic, according to the Food Research and Action Center.

“We’re really grateful that in the absence of federal action to extend free meals to all students that states are stepping up, recognizing the value of providing free meals to all students and the benefits of supporting families during a really tough time,” said Diane Pratt-Heavner, director of media relations for the School Nutrition Association, a national advocacy group with local partners leading the lobbying effort in state legislatures.

Democrats have also rallied around trying to relieve the skyrocketing cost of child care. Minnesota’s education budget helps low-income families pay for child care while attending work or school and increases wages for providers. In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey is seeking to hike early education spending by 25 percent, a boost intended to avoid widespread closures of daycare centers across the state. Massachusetts lawmakers are currently hammering out the state budget, with Republicans generally against large spending increases.

Looking ahead to the upcoming session and the 2024 election, some Democrats predicted that the cracks between them and Republicans will only deepen.

“We’re doing the work we were sent here to do,” said Minnesota Sen. Mary Kunesh, a Democrat. “While they played games year after year, holding out thinking they were going to end up with the purse at the end of the day.”