SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Wednesday, the House Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee advanced the House DFL’s 2022 Higher Education supplemental budget plan. The proposal increases access to college and post-secondary opportunities by delivering robust investments to support current and prospective students.
“Our bill opens doors for Minnesota students,” said Rep. Connie Bernardy (DFL-New Brighton), chair of the House Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee. “Every child born in Minnesota will have the opportunity to go to college. We listened to students and families and are delivering to meet their needs now and in the future.”
To expand access to two-year college opportunities, the House DFL Higher Education bill creates a Land of 10,000 Opportunities Free College Grant Program created to cover full cost of state tuition and fees for an estimated 10,000 families for Minnesota’s two-year colleges using a sliding scale based on the recipient’s reported family income. The free college grant must be a last-dollar financial award after all other state and federal programs have been applied and will make two-year college free for students from families making less than $75,000 per year and cut the remaining cost at least by half for students from families making less than $125,000.
The House’s higher education budget plan focuses on college affordability and bringing costs down for Minnesotans through an equity lens. It increases the eligibility threshold for the state grant program, which lowers the Assigned Student Responsibility for state grants from 50 to 48 percent, increasing awards by an average of $250 per student. It also includes increased funding to a variety of grant and scholarship programs, such as the Minnesota Indian Scholarship Program, a new social work scholarship program, teacher shortage loan repayment program, Hunger Free Campus grants, Emergency Assistance for Postsecondary Student grants, grants to underrepresented student teachers, and increases the Aspiring Teachers of Color Scholarship Pilot program.
To address the upsurge in mental health issues and safety deficiencies, House DFLers provided funding for the MinnState system to pursue additional centralized basic needs and mental health resources, training opportunities, and support that will enhance student mental health and basic needs capacity on college and university campuses. It also adds an Affirmative Consent Standard to the sexual harassment and violence training campuses across the state are required to provide.
The bill supports research opportunities to protect clean water access, and the creation of a water and mine land remediation lab expansion in Duluth and a new mineral processing and metallurgy lab in Coleraine.
In total, the proposal delivers $100 million of new investments in the current biennium, with another $150 billion in the next budget cycle. A copy of the investments is available here.
Video of the hearing is available on House Public Information Services’ YouTube channel.
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