A state-appointed commission in Minnesota is calling on lawmakers to scrap a planned $250 million reduction in special education funding, arguing that such cuts would disproportionately harm the state’s most vulnerable students.
The recommendation, issued by the Blue Ribbon Commission on Special Education, comes as the number of students qualifying for services has surged by more than 30,000 since 2017.
The pushback arrives after years of fiscal anxiety at the State Capitol. In 2024, officials warned that rising special education costs were straining the state budget, with projections suggesting expenses could climb by nearly $2 billion by the end of the decade. Lawmakers responded last year by mandating the commission find $250 million in cuts every two-year budget cycle. Instead, after months of deliberation, members have unanimously urged the legislature to reverse course.
“Special education is already underfunded and has historically been underfunded … so that makes those cuts, I think, particularly painful and concerning,” said Laura Jean, policy coordinator for the PACER Center, an advocacy group for students with disabilities, as reported by MPR News.
The Rising Tide of Service Needs
The expansion in special education enrollment is driven by a combination of factors, including more sophisticated diagnostic tools and a post-pandemic surge in learning struggles. Experts say improved identification of disabilities—particularly autism—has created a more inclusive, though more expensive, process.
“The tools that we have to diagnose autism have gotten better over time. We’re broadening our benchmark tools … to include diverse populations where those groups were not included in the past, so it stands to reason that we would be … meeting the criteria for a … diagnosis with a larger pool of people,” said Maren Christiansen Hofer, executive director of the Multicultural Autism Action Network.
While this increased awareness is widely viewed as a positive development for student outcomes, it has outpaced the growth of available state and federal funding. The resulting gap, known as the special education cross-subsidy, hit $514 million in 2025. Even with legislative efforts in 2023 to bridge this divide, the deficit is projected to grow to $517 million by 2029.
Refining the Funding Formula
While the commission rejected outright budget cuts, they did identify areas where the state’s special education funding formula has become bloated with expenses not directly related to special education. Items such as aid to charter schools, general transportation costs, and early intervention programs have historically been tethered to the special education budget.
Dan Armagost, executive director of the Southern Minnesota Education Consortium and a House Republican appointee to the commission, said that these non-special education expenses have artificially inflated the cost of the program. He argued that separating these costs could protect the program from further political scrutiny without necessarily defunding the underlying services.
“There were some things that were on the special ed formula that were not special education expenses. These artificially inflated the cost of special ed and, I felt, put a target on us as a whole,” Armagost explained.
The Human Stakes of Fiscal Policy
For school administrators on the front lines, the prospect of budget reductions is not merely a numbers game. St. Paul Superintendent Stacie Stanley, who served on the commission, issued a formal letter warning that rapid cost reductions would inevitably harm students who are already struggling to access essential support. State legislators appear to be listening to these concerns as they prepare for the upcoming session.
Sen. Bonnie Westlin, DFL-Plymouth, who worked with commission members to analyze the funding structure, plans to introduce legislation to block the cuts. She remains critical of the federal government’s role in the shortfall. Although federal law requires the government to cover 42 percent of special education costs, the current contribution hovers at approximately 8 percent, leaving states to absorb the remainder.
“It’s a fiction for anyone to think that you can make this big of a cut and not have it harm students in one way or another,” Westlin said. Rep. Kimberly Hicks, DFL-Rochester, echoed this sentiment, stating, “There is not a scenario where you cut funding from our students with the most significant needs and that ends well.”
Looking Toward Inclusive Classrooms
Beyond immediate funding, some advocates argue the state needs to fundamentally rethink how it delivers special education. Christiansen Hofer and others suggest that moving away from a “system within a system” toward more inclusive, classroom-based support could improve outcomes while potentially lowering costs. By focusing on accessibility for all students, schools may find that the need for expensive, separate interventions diminishes over time.
As the legislature prepares to convene, the commission’s unanimous recommendation shows that the pressure to balance the books often clashes with the legal and ethical mandates to serve students with disabilities. Whether lawmakers can reconcile these competing interests without compromising the quality of education remains the central challenge for the next session.
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