Governor Tim Walz’s tour of schools throughout Minnesota to celebrate historic investments in education continued today at Nisswa Elementary.

Before addressing the large sum of money now being allocated to funding education, Governor Walz first and foremost wanted to thank the people whose lives revolve around education.

“Thank our administrators, thank [Brainerd Public Schools] Superintendent [Laine] Larson, thank our teachers and the educational support staff, thank our students and their families because there’s no cliché probably too great to talk about what it meant to be a student or a teacher or a parent over the past 16 months,” said Governor Walz.

Inside the state’s $52 billion budget, thanks to Minnesota’s COVID-19 recovery budget, $1.2 billion will be going towards educational funding over the next four years.

“While this group of folks here committed to their children, and had those kids back, we made sure that the legislative session and the work that was being done with the COVID relief dollars that we had your back, and that meant passing the state’s largest education increase in a budget in about two decades,” said Walz.

The Governor stressed how important this money will be in providing all students in the state access to quality education.

“These dollars should make a difference for many years into the future,” said Walz. “They certainly are committed to these COVID relief dollars to providing these summer school opportunities both this year and next year, and then I think what we’re going to see is, we’re going to see the benefit that they bring, this enhanced ability, and we’ll be able to do more into the future.”

“These funds help to support pre-K programming, these funds help to support field trips, hands-on learning opportunities and enrichment,” added Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Dr. Heather Mueller.

After a year of unprecedented schooling, whether it be wearing masks inside classrooms, social distancing, or virtual learning, Brainerd Public Schools Superintendent Laine Larson asked a simple question: do they need to be in person to establish that connection between students and teachers?

“And what we learned through that process is, ‘yes, we do,’ because there’s nothing more important than the direct contact between that teacher, and our children, and our principals,” said Larson.

And with this historic investment, Governor Walz hopes to help every single student gain that connection and have a good education.

Governor Walz will continue his statewide education tour Friday in Mankato.

By — Chris Burns