Eyeing surplus, Minnesota college students, administrators plan to ask lawmakers for financial relief

John Runningen expects to have $15,000 to $20,000 in debt by the time he finishes studying to become a social studies teacher. That amounts to nearly a third of a typical teacher's salary in Minnesota, and entry-level teachers often take home less.

He knows his student loan payments will be a strain.

"Many students that I've been able to talk to have experienced a lot of the same financial struggles and instabilities," said Runningen, a student leader who is enrolled at Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Fergus Falls.

So Runningen and other students plan to lobby state lawmakers for financial relief and help covering their basic needs. With many other sectors competing for a slice of the state's historic $17.6 billion surplus, they'll face competition — and inquiries from lawmakers who have questions about the ballooning costs and declining enrollment at Minnesota's higher education institutions.

"I want an understanding of what's going on," said Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, who chairs the House Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee.

Pelowski said he plans to begin the session by focusing on the budget. Student leaders at public colleges and universities are asking the state to invest $1 billion in higher education, money that would go to a variety of programs.

The Minnesota State system is asking for its biggest funding increase ever — an extra $350 million over two years — as part of a pitch to freeze tuition for students. The University of Minnesota is asking for an extra $205 million and promising to consider spending cuts and tuition increases in exchange.

The Minnesota Private College Council, meanwhile, is seeking increased support for a state grant program designed to help students from low- and middle-income families cover costs at both public and private institutions.

"Every student has many challenges, but the biggest one for most students is paying for college," said Paul Cerkvenik, the council's president.

Some student organizations are pushing for something bolder. They want state lawmakers to revive old proposals that would have provided two years of free tuition, fees and textbooks at public colleges and universities.

Runningen, who was recently elected president of LeadMN, an organization representing students at Minnesota's two-year institutions, said such a program would attract more students to college.

Runningen said that when he was growing up, his family "made just enough to not get food stamps, but not enough to be able to afford getting groceries."

"College was never something that I saw in my future," he said. "It wasn't until senior year that my teachers pushed me to try to become a teacher like them."

Noting the money to cover that tuition would have to come from somewhere, Pelowski said that was "an interesting concept, but I'd like to do something that would work."

Pelowski said he plans to introduce bills to freeze or lower tuition in the Minnesota State system. A staffer for Sen. Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis, who chairs the Senate Higher Education Committee, said he was not available for an interview.

Pelowski said he also wants to "relink" K-12 schools to two-year institutions. To him, that means high schools would offer more programs that allow students to graduate with college credits or the professional certifications needed to land a job.

"This is gonna be an interesting process, because it means a rethinking of how we handled higher education," he said.

Students are also seeking a measure that would prohibit Minnesota from taxing any debt relief issued through President Joe Biden's new program, if the plan holds up in court.

"That would just be more money that students would pay back. We don't want to have that additional burden," said Kaileigh Weber, state chair of Students United, an organization representing students at universities in the Minnesota State system.

State lawmakers considered a similar bill in the past, but it didn't become law. State Rep. Aisha Gomez, DFL-Minneapolis, who chairs the House Taxes Committee, said it's an issue she hopes to take up early in the session, calling it a "band-aid fix" for a student debt crisis that is burdening hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans.

"Even if we get student loan debt [relief], which we need to do, we still have these out-of-control costs," she said.

Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, who chairs the Senate's Taxes Committee, did not return messages.

Beyond the direct financial relief, students are seeking more money to help them pay for food, menstrual products and other basic needs. They're also asking to fund more mental health counselors, some of whom have to work at multiple campuses.

"COVID did one thing right: It shed a lot of light on the issues that are pretty unseen for nontraditional students," Runningen said. "We just want to make sure that college students and higher education get their fair piece" of the surplus.