Minnesota House Democrats passed an enormous supplemental education budget bill on Tuesday night. The 68-61 vote passed on legislation that would give an additional $43 million of surplus dollars to a variety of government bureaucracies. 

This legislation (HF5237) offers money to a variety of pilot programs. Among them is a new program that would crack down on truancy in schools. Truancy is classified as a crime in Minnesota and allows the state to charge the parents for not brining their children to school. This bill gives $3.34 million to the enforcement program, and $64,000 to a study program on the issue.

When students are not coming to class, there are bigger problems at play. The same problems that cause falling test scores and a shortage of teachers. The public school system in Minnesota is broken and students pay the price.

Throwing more money at an issue will not make it go away. Democrats tried doing this in 2023 with record breaking funding for schools. Despite this, test scores are still low and schools in the Twin Cities are still facing budget shortfalls.

Working parents should not be penalized for occasionally keeping their kids at home. After all, those kids belong to the family – not the state. If legislators want students in classrooms, they need to make education more appealing and palatable for students.