The Minnesota State Grant for higher education is facing a mass reduction in funding because of a budget shortfall, which could impact many of the roughly 2,000 St. Thomas students who receive it.
What is the MN State Grant?
The Minnesota State Grant works side-by-side with the national Pell Grant to provide funds to students across the state attending college. The Office for Higher Education reports that, since its creation in 1969, the Minnesota State Grant’s budget has increased, with hundreds of millions of dollars awarded to students annually at both public and private universities
St. Thomas Director of Public Relations Brant Skogrand wrote that 39% of the current first-year class and approximately one-third of the total undergraduate population receive the grant. Awards range from $187 to $14,044, with the average qualifying student receiving $6,300.
The Minnesota Private College Council reported that 44% of all undergrads in the state receive a grant, meaning that over 75,000 students are receiving funds.
Despite demand, the Minnesota Private College Council reports a $131 million funding shortfall for the grant program in 2026-27, reducing available funds by 30%. Skogrand said the fund has experienced a shortfall in the past, such as two years ago, when St. Thomas created a temporary limited fund to help students offset a portion of the lost funding. This temporary solution was funded directly by the university.
Political science professor Angela High-Pippert said that the legislature will likely have two options to mitigate the grant funding shortfall:
1. Lower the minimum household income required to receive any money from the grant
2. Slash the funds equally to all those who receive support from the grant
The first option would mean some students across the state could lose out on all the money they receive from the grant, given that their family’s household income would be too high — even if it did not change — if the maximum were lowered from $60,000.
The second would mean that all the people currently receiving funds from the grant would see an equal proportion cut from their funds. For example, everyone on the grant could have their yearly grant cut equally by 30%, regardless of comparative need.
High-Pippert said the latter of the two options is more likely to happen.
Concerns about Minnesota’s state funding for projects are a main focus in the legislature this year following allegations of fraud and other cases of state dollars being misused.
This year, though, is not a budgeting year. Every other year, the legislature creates the budget for the following two fiscal years; this year is in the middle of that cycle and has a set budget, according to Minnesota Management and Budget. However, there is money that can be appropriated for the grant in this legislative session.
In a report released by Management and Budget in February, the state said it was looking at a revised budget surplus of $3.7 billion, which is $1.3 billion higher than the previous estimate. That means money could potentially be moved around to provide the needed funding to the grant program.
Skogrand estimates that St. Thomas students could lose upwards of $6,000 if funding is not reallocated.
Students take to lobbying
St. Thomas students engaged in a day of lobbying at the Minnesota State Capitol to encourage further funding for the grant program in collaboration with the Minnesota Private College Council. Students around St. Thomas took part in training and were sent out on March 10 to meet with legislators.
Any student could sign up for the activity, though some classes around campus, such as High-Pippert’s U.S. policymaking class, encouraged involvement for educational purposes. This is what got Finley Mortenson, a first-year political science major, involved with the initiative.
“The minute my professor told the class about this initiative, I knew I had to get involved,” Mortenson said. “I mean, opportunities like this don’t come along often; it was the perfect chance to learn and lead at the same time.”
Mortenson said she felt there was a personal tie to what she was doing, citing the existence of “two different groups” of students at St. Thomas.
“There are the people who come here, with their education fully paid for … And then there are other students who have to work while they’re in school to put themselves through school,” Mortenson said. “ … So grants, like the Minnesota State Grant, just help to take a little bit of that financial burden off and ensure that students can prioritize their education when they’re in school instead of their work.”
Mortenson said that she has a broad amount of support for affording college, but that she couldn’t afford to lose any scholarship or grant she has. If she did, she said she’d be unsure what her next steps would be. That is why Mortenson said she lobbied on behalf of the one-third of Tommies who may be put into that uncertain position.
The students’ day started with training and review at Christ Lutheran Church with many other people from private universities across the state, each there to meet with a legislator. After their training, the roughly 100 students went about the Capitol grounds to their meetings in the surrounding buildings.
Mortenson had two meetings; the first was with Democratic Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy on the top floor of the Senate office building.
Mortenson and an additional seven St. Thomas students waited in a conference room for the senator until around 10 minutes after the meeting was supposed to start, when Murphy’s legislative assistant came in. She informed the group that the senator had a busy schedule and wouldn’t be able to make the meeting.
Despite their disappointment, the students proceeded to lobby the senator’s legislative assistant for their cause instead.
“It’s hard because it makes it feel like our work isn’t going anywhere because of that, and it makes us feel like, ‘What did we even do here?’” senior Snigdha Bhattarai said. “ …We’re probably not the only people doing this; it would take a lot more than just us going there and just us saying something.”
Almost immediately after, Mortenson had her second meeting in a smaller office room with Republican Senator Eric Lucero.
Mortenson said the senator was receptive to the need to fund the grant but was limited in his personal commitment to assist in that funding because of a projected deficit in the upcoming fiscal year.
This conflicts with the projected $377 million budget surplus forecasted by the Minnesota Management and Budget department.
Mortenson and fellow Tommies Bhattarai and sophomore Penny Vilaythong ended their day as lobbyists getting lunch in the Capitol’s cafeteria, where they said that it felt as though the effort they were displaying wasn’t enough to accomplish their goals.
“I think we need more powerful people speaking out like that. It’s not just going to take like a couple of (school) presidents; it’s going to take a whole school advocating in a completely different way than this,” Bhattarai said.
Charley Stroh can be reached at stro1653@stthomas.edu.
