Minnesota already spends $857M on at-risk students. Why some want hundreds of millions more.

More than 300,000 Minnesota school kids are at risk of failing, with Minnesotans paying more than $850 million to help them catch up. Some say even that’s an undercount, and schools need more tax dollars to reach all at-risk students.

It’s called compensatory funding. The idea is to spend a little extra to help kids who start school lagging behind the rest of the class because of poverty, because they come from an underserved community or because they’re still learning English.

“What this task force recommends is making sure that we cast the widest net possible to make sure we are identifying and resourcing students with needs,” said Matt Shaver with EdAllies.

Shaver was one of 14 education experts and legislators who spent more than a year looking at what ...