News & Updates
The Gap that Remains: The State of School Funding in Minnesota
In past analyses, North Star Policy Action has examined changes in school funding in Minnesota. We showed how state aid to schools declined steeply from 2003 to 2023, before landmark legislation helped to address the gap. The result was state aid in 2024 coming closer...
What Are We Measuring? Non-Participation and the Reliability of Minnesota’s MCA Results
Introduction Standardized tests have become a central way of measuring student performance in America, with substantial media and political attention focused on the results to evaluate how well our kids are learning. While tests can provide insight into student...
Rising Health Care Spending in Minnesota
Headwinds: The Federal Government’s Wind Energy Pause and Its Costs to Minnesota
Executive Summary At the end of April, the federal government effectively halted the development of more than 250 onshore wind energy projects across the United States by failing to complete routine national security reviews. These projects, capable of producing 30...
Minnesotans Are Falling Behind: What the data shows about affordability under the Trump administration
Introduction Affordability seems to be the topic on everyone’s mind in 2026. A majority of Minnesotans now say affordability should be the top priority for elected officials, and it’s easy to see why: the cost of basics, including housing, food, child care,...
The Impact of Operation Metro Surge on Minnesota’s Leisure and Hospitality Sector
By Aaron Rosenthal, North Star Policy Action and Aaron Sojourner, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Policy Research Introduction Reporting on Operation Metro Surge (OMS) in Minnesota has focused on economic harm to several industries with large immigrant worker populations,...
Analyzing the Cost of Charter Schools for St. Paul Public Schools
February Numbers Reveal Operation Metro Surge’s Damage Continued in Minnesota
New labor market data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for February 2026 continue to tell a troubling story about the state of Minnesota's economy. The numbers confirm what we documented for January: Operation Metro Surge left real,...
New State Data Confirm Operation Metro Surge’s Toll on Minnesota’s Economy
On April 2, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) released new labor market data for January 2026, giving us the first concrete look at how Minnesota's economy fared in the immediate aftermath of Operation Metro Surge. The picture is...
Impact of DHS Agent Surge on Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metro Area Labor Outcomes
By Aaron Sojourner, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and Aaron Rosenthal, Northstar Policy Action This analysis aims to quantify key economic impacts of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) surge of agents starting in early January 2026 to...
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