National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues Warns of Crisis of Freedom and Safety for Students During Minnesota House Education Finance Committee Testimony

Minneapolis, Minnesota — February 18, 2025 — National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues testified today before the Minnesota House of Representatives Education Finance Committee, as communities across Minneapolis continue to experience heightened immigration enforcement activity and as federal officials engage in sensitive Department of Homeland Security budget negotiations on Capitol Hill.

Legislators, local superintendents, educators, parents, and advocates in attendance described a widespread disruption to school stability, student attendance, school staffing, and student wellbeing. Link to the full committee hearing can be viewed here.

Rodrigues warned lawmakers that recent enforcement activity near schools and neighborhoods is undermining the state’s historic investments in public education by driving down student attendance and destabilizing learning environments—particularly for immigrant families, English Learners, and students with disabilities.

Full Transcript of Rodrigues’s Testimony

“Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Keri Rodrigues. I am Matthew, Miles, and David’s mom, and I am the President of the National Parents Union.

We are in a crisis of freedom and safety — two promises every child in America should be guaranteed: the freedom to go to school and the safety to walk home. Classrooms, buses, playgrounds, and hallways should be safe spaces. But in Minnesota and communities across the country, that promise has been broken. This morning we have provided your committee with two of our reports – the Attack on American Childhood and Learning Under Threat – to help you put real numbers and data to how catastrophic this has been for our children – we hope this is helpful.

This Legislature made historic investments in public education. You increased the per-pupil funding formula, strengthened special education funding, and implemented the Minnesota READ Act to ensure every child can learn to read through evidence-based instruction. Districts hired literacy coaches, expanded tutoring, and added counselors and social workers. After years of mixed results, progress was beginning to show. Attendance rebounded — consistent attendance in Minneapolis rose by 40% — and achievement improved, with Minnesota climbing five rankings in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress to third in the nation for 8th grade math.

But progress depends on stability. That stability has been shattered by aggressive immigration enforcement activity near our communities and schools. Children cannot benefit from investments in literacy, tutoring, or counseling if they are not physically present in classrooms.

The impact has been immediate. Attendance at a Minneapolis charter school fell below 50% following community violence tied to enforcement activity. Rochester saw an 81% increase in excused absences in January and a 417% spike among English Learners. Families of students with disabilities are keeping children home out of fear, cutting them off from therapies and services this Legislature invested in.

Across the country we see similar disruption — from thousands of students absent in Los Angeles to tens of thousands staying home during enforcement activity in Charlotte, NC. Educators are now warning families of patrols, developing emergency safety plans, and shifting into crisis response instead of instruction.

Until families feel safe, Minnesota’s educational progress will remain on hold.

That is why we ask this Legislature to take immediate steps to protect and support students by doing the following:

1. Increase funding for mental health and trauma supports in every district so children have counselors and psychologists to process fear and return to learning.
2. Invest in making up learning time through extended learning and high-impact tutoring, and use existing statute allowing the commissioner to hold schools harmless for funding due to enrollment declines during crises.
3. Maintain laws and enforcement around assessments and transparency so we can measure both the immediate and long-term impacts on children and track the results of your education investments. Disrupting measurement will not relieve trauma — it will only hide its effects.

Minnesota has already shown what is possible when we invest in children — stronger schools, better outcomes, and real progress. But those gains mean nothing if children are too afraid to show up. No policy, program, or funding formula can succeed without freedom and safety as the foundation.

We also want to applaud the people of Minnesota in this moment — families, educators, faith leaders, and neighbors — for their courage, their strength in community, and their commitment to centering kids even under extraordinary stress. That leadership matters.

This moment calls for leadership that protects children first — ensuring schools remain places of learning, healing, and opportunity. Our kids cannot wait for stability to return on its own. They are counting on us to create it. Thank you.”

###

ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARENTS UNION
With more than 1,800 affiliated parent organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, the National Parents Union is the united, independent voice of modern American families. We channel the power of parents into powerful policies that improve the lives of children, families and communities across the United States. https://nationalparentsunion.org/