Here’s The Best School District In Minnesota: Report

MINNETONKA, MN — A new report has ranked the best school district in Minnesota, and the answer may not surprise you. The website 24/7 Wall St., a Delaware corporation that publishes financial news and commentary, sifted through various school data to determine the best school district in every state.

In Minnesota, Minnetonka Public School District in Hennepin County topped the list. The district has 9,981 students and spends $10,749 per student, the analysis found. The high school graduation rate is 100 percent and 62 percent of adults have a bachelor’s degree.

The company evaluated the districts by creating an index based on data in the following categories:

• child poverty
• spending per student
• graduation rate
• teachers per student
• percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree
• preschool enrollment
• Advanced Placement enrollment

Several school districts in the U.S. spend more than $50,000 per student on education each year, 24/7 Wall St. said, but others spend less than $2,000 per student.

“That difference in spending contributes to major disparities in student outcomes throughout the country,” the authors wrote. “The majority of a school’s budget is spent on staff and teacher salaries. A school that is able to attract the best teachers can give their students a major advantage.”

Indeed, wealthier areas often reap those rewards.

Local sources, including property taxes, account for about 44 percent of all school funding in the U.S. This means most of the best school districts are located in affluent counties where the majority of households earn more than double that of a typical American household.

In Hennepin County, the median household income from 2012-2016 was $67,989 — much higher than the national average of $55,322. Furthermore, the poverty rate in Hennepin County was just 10.9 percent compared to the national average of 12.7 percent.

The nationwide rankings report, published on Monday, follows a January report from the same site that found Minnesota ranked 10th in the country for best schools.

Here’s a breakdown of schools in Minnesota, according to 24/7 Wall St.:

• High school graduation rate: 82.2% (16th lowest)
• Public school spending: $12,692 per pupil (22nd highest)
• 8th grade NAEP proficiency: 47.8% (math) 39.7% (reading)
• Adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 34.8% (11th highest)
• Adults 25-64 with incomes at or above national median: 58.1% (6th highest)

“While large shares of students in Minnesota have relatively stable home lives, not all benefit from equal funding at school," the report stated.

"The best funded school districts in Minnesota receive about $4,290 more in funding per pupil then those with the lowest funding. Partially as a result, only about 45 percent of students in the state live in districts with above average per-pupil spending.”

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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