News

Our upcoming research

  September 2023 By Marnie Werner, VP of Research & Operations We are officially in a new fiscal year here at the Center for Rural Policy and Development and with it comes a new research agenda. The list of issues to research in rural Minnesota seems never-ending and unfortunately, we only have so many hours ...
chart of stock prices

Inflation does vary between rural and urban Minnesota

By Marnie Werner Vice President of Research Click for a printable version of this report. According to a Star Tribune article in January 2022, “For the broader Midwest, inflation was 7.5% in December, far above the 5.9% rate in the more heavily populated northeastern states.” Inflation wasn’t even consistent around the state: “Rochester; St. Cloud; ...

Jesus Gonzalez – CRPD Capital Pathways Intern

May 2023 By Jesus Gonzalez, Capitol Pathways Intern My name is Jesus Gonzalez, a Concordia College sophomore, and for the last couple of months, I’ve been the Capitol Pathways Intern for the Center for Rural Policy and Development. From start to finish the program and the Center have been great! Now at the end, I’m ...

Declining rural newspapers? – Research webinar

  Our latest research report explores the decline of newspapers in rural MN and how this affects civic engagement. This one-of-a-kind report explores this important topic and gives ideas to strengthen rural newspapers and civic engagement. You can read the report here. On Wednesday, May 3rd, Marnie Webinar provided highlights from the report and had ...

Season 3, Episode 10: The declining rural newspaper?

The Center for Rural Policy recently released a report outlining the trends of rural newspapers in Minnesota and some of the challenges and opportunities they are currently facing. On this episode, Marnie Werner, Director of Research, discusses the report and what she found while researching this important issue.
Row of folded newspapers

The disappearing rural newspaper

By Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research April 26, 2023 Click here for a condensed two-page summary of this report.  Click here for a printable version of this report. Click here to register for our upcoming webinar on Wednesday, May 3, 2:30 pm. In January, Abdulla Gaafarelkhalifa was the only reporter left at the St. Cloud ...

Season 3, Episode 9: The General Education Revenue Program and Rural Districts

In this episode, Marnie Werner interviews Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher for the Center for Rural Policy and Development to discuss the most recent research report- “Shedding Light on the Education Formula“.  They touch on the reason the education formula is complex, that it distributes funds “unequally” by design, and their amazement on how much the ...

Shedding light on the education formula

How the K-12 general education revenue program’s complexities work for rural districts March 2023 By Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher For a printable version of this report, click here. To watch a short video about how the education formula works, click here. To read a short blog post about the research, click here. Increasing education funding ...

Shedding light on the education formula – research overview

  The Center for Rural Policy and Development were presented with a question – if you only increase one piece of the education formula, does it benefit certain types of schools more than others? In this presentation, Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher, presents an overview of a report that provides an answer to this question. The ...