Category: Blog

Kelly Asche January 2024 The last legislative session produced an interesting program to help make post-secondary education more affordable for low-income students – the North Star Promise. From the Minnesota Office of Higher Education: “Beginning in fall 2024, the North Star Promise (NSP) Scholarship program will create a tuition and fee-free pathway to higher education ...

January 16, 2024 By Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher Every December the U.S. Census Bureau releases the new American Community Survey data, representing the previous year. And with that release the Center for Rural Policy can update all the numbers representing rural Minnesota and release the annual “State of Rural” report. The big takeaway again in ...

January 4, 2024 By Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher Every December the U.S. Census Bureau releases the new American Community Survey data, representing the previous year. And with that release the Center for Rural Policy can update all the numbers representing rural Minnesota and release the annual “State of Rural” report. The big takeaway again in ...

  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 ...

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 ...

March 2023 By Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher To nearly everyone, the education formula is a mystery. And where there’s mystery, there tends to be misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and incorrect narratives. Making changes to policy that is well understood is hard enough. Imagine trying to change policy that isn’t well understood. This is the predicament rural schools ...

By Marnie Werner, VP, Research As I work on our research projects, it often seems like all the topics I write about are gloomy and doom-filled. And they are usually. Here at the Center, we tend to write about problems—problems that need fixing—because the only way problems get fixed is if we know about them ...

Northern Minnesota saw significant declines in employment in the leisure and hospitality industry   By Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher January 2023 Every year the Center for Rural Policy and Development publishes the “State of Rural Minnesota,” a report outlining the demographic and economic trends in Minnesota using the most recent data available. Typically, the report ...

New population data confirms the migration pattern we thought was happening   By Kelly Asche, Senior Research Associate January 2023 Every year the Center for Rural Policy and Development publishes the “State of Rural Minnesota,” a report outlining the demographic and economic trends in Minnesota using the most recent data available. Typically, the report only ...