Category: Blog

By Kelly Asche, Research associate & Marnie Werner, VP Research This week the Center is released a new report on the state of rural Minnesota’s workforce. In 2019, we assembled a four-part series on rural Minnesota’s worker shortage, it’s impact on economic growth in Greater Minnesota, and what rural communities are doing about the problem. ...

Here’s to blue skies ahead in 2021.   By Marnie Werner, VP of Research & Operations Okay, it’s been a crazy year, right? Who would have imagined on January 1 of 2020 all the things we’ve been through by Dec. 31? For many of us, it was a sad, frustrating year. All our personal plans ...

On our blog two weeks ago, we talked about looking forward, not only because it’s the end of the year and that’s what people do—they review the past year and look ahead to the year to come—but because the end of the pandemic is in sight. We can start to look to the great beyond. ...

  It’s the beginning of December, in one month 2020 will finally be over, and the 2021 legislature will begin looking at a Minnesota beyond COVID. Yes, there are still many current COVID issues that will need to be addressed: supporting people out of work and the small businesses that employed them, shoring up our ...

  By Whitney Oachs, Research Intern Although Minnesota’s state college and university system has reported a decline in enrollment overall over the last 10 years, one small community college in northeastern Minnesota has succeeded against the odds. Between 2010 and 2018, Pine Technical and Community College (PTCC) in Pine County recorded a 20% increase in ...

  By Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research, & Jordon Barthel, Research Intern To listen to a conversation with Marnie Werner about this research, check out our podcast – Episode 11: CRPD Research – Census and redistricting in Rural Minnesota. After months of back-and-forth wrangling among different groups and interests the 2020 Census count finally came ...

October 2020 By Whitney Oachs, Research Intern When CRPD updated its website in 2010, many of our old research reports were not included on the new site. That has now changed. With over twenty years of research available on our website, we are more ready than ever to answer your questions regarding Greater Minnesota. In ...

By Julie Tesch, CEO and President As we enter the autumn season, I am happy to announce that the Center for Rural Policy & Development recently elected new officers to their board.  The officers of CRPD play a vital role in helping set the direction of the organization while also supporting our non-partisan research. Our ...

By Whitney Oachs, Research Intern As discussed in our recent 2020 State of Rural Report, most farmers were barely getting by before the onslaught of COVID-19. While agricultural land values have remained at historic highs, low commodity prices and increased costs of production have resulted in negative net income, contributing to declining mental health for ...