Tag: greater minnesota

The Journey to meaningful workforce participation among graduates in Southwest Minnesota

The data show that the choices students make in high school and that paths they take after high school can predictably guide them to specific states of meaningful workforce participation later on. November 2023 By Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher | Marnie Werner, VP of Research & Operations For a print version of this report, click ...
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 ...
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 ...

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 ...

What’s Happening in Greater Minnesota? – Part 3: Workforce shortages

The Center for Rural Policy and Development partnered with Sourcewell to produce short videos discussing our most recent research. In Part 3, Kelly Asche discusses the historically low unemployment rates as well as the drop in the number of people participating in the labor force during the pandemic, and how this has impacted job vacancies.
little girl blowing bubbles

Catching kids early, before they fall

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 ...