One classical school in Minneapolis offers a lesson on how to create opportunities in tough areas. Policymakers and special interest groups should pay attention.
In May, at a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, Rep. Bob Onder, R-Mo., described a reality that has been obvious to parents in the inner city for years: “Democrats and their teacher union allies are opposed to giving poor children, and yes, poor black children [and] poor Hispanic children, opportunity to achieve a good education.”
Students from low-income families, especially those in urban areas, are often assigned to public schools that have been persistently low performing for generations. These families’ situations are even more dire in cities that have repeated instances of fraud and mismanagement among assigned schools.
Though teachers unions refuse to admit it, there is a way out for these families. A great example can be found in Minneapolis, where city officials have lost the trust of residents due to repeated scams and a public school budget deeply in the red.
Minneapolis made headlines in 2026 for widespread childcare fraud and empty “learning centers” that received millions in taxpayer spending. The city’s public schools are also stuffed with taxpayer dollars, even as many of them fail to fill hundreds of available seats.
Rising above the morass is Hope Academy, a classical school serving students in downtown Minneapolis. Hope’s students reflect the city’s diversity: 84% of students are ethnic minorities, and school officials report dozens of languages are spoken in the hallways. The median income of Hope Academy families is less than $43,000 per year.
Despite these challenges, Hope officials report 97% of students graduate on time. The majority of ninth graders who have attended the school for at least two years are proficient in math and reading. The school even tracks the number of conversations on religious values that educators have with students each year. Every teacher monitors test scores, but how many educators can tell you how often they talk with students about matters of character and devotion?
According to researchers at Stanford University, the Minneapolis public school students score nearly two grade levels below the national average in both math and reading. In fact, black and Hispanic students are 4.5 and 5.4 grade levels behind the national average in combined achievement levels, respectively, while white students are two grade levels ahead. Chronic absenteeism rates (the rate of students missing 10% or more of the school year) are up compared to 2019 (though figures have improved since 2022). These dismal results come on top of a district budget that has been riddled with errors and is now nearly $40 million in the red.
Meanwhile, Hope Academy tuition is supported by private donations, and the median tuition contribution from families is a mere $850 per year. The difference at Hope Academy is not in how much money is spent but how it is spent.
Hope is one of 900 classical schools in The Heritage Foundation’s Classical Schools Database. This database not only tracks the growth of classical schools around the country but also provides information on classical schools’ distinctives compared to assigned public schools. For example, Hope uses a curriculum that includes the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric), teaches Latin and Greek, and engages students in Socratic seminars. Heritage’s database includes 19 other classical schools in Minnesota, but none are located in urban Minneapolis.
Minnesota used to be a pioneer of the school choice movement, a movement that encouraged the growth of public and private schools of choice. State lawmakers adopted the first charter school law in the nation in 1991.
Unfortunately, lawmakers have not kept up with the expansion of education choice policies nationally. Today, lawmakers in 18 states allow every family in their state to apply for education savings accounts to pay private school tuition or buy other education products and services for their children.
Minnesota lawmakers in both chambers have introduced education choice bills that would create these accounts, but these proposals have not advanced. Instead, lawmakers continue to pour dollars into empty daycares and half-empty public schools.
When education and the success of future generations are concerned, moms and dads should call for solutions, hold policymakers accountable for fraud, and ask why more students do not have access to schools such as Hope Academy.
