By Phillip C. Parrish
Retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander · Intelligence Officer
Producer and Host, Freedom Talk with Phil
16 September 2026
A flyer is circulating that tells Minnesotans to vote no on the Permanent School Fund amendment. Parts of that flyer are true. A comment attached to it is not.
Nathan Raddatz looked at Speaker Lisa Demuth saying she will vote yes, and wrote that she is “not conservative.” That is a mischaracterization. I will not let it stand. I do not let mischaracterizations, lies, or half-truths go unchecked — no matter who publishes them, and no matter which side of a primary they sat on.
This is not about protecting a politician. This is about protecting the record so Minnesota families can see what is actually on the ballot.
What you are actually voting on
On November 3, 2026, one statewide constitutional question will sit on your ballot. The official title is:
“Increasing funding to school districts.”
The official question is:
Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to increase the funding going to all school districts from the permanent school fund, which is a fund that supports school districts without raising individual income or property taxes, effective July 1, 2027?
Read that again. It never mentions the word inviolate. That word has been in Article XI, Section 8 of the Minnesota Constitution since 1858. It is the lock on the principal.
If you leave the question blank, it counts as no. Constitutional amendments in this state need a majority of every ballot cast in the election, not just the people who mark the box. That is the law. Use it or lose it.
What the Constitution says now — and what they want to strike
Now:
The principal of the Permanent School Fund “shall be perpetual and inviolate forever.” Schools receive interest and dividends. Realized investment losses have to be repaid from later earnings. The corpus is not a checking account.
If yes wins:
That sentence comes out. The fund is to be “managed as a perpetual financial resource,” to “preserve purchasing power over time,” and to “balance the needs of current and future beneficiaries.” The payout rate moves into statute — 4.5 percent of the three-year average value — not into the Constitution.
A later Legislature can change 4.5 percent by ordinary majority. Senate Republicans tried to lock future rate changes behind a two-thirds vote. Conference committee stripped that guardrail.
The fund is about $2.3 billion. It paid schools roughly $58 million last cycle — about $68 per pupil — from a 2 to 2.5 percent interest-and-dividend draw. Supporters advertise something closer to $101 per pupil if markets hold. That is a projection, not a constitutional floor. A bad stretch of years, and the check shrinks. There will be no “inviolate” sentence left to stop a future session from hiking the rate.
The flyer is right about the lock. The ballot title is incomplete by design. That is the substance.
Who actually put this on the ballot
This is where the smear collapses. Chamber Vote that put the question on the ballot Minnesota House, May 4 133–0 Minnesota House, May 16 (conference) 134–0 Minnesota Senate, May 16 (final) 43–24
Every House Republican voted yes to refer the question to the people. Twice. The House author was Rep. Spencer Igo (R). The Senate author was Sen. Mary Kunesh (DFL).
The flyer’s line — every Senate yes was a Democrat, every Senate no a Republican — is true of the final Senate roll only. It is not the story of the Legislature. Treating that one chamber as the whole government is how you turn a constitutional argument into a club.
Lisa Demuth is Speaker of the House that passed this 134–0. When she says she will vote yes in November and asks others to do the same, she is not inventing a secret new position. She is standing on a roll call her entire caucus already cast.
You can still vote no. I am not telling you how to mark the box. I am telling you the truth about who did what.
A word about Lisa Demuth — from me, personally
I have had my fights inside this party. I do not pretend otherwise.
I will not stand by while a commenter uses a Senate talking point to declare the Republican nominee “not conservative” for a position every House Republican already took.
Lisa Demuth’s September 10 education press conference was not a Permanent School Fund pep rally. She talked about phonics and the science of reading. She talked about pulling ideological standards out of classrooms. She talked about school safety aid that includes private and parish schools, not just the public monopoly. She talked about opting Minnesota into the federal $1,700 scholarship tax credit so families — not agencies — can move money toward a child. That is not the DFL education syndicate. That is a producer and parent frame.
Disagree with her on this amendment if your conscience requires it. Do not rewrite her record to win an argument on Facebook.
If we become the faction that eats our own with half-rolls and loyalty tests, the syndicate in St. Paul does not have to lift a finger.
The other latch: the land that feeds this fund
I wrote this in September and I will not bury it. “The Gate on the Ground”
Minnesota is one of the largest owners of mineral rights in this state. The Permanent School Fund sits on millions of acres of school-trust land. Minerals and timber are supposed to grow the principal. The child in the classroom is the beneficiary. The miner on the Range and the logger in the woods are supposed to be able to work.
That is the inflow. This amendment is the outflow.
Choking permits on the Range while accelerating the draw on the vault is the same parasite logic from two directions. Voting yes does not open a mine. Voting no does not by itself unlock one. Different valves. Same trust. Keep both in view and you will not be fooled by a title that says “no new taxes” while deleting a lock that has protected children not yet born since statehood.
What actually matters
Three things. Not five purity tests.
1. The lock.
Are you willing to take “inviolate forever” out of the Constitution and trust statute plus a “purchasing power” standard? That is the vote.
2. The ballot language.
The question sells a raise without naming the deletion. That is how you pass an amendment in a state where a blank is a no. Read the Constitution, not the slogan.
3. The children and the producers.
A parish school in Faribault, a classroom in Grand Rapids, a farm in Goodhue County, a shift on the Range — those are the people this fund was built for. More money pulled faster from a thinner principal is not the same thing as a child who can read. Minnesota already spends record sums per pupil and ranks worse than it did. Do not confuse a larger check with a repaired school.
To my team and my supporters
If you work with me, hear this once and keep it.
We correct the record. We do not manufacture villains on our own side to look fierce. We do not repeat a half-truth because it travels. We do not let a flyer’s best paragraph get hijacked into a character assassination.
When someone lies about a Democrat syndicate player, we say so. When someone lies about a Republican, we say so. Same standard. Christ is King. Do not bear false witness.
If you see a post that turns this amendment into “Lisa is not one of us,” send them this article. If you see a post that pretends the House GOP never touched HF 3900, send them the 134–0. If you see a post that pretends the ballot question tells the whole story, send them Article XI, Section 8.
Minnesotans can handle the truth. What they cannot afford is another season of people who would rather win a thread than keep a lock on a children’s trust.
Vote your conscience on the amendment. Demand honest language from everyone who talks about it. That is the Minnesota worth building — a constitutional republic where producers work, children learn, and the record does not get rewritten for sport.
Phillip C. Parrish
phillip@parrish4mn.com
Heidi Wanty, Manager — heidi@parrish4mn.com
(612) 460-1717
parrish4mn.com · @phillipcparrish
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