Where is all the Money?

french students are protesting to better their schools, what can we learn?

Camille jackson

Are you struggling to pay tuition this year? If the answer is yes, you are not alone. The University of Minnesota Board of Regents voted to increase the 2026-27 tuition by 3.8% for in-state students while simultaneously cutting several student programs and some health benefits for staff. In July, The Daily reported the $225 million reduction to the budget over the next two years is 12-15% of the operating budget. Inflation and changes to federal and state funding for the institution are cited as major reasons for this decision. Despite these budget cuts, they prolonged President Cunnigham’s contract until 2031. This year she will be taking home $2.1 million in salary and benefits.

Students are feeling the consequences of these changes the hardest. In addition to tuition increases, the Federal Pell and Minnesota State Grants and the North Star Promise scholarship were reduced or had more limited eligibility for the 2026-27 year due to lack of funds. The Undergraduate Student Government reported that “88,000 students were expected to receive a grant; roughly 18,000 will now receive nothing, and about 70,000 kept an award that was cut by an average of nearly 30%.” This means students now have to pay a higher tuition with less financial assistance.

It is clear the funding is not going towards the staff that teach tuition-paying students and is instead going to the over-inflated salaries of the highest administrative staff. Situations like these are causing students abroad to protest conditions in their schools.

This disinvestment in students is not just limited to universities—public primary and secondary schools are also facing financial challenges. On Sept. 15, Minneapolis Public Schools announced that they are considering closing 16 schools in order to concentrate resources. Since schools receive funding based on enrollment, they want to increase the amount of students per school.

The school administration said the $40 million shortfall is caused by many factors: declining enrollment, the cost of labor, and inflation are among the contributing reasons. Additionally, last year Minneapolis schools ended their Covid-19 emergency funding, meaning schools are missing that extra boost.

This disinvestment in youth is not just happening in the Twin Cities, it is happening in countries all over the world. This has sparked student protests. In the past few years there have been intense student movements in Kenya and Bangladesh among other countries. Protestors have called for their governments to invest in the next generation, and to fight the corruption that has made funding education challenging.

The most recent of these youth protests are taking place in the French suburbs, which are home to primarily Black working class families. The ongoing protests have spread across the country consisting mainly of high school students calling for safer conditions in their schools.

AP noted the French suburbs’s under-resourced facilities, insufficient staff, rat infestations, collapsed ceilings, and leaks. A lack of air conditioning during France’s deadly heatwaves has drawn concern. Additionally, France’s higher education system is exclusionary and has an overly-complicated application which makes University even more inaccessible to students that have been historically excluded.

While these students have engaged in overwhelmingly peaceful protests with some instances of looting and damages, the police have responded with disproportionately militant violence.

Despite this repression, students have remained organized for several months. In this time, the protests have expanded to many other issues faced by the people of France and they are calling on their government for change and accountability.

The University of Minnesota does have a long history of protests ranging from Black students having to fight their way into academia by occupying Morrill Hall in 1969 to the anti-ICE “no sleep” protests outside the Graduate Hotel in 2026. But we haven’t seen the same attention being brought to tuition and budgeting, a topic that affects all students.

In September 2025, over a thousand Teamsters Local 320 union custodial, dining hall, and maintenance staff went on strike with the support of many students over pay and work conditions. When I was at these protests, a major theme was criticizing President Cummingham’s salary, which was just over $1 million in 2025.

The last protest at The University of Minnesota that centered tuition hikes was in 2016. MPR reported about a dozen students disrupted a Board of Regents meeting which sought to propose a tuition increase by 2.5% for in-state and 7.5% for out-ofstate students. These students were protesting increasing the tuition to $12,546. Now, in 2026, tuition is $16,744.

Students at all levels of schooling should be able to get quality education in an accessible way. Students abroad are taking it into their own hands. How will Minnesota students be heard?