Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) is under fire after a letter resurfaced showing Catholic leaders directly warned him about the risk of attacks on faith-based schools, two years before a mass shooting claimed the lives of two children.
The letter, sent in 2023 by the Minnesota Catholic Conference, urged Walz to take immediate action to protect private religious schools, calling the need “urgent and critical.”
“Our schools are under attack,” the letter warned.
Despite the request for $50 million in school safety funding, no appropriation was made. This week, tragedy struck when a gunman opened fire at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, killing two elementary students and wounding 15 others.
Minnesota Catholic Conference Executive Director Jason Adkins and Tim Benz, president of MINNDEPENDENT, both signed the letter and placed it online for public viewing.
“We are writing on behalf of our respective organizations regarding the urgent and critical need in Minnesota to make sure our schools are secure and safe considering the most recent, and continuing attacks, on our schools in this country and in our state,” Adkins and Benz wrote.
The letter cited the 2023 massacre at Covenant School in Nashville, carried out by a transgender shooter, as proof that faith-based schools were being deliberately targeted, Trending Politics reported.
“The latest school shooting at a nonpublic Christian school in Tennessee sadly confirms what we already know – our schools are under attack,” the letter stated.
“In Minnesota, nonpublic schools, particularly our Jewish and Muslim schools, have experienced increased levels of threats, all of which we must take very seriously,” the leaders added. “The tragedy from last week at Covenant School must never happen in Minnesota or in our country again.”
The authors highlighted that more than 72,000 Minnesota children attend Catholic, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim schools, yet those students have fewer protections than public school kids.
Without state funding, Adkins and Benz warned that faith-based children would be left vulnerable to the next attack.
“We need to ensure that all of schools have the resources to respond to and prevent these attacks from happening to our schools,” they wrote.
“An attack on any school, whether it is a public, nonpublic, charter or another school site, cannot be tolerated or allowed to happen in Minnesota,” the leaders added. “We want to make sure Minnesota is doing everything it can to ensure that all our students are safe and secure. We ask you include $50 million in the final Education Finance bill and allow nonpublic schools to apply for funding.”
A spokesman for the Catholic Conference also revealed a similar request was made to Walz in 2022, long before the Minneapolis tragedy.
Walz’s office attempted to downplay the outrage, telling Fox News that private schools already receive some funding and have access to “school safety center resources, including trainings.”
The governor’s office insisted Walz “cares deeply about the safety of students and has signed into law millions in funding for school safety.”
