Susan Saly, right, and Meagan Pierlouissi place flowers at a memorial at Annunciation Catholic Church after Wednesday's school shooting on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, in Minneapolis. (Abbie Parr/AP Photo)
"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 leaders expressed serious concern that the 72,000 students enrolled in independent, Catholic, Jewish, Christian and Muslim schools in Minnesota could be in danger due to nonpublic schools being excluded from the $50 million Building and Cyber Security Grant Program and the state’s Safe Schools Program, which provides emergency response training, security upgrades, mental health services and other security measures.
The leaders said they were especially concerned given "the most recent, and continuing attacks, on our schools in this country and in our state."
"We need to ensure that all of schools have the resources to respond to and prevent these attacks from happening to our schools," the leaders 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 spokesperson for Gov. Tim Walz told Fox News Digital "the governor cares deeply about the safety of students and has signed into law millions in funding for school safety." (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A spokesperson for the Minnesota Catholic Conference confirmed the letter’s authenticity to Fox News Digital. Though declining to comment further, the spokesperson confirmed the requests made in the letter were never granted.
The spokesperson additionally pointed to additional requests the conference and Minnesota Fox 9.
According to a recent policy document by the Minnesota Department of Education outlining the Building and Cyber Security Grant Program, the program is still only available to cooperative units, school districts or charter schools, excluding nonpublic schools.
Additionally, according to a statute outlining the Safe Schools Program available on the Minnesota legislature’s website, the funding available to each school corresponds to its tax levy, indicating private schools are not eligible for the funding.
Walz’s office, however, told Fox News Digital that "private schools do indeed receive state funding" and that "they are also eligible for school safety center resources, including trainings."
