Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D – Minnesota) election to the United States House of Representatives in 2018 was nothing short of historic. Consider these facts about the Representative from Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District:

She was the first woman of color elected to represent Minnesota in the United States Congress. She was the first Somali-American elected to the United States Congress. Along with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D – Michigan), she was one of the first two Muslim women elected to the United States Congress.

When considering these facts alone, Omar’s story is unique— the sort of stuff that movies are made of and history books never forget. Yet, these things have largely been overshadowed in the seven plus months since November’s election by a variety of headlines relating to the congresswoman from Minnesota. In no order of importance, here are some examples:

Much of this shouldn’t be surprising though. After all, Rep. Omar’s own campaign site shows her as a self-proclaimed “progressive voice”. Her goal — in her own words — is to “achieve a bold, progressive agenda”. And her platform proves that she’s serious about it.

What many North Dakotans may not realize though is that they contributed to Omar’s rise to prominence. How? By subsidizing her education. She graduated from North Dakota State University (NDSU) in 2011.

As was reported by KFYR just over two years ago, students attending North Dakota’s eleven public colleges and universities end up having their education “heavily subsidized”. And that includes students from out of state. KFYR’s report came as the result of two proposals (HB 1264 & HB 1265) during the 2017 North Dakota Legislative Session that sought to make changes regarding North Dakota funding out-of-state students. Both proposals failed.

As explained by the bills’ sponsor Rep. Rick Becker (R – District 7) during floor debate on HB 1265, there is currently no limit to the amount of students North Dakota accepts on reciprocity agreements— meaning there’s no limit to the number of out-of-state students that we subsidize. As shown in this 2019 report, Minnesota has had a reciprocity agreement with North Dakota since 1975. And Omar appears to have been a beneficiary of it.

In a nutshell, the tuition charged by our colleges and universities doesn’t reflect the true cost of a student’s education. It’s true that Minnesota issues a “gap” payment to help cover the difference, but as you’ll see in the aforementioned explanation by Rep. Becker, it doesn’t come close to covering it— which still results in the subsidy by North Dakota taxpayers.

Year after year and biennium after biennium, the people of North Dakota are on the hook for giving “free money” to in-state and out-of-state students alike. The fact that we helped pay for the education of a rising progressive political star in the process is just one aspect of a much bigger problem.

It’s past time to rethink the insanity associated with throwing money at higher education in North Dakota.

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