Education cuts proposed by the Legislature’s Republican majority seem to come down particularly hard on the state’s three biggest cities — Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth, which all tend to vote DFL — and elected officials from those cities are crying foul.

Don Davis of the Fargo Forum found mayors and school officials from the Big 3 leading a rally Thursday at the Capitol, decrying the cuts.

Wrote Davis:

[The cuts] would hurt students, Duluth school official Bill Hanson told a couple hundred school supporters and the media Thursday outside the governor’s office.

“Minnesota’s future depends on us,” the school district chief financial officer said.

Picking on the three Democratic-leaning communities hurts the state, Hanson said. “Invest in the success of our leading economic engines.”

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman called the GOP bill a “political vendetta” against cities that vote for Democrats.

 Duluth Mayor Don Ness said the targeted cuts would hurt students in his city: “It shouldn‘t matter the city they live in.”

DFL Gov. Mark Dayton would likely veto the bill as it now stands.

According to Davis, House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, said the bill is what Republicans who lead the House and Senate would like, but Dayton’s administration will begin to negotiate the final funding.