Editor's note: One of the first people Bluestem interviewed for our series of posts about supporters of the freedom to marry was Naomi Wente, a gifted University of Minnesota--Morris senior. Wente graduated from the U this weekend.
We reached out to Naomi's mother to see if she and Naomi's father might be interested in being interviewed for a post that shared their views on tomorrow's historic vote on the Dibble marriage equality bill in the Minnesota state senate, the last step before the measure goes to Governor Mark Dayton's desk. The goal would be to appeal to Senator Dave Senjem to join Senator Branden Petersen (R-Andover) in voting for marriage equality.
This is her response.
Dear Senator Senjem,
This past week has been important to us as parents for two reasons. First, our daughter, Naomi Wente, graduated from college yesterday. Naomi has been recognized by many for her strong passion for helping others here locally and internationally. At the age of 14, she was recognized for her work in Cambodia. She led a campaign to help keep girls in school called: One Toilet at a Time. The idea was to help girls overcome the problem of the lack of sanitation. She wanted to take away even one reason for girls not going to school. Yesterday, our grown daughter, no longer a girl, achieved her goal: a college degree!
Your notes of congratulations have been sent for her national awards, state service learning projects, and international competitions. She has a photograph of you and her after receiving the Olmsted County Youth Commission Award. I am thinking that as you did for her high school graduations, you and your office will be sending congratulations to graduating seniors again this year.
We hope that one day she might get a chance to say congratulations to you -- congratulations for standing on the side of dignity, justice and joy. When I met you in the state capitol a few weeks ago, and in a letter last week, I shared with you the story of Naomi wondering if she would ever hear the word, "Congratulations" at her wedding. Our amazing daughter who has motivated so many to join her in her quest for justice over these years is now needing your support and motivation to support her -- to support her in her drive to see marriage equality in Minnesota.
Tomorrow we could do just that -- we could shake your hand and say congratulations to you for taking a strong stand on supporting Marriage for all.
Mark and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in just over a month. We have been privileged to live our lives with two children who have enriched our lives. Mark and I have brought both children to church from cradle to adulthood. We have volunteered with them for local events as well as internationally in Cambodia. Our family has stood up for human rights together -- all four of us speaking at hundreds of schools, churches, community groups and organizations as well as academic conferences. People have told us how fortunate we are that our family is so strong and have asked us why our kids are so amazing. We share that while we have our own ups and downs, we are so proud of our children. I believe it is due to our deep faith -- and our charge, as Christians, to live the word of Jesus. Because our faith calls us to be faithful to each other in our marriage, we hope Naomi will have a chance to do so through marriage should she find someone to share her life with as well.
Thank you for your consideration. I interviewed you 8 years ago for the Post Bulletin. You told me then that the hardest thing in your job was finding that supposed black and white area in social issues. More recently, at the Lobby Day three weeks ago, you shared with me that so many young people seem to have a different view about homosexuality. I think the youth of today are connected to their world like no other generation. They see oppression; they know injustice when they see it. Help us to help them say congratulations to you for voting on the side of justice.
Thank you from the voices of rural America. In rural Minnesota this issue impacts us greatly.
Lori Halverson-Wente
Dodge Center, Minnesota
Photos: Mark and Lori Halverson-Wente in a Scandinavian church. Photo by Naomi Wente (above); Lori Halverson-Wente (adult on left) and her daughter Naomi (foreground, right) with Cambodian girls. Photo by Trisha Greenlee (below).
This original story is underwritten by a sponsorship by Minnesotans United for All Families.
On Monday, the Minnesota House passed an anti-bullying bill on a 72-57 vote. Post Bulletin political reporter Heather Carlson wrote in House passes sweeping anti-bullying bill:
“We should have a bill that develop resiliency in kids and makes them
strong,” said Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa. "But this one goes the other direction. Instead of
making kids stronger, it encourages them into a path of victimhood."
Rep. Steve Drazkowski has said some strident
things during his nearly six years in the Legislature, but his
repudiation of the anti-bullying bill passed by the Minnesota House
might be his harshest rhetoric yet. . . .
Drazkowski, a Republican from Mazeppa, sent a disturbing message with
his criticism of the Safe Schools and Supportive Minnesota Schools Act.
By using the words "resiliency" and "path to victimhood," Drazkowski
essentially told bullied students to toughen up because it builds
character and makes you stronger.
Tell that to Ann Gettis, a Kenyon woman whose
21-year-old son took his own life in 2006. Gettis appeared before the
House Education Policy Committee, testifying that "I really believe that
the years of being bullied darkened his perspective." Tell that to the
families of two Rochester-area teenagers who committed suicide in 2012,
with bullying being a likely factor in their tragic decisions. . . .
Read the rest at the PB. The board concludes:
We've had occasion in the past to commend Drazkowski for his candor and
his willingness to take unpopular stands. On this particular topic,
however, he sounds a bit like a bully.
Today, Draz is stilling making heads shake. While the House was considering a bill for a legislative water commission, the Mazeppa lawmaker got a bit off topic. Representative Danny Schoen tweeted:
Rep. Drazkowski brings up gay marriage while debating a water quality issue bill.#mnleg
Osmek took office in January, so he hasn’t had a lot of experience at the state level as yet, he told the [class of high school] students. But Osmek was still more than willing to field their questions about a variety of political issues, starting with gay marriage.
“To me, it’s a First Amendment issue,” said Osmek, referring to the separation of church and state.
If the state endorses gay marriage, Osmek fears, it may lead down a “slippery slope” to the state forcing churches to perform and recognize gay marriage, whether gay marriage is part of a church’s theology or not.
363A.26 EXEMPTION BASED ON RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION.
Nothing in this chapter prohibits any religious association, religious corporation, or religious society that is not organized for private profit, or any institution organized for educational purposes that is operated, supervised, or controlled by a religious association, religious corporation, or religious society that is not organized for private profit, from:
(1) limiting admission to or giving preference to persons of the same religion
or denomination; or
(2) in matters relating to sexual orientation, taking any action with respect to
education, employment, housing and real property, or use of facilities. This clause shall not apply to secular business activities engaged in by the religious association, religious corporation, or religious society, the conduct of which is unrelated to the religious and educational purposes for which it is organized.; or
(3) taking any action with respect to the provision of goods, services, facilities, or accommodations directly related to the solemnization or celebration of a marriage that is in violation of its religious beliefs.
Or maybe this language in the bill:
Subd. 2. Refusal to solemnize; protection of religious doctrine. Each religious
organization, association, or society has exclusive control over its own theological
doctrine, policy, teachings, and beliefs regarding who may marry within that faith. A licensed or ordained member of the clergy or other person authorized by section 517.04 to solemnize a marriage is not subject to any fine, penalty, or civil liability for failing or refusing to solemnize a marriage for any reason.
“I’m afraid it will eventually inflict on religious institutions,” said Osmek. “The pilgrims came here for religious freedom, and we need to respect that.”
Osmek said that domestic partners are already given benefits by many businesses and corporations, and feels it best left to the private sector to create its own definition of domestic partnerships. . . .
So businesses get to define two committed people's relationship? Would any married couple accept that?
Photo: Osmek in the Glencoe-Silver Lake classroom. Via the McLeod County Chronicle.
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In early discussions of the dynamics of the special election in House District 19A, party leaders and operatives on both sides fairly well dismissed the importance of the student vote, either because of traditional drop-off by student voters in non-Presidential elections--or because none of the candidates were connected to the campus as Terry Morrow and Ruth Johnson had been.
Fortunately, winning DFLer Clark Johnson, and GAC Democrats organizing powerhouse Megan Nelson didn't take the conventional wisdom seriously. The final major campaign event was a GOTV rally on the GAC campus with Congressman Tim Walz and Governor Mark Dayton.
Most recently [Johnson] held a “get out the vote” rally on the Gustavus
Adolphus campus. Gov. Mark Dayton and Congressman Tim Walz, D-Mankato,
turned out Monday to stump for Clark Johnson, rallying Gustavus students
in hopes that the campus vote would play a significant role Tuesday’s
election. . . .
In the past, Gustavus Adolphus students have lent a significant boost
to Democratic numbers in St. Peter’s Ward 2 precincts. But the highest
numbers of votes have coincided with either presidential elections or
elections in which a member of the Gustavus Adolphus staff have been
involved.
But Johnson was busy campaigning at Gustavus on
Monday, trying to reach out to students returning to classes. He praised
students for their participation in November’s general election and
tried to appeal to those who supported the “vote no” campaign by
advocating for the Legislature to legalize gay marriage. He told
students the Gustie vote would be integral in Tuesday night’s election.
In fact, votes from St. Peter’s Gustie-dominated Ward
2 totaled 450 accounting for nearly 17 percent of the winning vote.
More than 960 St. Peter residents voted for Johnson, contributing
significantly to his win.
Johnson won with 2,680 votes. Allen Quist received 1,801 votes, while Tim Gieseke collected 511.
The GAC factor parallels the importance of the student voter in the special election for Senate District 25 seat in 2008, won by Kevin Dahle. While student vote wasn't the only factor in both races, the two examples suggest that smart targeting and GOTV in districts where student voters live shouldn't be over looked in special elections.
Photo: Ruth and Clark Johnson campaign.
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The Winona Daily News has noticed that there's something about Steve Drazkowski. It's not just that he throws a copy-cat bill in the hopper at the state capitol.
It's that he does this repeatedly, ignoring the lessons of history and the consequences of his behavior for the Republican Party of Minnesota.
What part of the Constitution of the United States doesn’t Rep. Steve Drazkowski understand?
Well, considering the bill he introduced last week, he hasn’t figured out this part:
“This
Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in
pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under
the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the
land.”
That’s Article VI, Steve, if you want to look it up.
Too
bad he didn’t do that before authoring HF 419, which states that “...
no new federal firearms law shall be enforceable within the borders of
the state of Minnesota.”
We’d recommend he join Rep. Greg Davids
and the other 18 Republican members who signed onto the bill in a
weekend refresher course in constitutional law ... maybe the U of M
could arrange a legislators group discount on the tuition.
Of course, Draz, Davids and their co-signers aren’t being particularly clever or original here.
How's that? The editorial provides a history lesson, then continues:
Drazkowski defends his action saying that legislators in 17 other
states have introduced bills just like the Firearm Protection Act he
introduced last week.
If legislators in 17 other states jumped off a bridge, would that be reason for him to do it, too?
Do
we really need more monkey-see monkey-do legislation by Xerox machine,
or might we have learned something from the money, time and energy
wasted on last year’s ALEC-spawned controversies and ill-fated
constitutional amendments?
We might have learned, but Draz and his
co-sponsors haven’t. They’re ever so willing to waste taxpayer money
and state employees’ time on pointless pandering quests that have
absolutely no chance of becoming enforceable law.
Then again, self-promotion is a lot easier than governing.
Drazkowski introduced his Firearm Protection Act last week, which
says that law enforcement officers who attempt to enforce federal laws
on gun control could be charged with a felony.
“It’s intended to
demonstrate and communicate to the federal government that’s trying to
enforce an unconstitutional law that we’re not going to allow that to be
enforced here,” Drazkowski said.
Drazkowski’s legislation isn’t
unique in wording or intent. At least 17 statehouses are looking at
nearly identical laws, including Texas, North Dakota, Missouri and
Alaska. They’re seen as a response to President Barack Obama’s January
proposal to ban military-style assault weapons and high-capacity
magazines, among other reform measures.
Perhaps Draz, who works as a SEO professional, found the bill via a google search, rather than through his connections in the Tenth Movement. Readers may recall that he was quoted in a 2010 ALEC press release pushing the "Repeal Amendment":
“The federal government continues to squash the sovereignty rights of
the states as guaranteed by the 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution
unrelentingly and at an accelerating pace. From countless unaffordable
federal mandates imposed upon Minnesota's healthcare system, education
programs, and even families, the overreach of Congress has gone
unchecked. It's time for the states to restore their
Constitutionally-protected autonomy, and that's why I am going to
sponsor the Article V application for the Repeal Amendment.” Steve Drazkowski, member, Minnesota House of Representatives
Trying to enforce a state law that would ban the enforcement of
federal law would be quite a challenge, said Winona County Attorney
Karin Sonneman.
“I think the act itself as proposed is very
problematic under interpreting the supremacy clause,” Sonneman said,
referring to the part of the Constitution that says federal law
supercedes state law.
Photoshop: The Chocolate Draz is back with another zombie bill. Once a victim is bitten, he just keeps spreading this malarkey. Image by Tild.
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Today, Minnesota state representative Ryan Winkler and a covey of DFLers introduced HF121, the lower chamber's companion to a state senate bill requiring any individual or group that "drafts, promotes, or distributes model legislation to any public official of this
state with the purpose of influencing a public official to introduce the legislation or vote in favor of the legislation" to register as a lobbyist or principal of the lobbyist.
This is the "ALEC Law" intended to make the origin of legislation more transparent. It matters not if the bill is cooked up by corporate bill factory American Legislative Exchange Council, an environmental organization or a union, Minnesotans would know what cat drug that bird in.
Or maybe not.
Earlier this month, Bluestem noted in "Anti-venom": Cornish bills for college carry & packing pedagogues to get committee hearing that the honorable representative from Good Thunder or thereabouts is threatening to once more introduce a bill that would prevent public postsecondary colleges from banning the carrying and possession of firearms by students on school property ( lawfully possessed guns are currently allowed in cars in campus parking lots).
Cornish first introduced the bill to a chorus of news reports across the land in April 2008, on the first anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings. And from whence came the law?
The proposal by Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder, faces an uphill
climb but reflects a national movement among gun advocates and some
students to overturn prohibitions on students carrying weapons at
college.
Contradicting the prevailing view and policies of
Minnesota universities, the gun supporters argue that trained, armed
students would prevent or minimize violence on campus.
Alex Tripp, a student at Minnesota State University,
Mankato, who is active in the effort to allow students to carry guns,
cited the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University in
a recent letter to Cornish urging a change in state law.
. . .Tripp, a 21-year-old junior, is a member of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, which claims 25,000 members nationwide.
At that time, the group was still young. In February 2008, a spokester for the Brady campaign had claimed that the gun industry was covertly sponsoring the student organization; it fired back with tales of meager funding--less than $700 gathered from poor students' donations. The group did advocate for the repeal of campus carry prohibitions across the country. The group has since shortened its name to Students for Concealed Carry.
While it's still a volunteer organization, its fundraising seems a bit more sophisticated. Hard to say if its spend would trip the threshold for registering as a lobby principal in Minnesota.
Cornish didn't re-introduce the bill in the 86th or 87th legislature. We can't say exactly why that might be--other than the fact that it did come up in the 2008 campaign, when John Branstad come within striking distance of Cornish. Robb Murray of the Mankato Free Press reported in "Big issues, poor turnout: MnSCU a hot topic":
Rep. Tony Cornish separated himself from the herd.
At
a candidates debate at Minnesota State University Monday, Cornish
reiterated his much-publicized view that if more students carried guns, fewer school shootings would result, and in the ones that took place, fewer lives would be lost.
In
fact, he told the small audience gathered for the debate that, if a
gunman entered the debate room this very instance, " there'd be nobody
here who could save you except for me, or somebody else with a handgun."
His comment came in response to a moderator's question about handguns on campus, a question each candidate addressed. . . .
None of the others said they'd go as far as Cornish on the gun issue, although Bidwell and Jordan said they'd consider limited gun possession on campus,
such as Jordan's suggestion that it be limited to faculty
And Branstad
objected to Cornish's reference to colleges as " killing zones." He
said he's spoken with campus security experts who have said arming students is not the best way to solve the problem.
"I'm sure they would take issue with calling a college campus a 'killing zone,' " he said. (Mankato Free Press, October 21, 2008, Nexis All-News, accessed January 22, 2013)
After that, Cornish grew uncharacteristically reticent with the bill unti lhis latest rumbling.
But there's more to the story here. About a month after Cornish threw this hot mess into the hopper in April 2008, the NRA-ILA reported on the national gun rights group's website in ALEC Task Force Adopts Model "Campus Personal Protection Act":
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is an
organization comprised of public and private sector members (largely
made up of state legislators and corporate/association government
affairs representatives) from all 50 states that share common support
for free market principles and individual liberties.
At ALEC's
recent Spring Task Force Summit in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the Criminal
Justice Task Force unanimously adopted a model "Campus Personal
Protection Act." Brought forth by NRA-ILA, the act calls
for the repeal of state restrictions on the possession of firearms by
valid concealed handgun licensees on college and university campuses and
preempts governing bodies of postsecondary educational institutions
from imposing such restrictions on permit holders. This Act will officially become ALEC "Model Legislation" in 30 days if there is no objection from ALEC's Board of Directors.
And looking over the model bill on the ALEXexposed website, Bluestem isn't surprised to learn that like Cornish's month-younger bill, this language is esstential a "repealer" bill calling for language to be stricken from the statutes of whatever state in which it flopped.
The ALEC board officially adopted the Campus Personal Protection Act as a template for state law 30 days later.
This complicated parentage raises certain questions about the Winkler "model bill" proposal. Of course, it's not a law yet, so the following questions are totally hypothetical, but might be asked in commitee.
Did Representative Cornish snag his model bill from an ALEC packet prepared for the Spring Summit in Hot Springs, Arkansas, held in mid-May 2008? Although he's a keen advocate of high-profile ALEC model bills like Stand Your Ground and Voter ID, there's no direct evidence trying him to the organization. Another Minnesota Republican legislator might have brought to to his attention--or perhaps a private sector ALEC member. They don't have to uncloak themselves under current law, so it's hard to discern.
Did the national student organization pass the idea along to the NRA and ALEC? In 2008, they claimed that they didn't work with the NRA. Or did eager ALEC members in the thirteen states where the student group brought the language forward?
Perhaps these things simply evolve independently, like the parallel eyeballs of different and unrelated creature on land and sea.
More interesting questions about the bill's paternity remain. If the Winkler bill were in place, would Students for Concealed Carry get the lobbying credit for campuscarry? Would ALEC?
Or would we simply forget about the notion of a lobbyist and model bill, and grant to Cornish that he is, in the enduring wisdom of the classic Ray Stevens cover, his own grandpa?
Photo: Tony Cornish. Should we even ask who's that bill's daddy?
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Early this month Minnesota Representative Rod Hamilton (R-Mountain Lake) had been sounding a partisan battle cry about the possibility that agri-fund dollars might be spent on urban projects.
A top priority will be to protect money in the agri-fund from being
raided for non-agricultural proposes as the budget is put together this
session. I want to work on strengthening ag education, both through
funding to our local K-12 system and by supporting farm business
management programs at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
institutions.
Riverland Community College is one of the shining
examples of how this program should work. Extensions of farmer-lender
mediation and Minnesota Agriculture Education Leadership Council, and
cleanup language for the $5 million exemption to the estate tax for
farmland that was passed in the last budget should also be addressed.
Back in December, Bluestem wrote that in Representation Rod Hamilton to defend rural Minnesota against his own worst fears, that you were positioning yourself as the Republican lead to warn rural Minnesotans about how much Democrats in Minneapolis hate us, especially those who are tillers of the soil and the keepers of livestock.
This frame was something we recognised from past years when former Marshall-area state representative Marty Siefert, and Steve Sviggum before him, led the Republican caucus in the house, although in those days, those dirty hipsters mostly just didn't share rural social values as the caucus defined them.
It wasn't so much about agriculture during their tenure--and that would have been a hard one for Kurt Zellers to pull off from Hennepin County. Those appeals to those social values didn't pan out so well in November, however, so on to the Old McDonald defenders riffs it is.
Since the first day of this session, Bluestem's been sad to see you more than live up to our expectations, as you go on and on (and on and on) about agriculture committee structure and leadership. You've gone on the floor of the House, in letters-to-the-editor of rural papers serving swing districts where Democrats were elected, and in your own column.
Most Minneapolis lawmakers spend their careers thinking the only
important activities happen within the metro area, and telling folks in
Greater Minnesota how to live.
Forgive us if we find that a little hard to believe. The last time Bluestem's editor saw Rep. Jean Wagenius, whom others in your caucus (Rep. Drazkowski comes to mind) call an "environmental extremist," she was at the Minnesota Farmers Union convention just before Thanksgiving, taking time to listen to farmers. While exceedingly civil in the tradition of the organization, those farmers weren't shy about sharing their concerns.
I can't say I heard her tell anyone how to live.
Help for Beginning Farmers: You Know You Want To
Nor does that seem to be the preoccuption of Speaker Thissen, unless you consider some of the past legislation he's introduced as telling us how to live. I suppose that we could see HF 3290 from the 86th session that way.
That's an bill in which there are:
Income tax credits provided to encourage beginning farmers, beginning
farmer program administered by the Rural Finance Authority modified, and
money appropriated for beginning farmer individual development
accounts.
Pretty rough stuff by a guy from the mean streets of Minneapolis telling people in Greater Minnesota how to live, I thought, until I read the bill and thought it sounded familiar.
It's pretty much identical to HF0860, a bill which you introduced in the 87th session, in which "Beginning farmer program tax credits provided." My former state Representative, Ron Shimansky, was a co-sponsor, as were DFLers Terry Morrow and Kent Eken.
That the sponsorship passed from Thissen to you with the change in control of the House isn't surprising. What is disappointing is that the Legislature hasn't passed the bill. Bluestem can't think of any group of farmers organized in Greater Minnesota--from the Land Stewardship Project to the Farm Bureau--that doesn't want programs to help beginning farmers.
It's even more apparent that the state should be working on this, given the unfortunate fact of Congressional ag leaders--and funding for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program--being left out of the fiscal cliff deal.
Getting together with Speaker Thissen and Representative Eken and re-introducing this legislation--then getting it passed through both ag policy and the environmental, natural resources and agriculture finance committee--might be a better use of your time than drafting divisive, urban-bashing columns.
Had I continued to serve as chair of the now eliminated House
Agriculture and Rural Economies Finance Committee, I planned to use the
majority of these funds (Agri Fund) for rural development and ag literacy and
education programs — things like 4-H, FFA, and Farm America. Now they
appear to be gone in favor of economic development programs which may or
may not assist rural Minnesota.
Really? That's a foregone conclusion? You so lack ability as a legislator that you can't make the case for 4-H and FFA? Or other types of rural development that helps the whole state? We're willing to bet that you can, if you spend less time submitting letters newspapers in swing districts and grandstanding in front of the cameras in the House chamber. Or writing inflamatory sentences like:
Minnesota cannot survive without our farmers and agriculture, so why is
the House majority attempting to demonize the men and women who put
food on everyone’s table?
. . . I was disappointed to read my colleague Rep. Rod Hamilton’s letter
in this newspaper attacking specific DFL legislators over the issue of
how the agriculture committees are structured and accusing DFLers of not
representing our rural districts. The session is barely a week old, yet
Rep. Hamilton would rather fan political flames than join together in
working productively on important agriculture issues.
Traditionally,
we have successfully advanced agriculture issues in the Legislature in a
bipartisan fashion. For example, in 2011, the agriculture budget was
the only finance bill we passed with broad bipartisan support before the
state shutdown. Rep. Hamilton’s negative tone is not the right
approach. As Chair of the Agriculture Policy Committee, I believe that
we will present a stronger voice for rural Minnesota by working together
as both Democrats and Republicans.
Challenging the advocacy
skills or commitment of rural members just because they are DFLers and
now are the majority caucus of the Minnesota House is not helpful in
getting to the outcome we all desire.
Poppe's concerns are echoed by Wagenius's vice chair, Andrew Falk, in an article in today's Sauk Centre Herald. Now, Bluestem not only knows young Falk, but his father, Murdock-area farmer Jim Falk, so it's hard to imagine any of the Falks not standing up for farmers and rural Minnesota, much less engaging in "demonizing" farmers.
Representative Andrew Falk (DFL-Murdock) is the vice-chair of the House Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Finance committee. He has been an active farmer his whole life, and has served in the legislature since 2008.
"I really believe that Rep. Hamilton is trying to make hay with this simply because he's upset about no longer being chair of the Ag Finance committee," Falk stated.
Falk stressed two important points on the matter.
"First, Dennis Ozment, who retired in 2008, was chair of the former House Ag, Environment and Natural Resources committee in the 2005 and 2006 sessions. While I haven't served with him, I've since gotten to know him and think highly of him," Falk said. "This structure was not an issue while Republicans were in charge. This seems like petty partisanship to me.
From 2007 to 2010, agriculture finance was a part of the House Agriculture and Veterans Affairs Finance committee. Rep. Al Juhnke (DFL-Willmar) chaired that committee before he lost re-election in 2010.
Ozment, a fire captain, represented Rosemount and Dakota County, which, although part of the metro area, still includes farms, and parts of Goodhue and Washington Counties. The committee also had the same name for a stretch in the 1990s, when it was chaired by former St. Paul representative C.Thomas Osthoff.
Indeed, Osthoff chaired the committee at height of the "Hog Wars" in Renville County. While some tried to frame the controversy as simply city folks moving out to the country without anticipating the smell of manure, if we're honest about the fight, we'll recall that the citizens of Renville County ended up electing DFLer Gary Kubly in that fight, certainly no ally of "Big Pig" but no enemy of farmers, either.
And the Sauk Centre Herald article goes on, with Farmer and Representative Falk adding that he'd like to talk to you and Rep. Wagenius, who holds some farmland of her own, about your concerns:
"My point is that throughout the years, agriculture has been included with other committee focuses," Falk said. "I know Rep. Wagenius. She has a farm in Douglas County with 50 acres. Between the work of her and myself as vice-chair, we won't let agriculture be diminished."
And Falk's quite willing to work with you on preserving that funding from ethanol payments for rural projects:
When asked about Hamilton's concern about agriculture funding, Falk replied, "If he knows of specific bills being introduced that take funding away from ag and put it to other areas, I'd like to know about them. In terms of something like the expiring ethanol producer payments, I'd like to focus on gearing that funding towards next-generation renewable energy. I don't want us to get into these rural vs. metro fights, especially in the opening week of the session."
Bluestem looked up the funding you're concerned about, Representative Hamilton, and it looked like the enabling legislation funds rural development projects through five years.
Write More Pro-Rural Legislation, Fewer Partisan Letters
If someone drops a bill in the hopper proposing to change that, take Vice-Chair Falk up on that. You and the Caucus might have to forego setting up your 2014 campaign rhetoric to do this, but maybe really working for rural Minnesota, rather than a return to power on the part of your caucus, is more important--especially given the demographic loss of power for all of rural America, regardless of party.
You haven't introduced any bills yet, as far as your page and the revisor's office reveal. Those proposals for ag youth education from last session? The ones you didn't have a co-sponsor for? They're good ideas.
Maybe you should talk to the chair and the vice-chair of the committee whose structure and leadership you scorn and see if they'll co-sponsor them. Of course, FFA and 4-H don't have to be just rural organizations; indeed, engaging urban kids in agriculture education is the bee's knees, if you ask us.
But Bluestem might not be the ones to help you out with that, Representative Hamilton. Reach across the aisle and chambers to check out freshman Senator Foung Hawj, from St. Paul's East Side. He's on the right committees and prior to getting elected, he received an award from the USDA for efforts related to urban agriculture. You might have some common ground.
In short, write fewer letters and more legislation for farmers.
Sincerely,
Bluestem Prairie
P.S. Speaking of common ground, Representative Hamilton: please quit framing urban and rural as environmentalist versus farmer. We've been going to watershed meetings and listening to farmers talk about erosion and water quality. We're pretty sure we heard farmers in the Le Sueur River Watershed say that they'd rather see the soil staying on their creeksides than becoming sediment choking Lake Pepin. Dividing people upstream and down doesn't help anybody.
Graphic: A Rod Hamilton meme.
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Repeal of the controversial education policy known as the “Profile of
Learning” was another of Quist’s accomplishments. Quist said he won the
support of Education Minnesota in that successful repeal effort.
We'd put in a call asking for the education union's response to the paragraph. Public Affairs Specialist Douglas Dooher emailed the following statement from Education Minnesota in response to the Quist press release:
It is true that Education Minnesota ultimately supported repealing the Profile of Learning, after proposing numerous changes to the law over several years. However, it is inaccurate at best to say that Education Minnesota ever supported the rationale and the proposed fixes to the Profile proposed by Allen Quist and his group, the Maple River Education Coalition.
Education Minnesota’s members called for changes to the Profile based on their experiences in the classroom and because they felt the law was not benefiting students. Quist and his allies called for replacing the Profile with something called the North Star Standard, which was an unknown and unproven “back to basics” system that required rote memorization and relied heavily on tests. Quist’s group was the only education group in the state that supported the North Star Standard.
It’s puzzling at this point why Mr. Quist would attempt to align himself with Minnesota’s educators when his views and his record have historically been opposed to what educators and students need.
Governor Dayton has yet to set the date for the special election in MN HD 19A
prompted by the resignation of Rep. Terry Morrow, who ran unopposed in
the 2012 election. Morrow has taken a job with the Uniform Law Commission in Chicago.
Robin Courrier, Clark Johnson and Karl Johnson are competing for the
DFL endorsement, Tim
Gieseke plans an Independence Party bid and Jim Golgart will battle Quist
for the Republican nod. The winner will represent Nicollet County,
Kasota, and parts of Mankato.
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Until today, it was unclear whether perennial candidate Allen Quist would enter the Minnesota House District 19A race, especially after stellar veterans' advocate Jim Golgart entered the 19A race as a GOP contender yesterday.
But Quist jumped in today, and the 1980s-era anti-sodomy crusader and culture warrior is already setting himself apart from the herd of cats running for the open seat by his mention of "welfare" and academic standards--a dogwhistle to the current battle over the state's revised social studies standards, which is largely led by conservative education group Education Liberty Watch.
Governor Dayton has yet to set the date for the special election prompted by the resignation of Rep. Terry Morrow, who ran unopposed in the 2012 election.
Robin Courrier, Clark Johnson and Karl Johnson are competing for the DFL endorsement, Tim
Gieseke plans an Independence Party bid and Golgart will battle Quist for the Republican nod. The winner will represent Nicollet County, Kasota, and parts of Mankato.
Bread & butter issues v. culture war
Quist is the first candidate to bring up an issue that points to cultural warfare.
The New Ulm Journal's Josh Moniz reports Clark Johnson, Jim Golgart enter 19A race that neither of the candidates to announce yesterday are concerned with social issues, but plan to focus on the bread and butter concerns they believe are most on district residents' minds:
[Golgart] said he has no interest in running on any social issues for the special election nor pushing any if elected. . . .
. . .Johnson has no interest in pushing any kind of social issues in either the race or the Legislature.
"I
think the time is not right for social issues. We saw what happened
with the last Legislature when they over emphasized [social issues].
They got diverted and ended up with having to have a special session,"
said Johnson.
That's pretty much where the other candidates are: upgrading the local "death road" that is Highway 14, the budget, fixing education funding, jobs.
Not so with Allen Quist. Here's the dog whistling passages, along with a curious claim about his effectiveness as a legislator:
Because Quist served three terms in the Minnesota House in the 1980s,
Quist would enter the Legislature with three terms of seniority. “Both
experience and seniority are major factors in being effective,” Quist
said.
Quist also said that his record of being bi-partisan is a significant
asset in promoting good government. “Good legislation is almost always
bipartisan,” he said. Quist was chief author of the bill that created
what was then called Minnesota’s Department of Jobs and Training. Quist
said he worked closely with then DFL Governor Rudy Perpich in drafting
and passing that bill. Quist said the purpose of the bill was helping
people become self-sufficient as opposed to keeping them on welfare.
Repeal of the controversial education policy known as the “Profile of
Learning” was another of Quist’s accomplishments. Quist said he won the
support of Education Minnesota in that successful repeal effort.
As interesting as that framing is to Allen Quist, it's not exactly how it happened.
In fact, when the Profiles were scrutinized beginning in 1999, then repealed in 2003, Quist wasn't serving in the legislature--and some of those those who were scrambled to distance themselves from the unsuccessful 1994 gubernatorial candidate.
Placing this "accomplishment" on his resume, right after noting the successful authorship of one bill passed while he served, without noting when the Profile was repealed and what his specific role was in this process, is something on the sketchy side.
The claim to Education Minnesota support for his efforts is also fuzzy. Looking into Nexis, it's not clear whether Education Minnesota was supporting Allen Quist specifically when it finally shifted from a "fix it or repeal it" position in 1999 to agreeing to the 2003 repeal; indeed, it's not clear that he can take full credit for the repeal of the Profile of Learning.
In fact, here's some evidence that legislators distanced themselves from Quist as support for the Profile vanished, though they supported the call for reform or repeal.
On February 12, 1999, St. Paul Pioneer Press staff writer Paul Tosto reported in "House Kills Profile:"
. . . But as the debate shifts now
to the Senate, observers there see interest in tinkering with the
Profile, but not killing it altogether.
"I think in the
Senate, we're going to be a little bit more prudent than they were in
the House," said Senate Majority Whip Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing.
The
Profile's paperwork burden and complex grading system had become a
fiasco, acknowledged Murphy, who also sits on the Senate Children,
Families and Learning committee. The Senate, he added, is interested in
maintaining some of the statewide standards laid out in the Profile's 10
learning areas, then leaving it up to districts to decide how to
achieve them.
"The gist of what they're (the House) doing is correct. But I don't want to be tied in with Allen Quist
and some of those people," said Murphy. Quist is a former gubernatorial
candidate who has attacked the Profile repeatedly as harmful to
education and has pushed for its end. (Nexis All News, accessed 1/4/2013)
And as for Education Minnesota's position, Tosto reported:
Backers
praised its emphasis on hands-on learning, original research and
community interaction. Critics dismissed it as bureaucratic busywork
with little connection to learning.
Even the state's biggest teachers union, Education Minnesota, urged lawmakers to "fix the Profile of Learning or get rid of it," after a membership survey found 63 percent of teachers opposed to the current rule.
There are only three articles in the Nexis All News database that are returned by the search string "Allen Quist AND Profile of Learning AND Education Minnesota," and neither of the other two include Education Minnesota's position on the repeal.
And while Education Minnesota supported the final bill that replaced the Profile with the state developing a set of standards in 2003, Quist wasn't serving in the legislature at the time, nor was the repeal credited to him at that time. Rather, then-state senator Michele Bachmann's name comes up most, while future Bachmann congressional aides Julie Quist and Renee Doyle of EdWatch are mentioned in the writeup of the repeal by Eagle Forum. The author of the repeal bill in the House was Rep. Tony Kielkucki, R-Lester Prairie.
In other works, like Fed Ed, Quist argues a deliberate conspiracy to dumb down students.
What's academic? A look at Quist's curriculum modules
Moreover, Quist's version of academic standards might be the very definition of political. The Curriculum Modules he edited remain online. He bills them:
CMods provides accurate and exciting new information for teachers and
other interested persons. This information is generally unavailable in
school textbooks because it contradicts the worldviews of the education
establishment. The information is presented in the form of curriculum
modules that may be downloaded or used in other ways by teachers,
parents or anyone else, free of charge. The mods are designed to
supplement and/or correct current textbooks.
Perhaps most importantly, this is something of a coterie issue, so the dog whistle is all the more obvious.
Quist not interested bringing home the bacon?
But what's most surprising that Quist is running for the state legislature at all, especially where a parochial, bringing-home-the-bacon issue like upgrading Highway 14 is important.
But earlier in his career he said politics isn’t his strongest suit.
In the 1994 Star Tribune profile on him and his family, Dane Smith
reported that legislators who worked with Quist in the capitol said he
was “something of a loner in the Legislature, preferring to socialize
with lobbyists and activists who opposed abortion rather than with his
colleagues. He did little to build the personal contacts and rapport
that is crucial to enactment of legislation.”
“He agrees that his character was not well-suited to the
back-slapping and tending to the narrow needs of a legislative
district,” Smith continued.
Quist agreed with that assessment. “I’m much more at home running for
statewide office,” he said. “I was never that interested in parochial
issues, in bringing home the bacon.”
Now, however, he's all about those things.
Cartoon: Allen Quist, by Ken Avidor.
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Representative and former crappie cop Tony Cornish is at it again, rhetorical guns blazing in favor of armed defenders in the schools, and by this, he means one in every building, one per school system.
The means to pay for the personnel? He hasn't spelled out the details, but it's not providing money at the state level for his new mandates. (That's reserved for Gopher and Vikings stadiums).
It's slicing the cash from schools' athletic team budgets.
Here's the bottom line: When a psycho pulls up out front, you have
seconds to act. A camera won't do any good unless there's a gun behind
it. A window won't do any good unless it's bulletproof. All the
counselors and therapists you can hire won't do any good unless they are
armed.
You can't afford to completely encase your schools with
bulletproof windows and steel locked doors -- but you can afford to
share the cost of an officer with the city or county, as some districts
are doing.
If colleges can pay their coaches millions per year and
even our small schools can pour thousands into sports programs, they can
afford part of an officer's salary.
Cornish could have proposed legislation pulling money out of University of Minnesota's system or capping the Gophers' coach's salaries and diverting that money to public school safety, but a close reading reveals that he's mostly trying to inflame his readers' imaginations with the thought of those millions.
Cornish loved himself a Gophers stadium; mum about Gophers coaching salaries
It makes me sick to think this money is earmarked for improving the
arts or culture in this state, then realize that many directors of these
non-profit organizations are actually turning quite a profit for
themselves.
If Cornish--who loves the limelight--spoke out about Big Ten coaching salaries before, we haven't found it.
He certainly had the microphone, but ended up voting for a deal that increased the state's share of the cost of the stadium over what the U requested. MPR's votetracker has the deets (Cornish's yes vote) in University of Minnesota Gophers football stadium.
He did however, vote for background checks for K-12 coaches, so we can at least rest assured if the coaches are packing, they'll have gone through some sort of scrutiny before they lock and load. However, if the local psycho needs to get a gun, Representative Tony Cornish certainly isn't going to stand in the way by supporting a gun-rights hating measure like closing the loophole at gun shows that allows buyers to dodge background checks at gun shows. Silly rabbits: background checks are for coaches.
Cornish loved LGA cuts that cut Mankato's public safety officers
No more gun regulation--let's hire officers at every school, or so Cornish would have you think. However, he hasn't always seen the need for officers in Blue Earth County schools. He mentions the case of Mankato Public Schools--and it's worth looking at how Cornish's revenue and funding priorities affected the very program he cites.
While Cornish now wants to raid athletic programs to turn schools into Fortress America, he didn't seem overly concerned about cutting Local Government Aid, a Republican priority that caused Mankato to reduce the number of police liaison officers.
. . .At one point several years ago, Mankato had four liaison officers
working in the city’s schools. That was cut to one officer per high
school, then later cut to one officer for the entire district in 2009
because of cuts to Local Government Aid. Rother’s current position is
paid for by the school district.
Since being cut to one officer, the school district has been looking at
ways to hire another officer through grants or other funding sources,
said Sheri Blasing, West High School assistant principal. They have not
been successful. . . .
. . . When Rother is at East High School or responding to problems at another
school, Blasing or other West employees have to call on regular patrol
officers to handle police situations. . . .
Some of these cuts will affect Cornish’s role as chief of police,
because local government aid will be cut by as much as 25 percent, and
Cornish said he may be forced to cut programs or an officer.
Cornish has supported cutting local government aid as cinsistently as he has trying to grab the limelight--or opposed any sort of common sense changes to gun regulations. Now he's advocating for putting the officers in school buildings that his own votes cut, but his mandate isn't going to be backed by any funding.
Nope: that's to squeezed out of coaching salaries, from an activity that boosts kids' sense of achievement and gives them something healthy to do--and promotes a sense of community in small towns (ask people here in Hutchinson how we feel about our football team or girls' basketball program).
Bluestem doesn't favor banning all guns--or changing the carry permit law back to "may issue" since carry permits require education and background checks on the part of the holder.
That being said, Cornish's refusal to see anything other than more guns in the schools--and doing so by robbing funds from an activity that genuinely helps children channel their aggression in healthy ways--seems calculated more toward getting attention on himself.
There's a complicated discussion to be had about what can be done to make schools safer. Like Cornish's bluster about Israeli school security, the cheap shot at K-12 coaches misses the mark.
Photos: Tony Cornish (below) will sacrifice K12 coaches and their starter pistols (above) now to pay for police officers since someone coaching at the U makes seven figures....after cutting the LGA that once paid for officers in the schools. He does love this armed but unfunded mandate for realsies.
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Standing in Reconciliation Park, site of the hanging of 38 Dakota men,
Arvol Looking Horse spoke of a long journey coming to an end. . . .
“Today, being here to witness a great gathering, we have peace in our hearts — a new beginning of healing,” Looking Horse said.
Under clear skies with temperatures just above zero, 400 to 500 people
packed the area around the downtown park as about 60 riders rode in for
the nearly two-hour ceremony, which also dedicated a new “Dakota 38”
memorial. A group of Dakota runners, who started at Fort Snelling, also
arrived during the ceremony. . . .
These are the names that were read today of the Dakota men executed at Mankato 150 years ago, via Dakota Wicohan's Facebook page:
Ti-hdo’-ni-ca (One Who Jealousy Guards His Home)
Ptan Du-ta (Scarlet Otter)
O-ya’-te Ta-wa (His people)
Hin-han’-sun-ko-yag-ma-ni (One who Walks Clothed in Owl Feathers)
Ma-za Bo-mdu (Iron Blower)
Wa-hpe Du-ta (Scarlet Leaf)
Wa-hi’na (I Came)
Sna Ma-hi (Tinkling Walker)
Hda In-yan-ka (Rattling Runner)
Do-wan’-s’a (Sings A Lot)
He-pan (Second Born Male Child)
Sun-ka Ska (White Dog)
Tun-kan’ I-ca’hda Ma-ni (One Who Walks by His Grandfather)
Wa-kin’-yan-na (Little Thunder)
I-te’ Du-ta (Scarlet Face)
Ka-mde’-ca (Broken to Pieces)
He pi’ da (Third Born Male)
Ma-hpi’-ya A-i’-na-zin (Cut Nose)
Henry Milord
Cas-ke’-da (First Born)
Baptiste Campbell
Ta-te’ Ka-ga (Wind Maker)
He in’-kpa (The Tip of the Horn)
Hypolite Auge
Na-pe’-sni (Fearless)
Wa-kan Tan-ka (Great Spirit)
Tun-kan’ Ko-yag I-na’-zin (One Who Stands Cloaked in Stone)
Ma-ka’-ta I-na’ (One Who Stands on Earth)
Ma-za Ku-te Ma-ni (One Who Shoots As He Walks)
Ta-te’ Hdi-da (Wind Comes Home)
Wa-si’-cun (White Man)
A-i’-ca-ge (To Grow Upon)
Ma-hu’-we-hi (He Comes for Me)
Ho-i’-tan-in Ku (Returning Clear Voice)
Ce-tan’ Hun-ka’ (Elder Hawk)
Can-ka-hda (Near the Woods)
Hda’-hin-hde (Sudden Rattle)
O-ya’-te A-ku’ (He Brings the People)
State Rep. Dean Urdahl, who co-chairs a state task force commemorating
the Civil War and U.S.-Dakota War, said that while great progress has
been made through reconciliation and education, there remains a lack of
understanding about what led up to the war and the travails that the
Dakota suffered long after the war.
“Through understanding comes a healing that is still continuing today,” Urdahl said.
Bluestem learned about these things as a child, in school and from family, but many Minnesotans, whether indigenous or whose people came from other continents, do not know this history.
For the complete story and more amazing photos by the Free Press's Pat Christman, read "Forgive everyone everything".
Update: Video of the reading of the names, by a Dakota speaker.
Photo: Dakota riders make their way down
Riverfront Drive toward Reconciliation Park before a ceremony
commemorating the 150th anniversary of the hanging of 38 Dakota in
Mankato. Photo by Pat Christiman From "Forgive everyone everything".
The last time Tony Cornish gained attention from wanting to combine education and firearms was the first anniversary of America's most lethal spree shooting, the tragedy at Virginia Tech. In 2008, Star Tribune staff writer Pat Doyle reported in Bill would allow students with permits to carry weapons on MnSCU campuses:
A year after a deranged gunman killed 32 students and faculty at
Virginia Tech, a debate over thwarting future attacks continues in
Minnesota, where a legislator advocates allowing students to carry
concealed weapons for protection on campus.
The proposal by Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder, faces an uphill
climb but reflects a national movement among gun advocates and some
students to overturn prohibitions on students carrying weapons at
college.
. . .The bill Cornish introduced Wednesday would remove the authority of
universities to prohibit gun possession by students on school grounds.
The change would allow students 21 and older with gun permits to bring
weapons on campus.
In reports about the bill from Minnesota Public Radio and City Pages, Cornish is getting the attention he craves as the Republican lead (ranking minority member) of the House Public Safety committee the retired lawman chaired last session when the MNGOP controlled the legislature.
But Cornish first garnered some hometown headlines when he went on the local CBS/FOX affiliate, KEYC-TV, to preen in front of the camera the very day of the shootings, before the children's bodies were even removed from where they fell.
But while state representative Tony Cornish believes legislation can
help, he holds the opposite view of what lawmakers should do.
"Israel had a problem with this years ago, and they started letting
teachers carry guns and it solved the problem, says Cornish, a
Republican from Good Thunder. "Other state in our nation have passed
laws allowing teachers to carry firearms, and I've heard from a number
of parents that agree with this."
Cornish says that while liaison officers can offer some armed presence and security in schools, the state needs to go further.
"In fact I had a policeman tell me tonight that we need to arm our teachers because they can't be everywhere."
So teachers get added duties: armed security officer. To give Cornish his due, we must remember that he was endorsed by Minnesota's teachers' union, Education Minnesota, in 2010. Although he was unopposed in 2012, the union did not endorse him.
Here's the video:
Stories from the Holy Land: armed security guards
The "Israeli teachers carry guns and there's no problem" tale (variation: "All Israeli teachers are required to carry") is so common right now that it's hard to track down whether or not the example is true or not. Bluestem looked into the question and found some interesting answers.
First, when we examined the sources of the claim about packing Israeli school teachers, we generally found that those making these assertions passed around the same set of links and articles that eventually traced back to articles posted between 1999 and 2002. With each spree shooting, the example was repeated, but not examined anew.
There are a couple recent examples online in the last couple of days where writers familiar with Israel say that the claim's a weak one. Most send readers to this post, Are Israeli Teachers Armed?--crossposted at various venues. Ron Cantor, the writer is aligned with messianic Judaism--no dirty hippie--and the column is turning up on mostly conservative Christan sites. Take with a grain of salt.
Stories from the Jerusalem Post are much more persuasive and largely confirm Cantor's general premise that school security guards protect schools from terrorist attacks. Some of the most persuasive articles cover what happens when the guards don't show up en masse, either through funding cuts or strikes.
When they heard about the Sandy Hook school slaughter, my children were
surprised that the school had no security guards. Educated in Jewish
schools in Montreal and in Jerusalem, they have always studied shielded
by security guards and locked gates. They take that situation for
granted, even as resent Jews’ unfortunate vulnerability in both cities. I
want my kids, I want all kids, to live in a world where schools are the
super-safe refuges they should be rather than the targets for
terrorists and maniacs they sometimes are.
On August 28, 2008, the JP's Abe Selig reported in "School year still under threat despite cancellation of cuts":
But with only
four days left and two other major matters unresolved - the issue of
security guards for schools and safety violations in a number of
institutions across the country - the threat of classes not starting at
all remains very real.
"If security guards are not
standing at the entrances of schools on Monday, teachers will still
arrive for work, and they will send their students home," said Keren
Shaked, a spokeswoman for the Secondary School Teachers Organization,
the union that led last year's strike that paralyzed public schools for
55 days. "We cannot allow there to be a situation in which the entrances
to our school are unguarded and anyone can just walk right in."
The
security guard issue remains a complicated one, with the Education and
Public Security ministries trading blame over who is responsible for
providing such guards and the underlying funding issue rooted in
proposed cuts to the draft 2009 state budget that was approved by the
cabinet after a 16-hour session on Monday night.
While
a last-minute agreement was reached between senior officials from both
ministries regarding guards for elementary schools on Wednesday evening,
upper level schools, where the SSTO holds sway, remain a problem.
A
spokeswoman for the Education Ministry told The Jerusalem Post on
Wednesday that the Public Security Ministry, which oversees the police,
has been responsible for the security guards since 1995. She also
referred to police Cmdr. Meir Ben-Yishai's statements at the Knesset on
Wednesday morning, in which he protested the government's decision to
cut the budget for security guards, saying it would severely detract
from safety at schools.
"The police
inspector-general [David Cohen] has held three separate meetings on this
issue," Ben-Yishai said, "And he has recommended that school security
needs to continue, the same way it does at the entrances to restaurants,
banks and event halls."
The Public Security
Ministry quipped back in a statement: "The responsibility for deployment
of security guards at educational institutions is the responsibility of
the Education Ministry. To our regret, the Education Ministry did not
bother to fight against the budget cuts for security guards, which is
their job and does not fall under the responsibility of the police."
The Education Ministry spokeswoman responded: "Every year in the past [the Public Security Ministry] has had the budget for [school security guards]. Now that the money isn't there, it's become our problem."
The
issue threatens to derail the school year from day one, with the SSTO
leading the call for classes to be canceled, and others following suit. (Nexis All News, accessed 12.18.2012)
In short: without the security guards, the teachers don't protect students themselves. They send kids home. On September 1, 2009, the JP's Selig reported in "School year to begin today, despite looming issues":
Meanwhile,
the head of the Secondary School Teachers Organization, Ran Erez, said
earlier in the week that a number of other unresolved issues were still
looming on a national level.
According to Erez, those issues included the ongoing shortage of certified security guards for the country's schools . . .
Police officers will temporary fill in for missing school security guards until after Rosh Hashana, Lt.-Cmdr. Meir Ben-Yishai, head of the Israel Police's Security Department, said Monday, as an estimated 10 percent of all guard positions are unfilled.
Ben-Yishai
met with security officers and Education Ministry officials Monday to
assess security at schools ahead of the start of the school year.
Erez had said that any junior high or high school that has no guard Tuesday would not open. (Nexis All News, accessed 12.18.2012)
Security cameras proposed for Israeli schools
There's more. In "School security guards to be trained to intervene against student violence" (July 29, 2009) Yaakov Lappin reported in the Jerusalem Post that the security needs of the schools were changing:
School security guards,
who until now have focused on preventing external threats like
terrorism, will begin receiving specialized training on how to deal with
pupil violence.
In addition, closed-circuit
television cameras linked up to control rooms will monitor school
playgrounds, as part of a series of steps being taken by police to
tackle violence in schools.
The measures were announced Tuesday by Lt.-Cmdr. Meir Ben-Yishai, head of the Israel
Police's Security Department, during a meeting with security officers
responsible for educational institutions from across the country.
"These
steps stem from a need that has been identified in recent years,"
police spokeswoman Orit Friedman told The Jerusalem Post. "The guards
will be trained to deal with confrontations and to intervene in fights
between pupils.
"Until today, the role of the guards
was limited to dealing with terrorism and external threats. But they
should be able to provide solutions to incidents on school grounds as
well," Friedman said.
Friedman denied there was a
recent rise in school violence, but noted that injuries resulting from
fights and stabbings were a reality in Israeli schools.
"Having trained guards on site will cut out the need to wait for police to arrive," she added.
As part of the reforms, CCTV cameras installed in school playgrounds will feed live images to municipal control rooms.
"Pupils
will be monitored at all times in playgrounds and other areas of the
school, where the presence of teachers could be lacking," Friedman said.
While away from the front gate, the security guard can lock the school's main entrance to avoid security breaches, she added.
The type of training school guards receive from their companies is dictated and monitored by the Israel
Police. According to the new guidelines, courses for new guards will be
extended from four to six days, and there will be a greater emphasis on
firearms training.(Nexis All News, accessed 12.18.2012)
So not only was the training changing, but security cameras were to be installed at schools, with monitors feeding images into the local police stations. This proposal drew cries of "Big Brother," according to a report by the JP's Ben Hartman, "CCTV cameras won't go into classrooms or corridors. Surveillance to be limited to school gates and yards, police say":
A plan to set
up police surveillance cameras at 12 schools across the country will
not be implemented by the time the school year starts on Wednesday,
police told MKs on Sunday.
During a meeting of the
Knesset's Education, Sports, and Culture Committee, police said that the
cameras, which will broadcast back to a police command center, will not
be placed in classrooms or hallways, and will be limited to gates and
schoolyards, where they can help security guards patrol the campuses.
The
plan has stirred controversy, with critics branding it a "Big Brother"
program, and others saying it attempts to replace teachers' education
and discipline with cameras. . . .(Nexis All News, accessed 12.18.2012)
What sort of problems with violence were Israeli schools encountering? Hartman writes:
According to
an Education Ministry study from 2006, "moderate physical violence"
occurred in over half of Israeli schools in 2005, while "serious
physical violence," involving injury or threats, took place in one out
of every five.
Almost half of all students described
the atmosphere in their school as violent, according to the study,
while 27.2 percent said they felt unsafe at school. In addition, 3.7% of
students reported carrying "cold weapons" such as knives to school,
while 1.5% reported carrying firearms.(Nexis All News, accessed 12.18.2012)
It's illegal for children to carry firearms in Israel; indeed, non-veterans can't obtain permits or guns until age 27. Nor are civilians as well-armed (or as often dead) as in the United States, Addicting Information's Wendy Gittleson writes:
Teachers are neither trained nor paid to be the first line of defense
against high-powered rifles. Out of one side of their mouths, the right
is cutting school funding and attacking the teachers’ union and on the
other side, they are wanting teachers to take on the responsibility of
police and military sharpshooters . . . .
In Israel, there are approximately 7.3 guns per 100 people. In 2008,
there was less than one gun homicide per 100,000 people. In the U.S.,
there are 88.8 guns per 100 people and in 2008, there were over 3 gun
homicides for each 100,000 people. Source, gunpolicy.org. This is despite the fact that some in Israel actually do live in a war zone. . . .
Israeli soldiers, police and volunteers mobilized for school security
That's another element that articles in the Jerusalem Post make clear. On September 1, 2005, staff writers Talya Halkin and Yaakov Katz reported in "Dovrat Reform debuts as schools open":
. . . Meanwhile,
thousands of policemen will deploy across the country on Thursday to
ensure that the new school year gets off to a secure and peaceful start.
Policemen,
backed up by volunteers, will patrol various carpool pickup spots,
schools and main population centers to prevent Palestinian attacks.
Soldiers will beef up the seam-line on the West Bank to prevent terrorist infiltrations.
While
police had not received concrete intelligence regarding terrorist
threats, they did not intend to take any chances, said Asst.-Cmdr. Ze'ev
Welednger, head of the Police Security Department,.
"We
do not have concrete information, but usually there is none when terror
strikes," he said. "Since we don't have intelligence reports, we get
ready for a range of scenarios that could happen and prepare ourselves
to the best of our ability."
Welednger said terrorism was not the police's only concern.
"In
addition to the terror threats, we are also prepared for the changes
people go through on the first day of school," he said. "People's moods
change since it is a day full of pressure, and we need to be there to
help everyone get to school and home safely." . . . (Nexis All News, accessed 12.18.2012)
Other than the gated schools, armed security officers, cameras, and occasionally fully mobilized military, police and civilian volunteer force, one supposes it's the teachers who decide to carry guns into Israeli schools who've prevented incidents like Ma'lat.
Indeed, at the time of the blood standard for school attacks--the Beslan, Russia, school siege, where at least 335 children and adults were killed in September 2004--security advisor Steve Albrecht wrote in a column in the San Diego Tribune, "School violence; The terrorists' new weapon here?":
Speaking at
the national conference for the Association of Threat Assessment
Professionals in Anaheim last week, Lt. Col. David Grossman, a retired
U.S. Army Ranger, foreshadowed the Chechens' attack on the school.
. . . A hush fell over the room
as Grossman reminded the group that as far back as 1974, terrorist
attacks on an Israeli school killed 21 children. As a result, schools in
Israel, starting then and certainly today, have armed soldiers, armed police, or armed security on every campus.
Israel
has taken this psychologically significant and economically difficult
step because the leaders felt they had no choice. Terrorists don't enjoy
targeting police stations and soldiers' barracks because these people
fight them with lethal violence in kind. Terrorists attack school
campuses for two undeniable reasons: children can't shoot back at them
and any incident involving violence at what is supposed to be a safe,
"protected environment," like a school, a hospital or a day care center,
creates tremendous anxiety in the nearby community. (Nexis All News, accessed 12.18.2012)
Other than the soldiers, the police, the security guards, the fenced and gated schools, the back-pack searches, the camera images piped into the local police station, sure, those teachers who choose (it's not mandatory) to carry have stopped those terrorist attacks, Representative Cornish, and that's all we need.
Or is it? Perhaps a good gauge for the tale might be the reaction of Israeli teachers and parents when they learn that the guards aren't in place. At the time of the Beslan attacks, the Post's Stuart Winer reports in "School guards leave before children go home":
As the world reels from the Beslan school massacre, a security lapse at Israeli schools was revealed on Monday.
The Union of Local Authorities (ULAI) in Israel admitted that school security guards are leaving their posts at 2 p.m. even though there are lessons that continue till 4 p.m. in many schools. . . .
. . .Although the standard school
day ends at 2 p.m., according to [Head of Security and Deputy Director-General of the ULAI Sharon] Azriel, there are some lessons that
continue till 4 p.m. in half the country's schools. . . .
. . .Chairman of
the National Parents' Association Erez Frankel called on parents to
collect their children from schools as soon at the guards leave.
"Can
you imagine a cafe owner sending home the guard when there are still
customers inside?" he said. "If there is a need for school security then
it needs to be for all the pupils all the time.". . .(Nexis All News, accessed 12.18.2012)
Pre-1991: Parent-volunters (Heckova PTA)
It's clear that Israel has increasingly beefed up security in its schools, and so it possible that the "armed teachers" narrative was born before 1991, when Israel first employed paid guards rather than having parent volunteers stand watch. Armed teachers would have been an important element at that time.
On November 30, 1990, JP staff writer Bill Hutman reported in "Every Public School To Have Armed Guards":
Trained armed guards will be
placed at all public schools within the next three months, an Education
Ministry official said yesterday. The ministry has called a meeting
today of IDF, police, and local authority officials to work out the
details. Ami Kahan, director of the ministry's security department,
said implementation will meet the February 28 deadline set by the
Knesset education committee for hiring school security guards.
Trained armed guards will be placed at all public schools within the
next three months, an Education Ministry official said yesterday.
The
ministry has called a meeting today of IDF, police, and local authority
officials to work out the details. Ami Kahan, director of the
ministry's security department, said implementation will meet the
February 28 deadline set by the Knesset education committee for hiring school security guards.
But
the Local Authorities Council, whose cooperation is necessary for the
implementation of the plan, remains opposed to the idea. Armed guards
are not necessary in all areas of the country, said Givatayim Mayor
Yitzhak Yaron, who heads the council's education committee.
Yaron
explained that trained guards were not needed in his town, for example,
because "few Arabs pass through the city." He also raised doubts
whether security companies would be willing to work in remote
settlements.
At present, parents and sometimes high
school or even elementary school pupils serve as guards. In many cases,
schools are left unguarded when parents don't show up for duty.
The
situation in kindergartens is more severe, with not even a parent-guard
system organized in some instances. Moreover, many kindergartens don't
have phones, making it difficult to call for help in case of emergency.
Last
month, in wake of the wave of violent attacks on civilians, the Knesset
education committee demanded that the ministry switch to professional
guards. Committee members severely criticized the ministry for not
implementing the recommendations to tighten school security, made over a
year ago by the Knesset-appointed Givoli commission.
Kahan noted that kindergartens are not included in the commission's recommendations.
In
Jerusalem, at the initiative of the Parents Association, over one-third
of the schools have hired security companies. The association
presented the details of their initiative to the ministry, in hope it
would be used as the basis of the nationwide plan.
The
ministry estimated that the professional guards will cost parents
around NIS 30 per year. But the cost may be two or three times higher
in development towns and remote settlements, Yaron said.
Despite the cost to parents, the National Parents Association is firmly behind the plan, chairman Moshe Mizrahi said. (Nexis All News, accessed 12.18.2012)
It can't happen here?
Since Minnesota's teachers unon endorsed Cornish in 2010, he can't be counted among the high command of education union bashers. The problems with the idea--and using Israel as analogy--are extensive. As a review of reports from the English-language Israeli press has shown, armed teachers have been an increasingly insignificant part of Israeli school security since the early 1990s.
Moreover, Israel is much smaller and much more militarized in daily life than the United States, even though our security apparatus has been transformed since the September 11, 2001 attacks. For Israeli Jews, military services is universal for those judged fit to serve; few Americans have military service and the attendant weapons training.
Perhaps the most damning things about the proposal, though, is the sense that the solutions to potential gun violence in schools are more guns, and in the hands of those we expect to teach. Let teachers teach, politicians across the spectrum say--with the exception of Tony Cornish and his kindred across the country, who also seem to want volunteer security officers.
It feels like the same old nickel and diming of the schools. security on the cheap, and lethal force handed out to those who are routinely denigrated by the political right in the state. Cornish may see this as straight shooting, but it's got the feel of blanks misfired to start out the session.
Photo: Tony Cornish, top; Union thug, bottom.
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Gun Owners of America executive director Larry Pratt not only wants armed teachers in classrooms. He wants toxic metal Christian rocker and homophobe Bradlee Dean to join them.
Pratt was interviewed by Dean sidekick Jake McAuley on Saturday's Sons of Liberty Radio show, part of a two-day rant about Sandy Hook being a "stage shooting."
Not only does Dean think that Sandy Hook was staged in order to gain publics sympathy for gun control, but his co-host spent air time with Pratt swapping Old Testament "biblical perspectives" about how God so does not want gun control.
One anti-gun control conspiracy narrative floating around--and first introduced to Bluestem by acquaintances on the very left, although the story's more present on the fringy right--is the "staged shooting" meme that predates Newtown. It's this decade's version of the "9-11 Truther" tale, though told on a less grand scale.
While the 9-11 Truthers insist that former President Bush was in on the plot to fly airplanes into the Twin Towers, the "Staged Shooting" storytellers fancy that the Obama administration is setting up the spree shootings of the past months, the better to confiscate all guns, sign the UN gun treaty, or both.
Go check both post out at Bradlee Dean Info. Here's one of the videos:
Biblical view: God ignores the weapon
After an introduction, and Pratt hold forth on the notion that gun free zones are catnip for spree shooters and the only solution is arm the victims--presumably, adults rather that first graders. Just before Dean's co-host Jake McAuley and Pratt close with a chat about how Obama will so unilaterally order gun dealers to stop stealing shit, they talk about how gun control violates God's values, using the story of Abel and Cain to establish what God wants in contemporary American gun policy.
Here's a transcript of the exchange:
JAKE: Now Larry, a lot of people listening right now are Christians and a lot of people probably aren't, but I want to give the biblical perspective, because that's what you do at Gun Owners Dot Org, you include that, which is different from some of the other gun lobbies, and I think the basis is the biblical basis of our Constitution is what insures our rights. Where it's not biblically based, it won't insure our rights, it will take them from us.
I recall the story of Cain and Abel when Cain came up to his brother and killed him. Now, it doesn't say what the weapon was, but did God say, did He legislate then at that point, okay, from now on, no more weapons for anybody?
PRATT: I think that's a very significant point. Right up front at the beginning of the history of man, we have this crime committed, and God ignores--He's obviously aware of--but He ignores whatever the weapon that was used, and He deals with Cain and He punishes Cain for what Cain did and He doesn't come back and say "And also, none of these rocks anymore, none of these plows, whatever it might have been. That's not the way you deal with crime. You deal with the recognition that the human heart is sinful, it's going to do bad things,and so you have to deal with crime from that point of view.
And that should be a lesson to our modern jurisprudence system. We shouldn't be fiddling around with whether you and I can be carrying this or that kind of a gun in this or that place in our society. We ought to be dealing with, okay, if you abuse that lethal force that you're able to carry, these will be the penalties.
JAKE: That's right, crime, God ultimately punishes crime.. .
Here's Bluestem's audio clip of the radio exchange:
How wonderful that Bradlee Dean is able to get the message of My War
into high schools around the country. Equally exciting is that he sees
students receiving his explanation of what made America free, strong and
prosperous.
Students say the assembly started well. The band played some great music and most students agreed with their message.
"They were a rock band, and they talked about music that had bad influences on kids," said high school junior Kenzley Ricklefs.
But then things took an unexpected turn. The group switched their
message from music, to negative opinions about the gay, lesbian, and
transgendered community.
"They started talking about homosexuality, and that's when I really
got offended," Manahl said. "I got a little emotional. I wanted to walk
out. But I'm like -- keep your calm, listen to what they have to say."
Then they split into smaller groups -- girls, boys, and teachers. The
guys got a lesson in the constitution and Christianity. The
conversation in the girls group was very different.
"I'm a Christian, so I believe in most of the things that they said.
Like, they talked about if you're unpure in your past, it's your past.
You can create a new future for yourself," senior Ashley Satterlee said.
Satterlee and her friends believe some of the younger kids could
learn a lot from the discussion about respecting your body and saving
yourself for marriage. But other students say this and a strong
pro-life, anti-abortion message, went too far for a public school.
"That's not something you should force down someone's throat. They
called me out because I wasn't participating because I didn't believe
what they wanted me to believe in, and they forced me to participate,"
Ricklefs said.
The superintendent said all of this is shocking and goes against his district's mission of acceptance and tolerance.
"Where did that come from? That's not what we were anticipating, and
when we called the other schools where they had been, why wasn't this
mentioned?" Stanton said. . . .
UPDATE: Four days before the school shootings, three of Dean's various twitter accounts posted Pratt's endorsements:
Photo: Larry Pratt, GOA executive director and huge Bradlee Dean fan.
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Republican daydreams that they'd be able to take back the Minnesota House on account of overreach in higher education funding may find their hopes dashed upon reading St. Cloud Times' Mark Sommerhausers' article, DFL legislators question MnSCU funding requests:
DFL legislators set to oversee Minnesota state colleges and universities
says the school system’s request for a boost in state funding may be
unrealistic. . . .
In a budget request to state lawmakers approved earlier this month, the
MnSCU Board of Trustees asked for $97 million in additional state
funding in the budget cycle that begins next summer. MnSCU leaders also
proposed in the request to increase tuition by about 3 percent and to
provide a wage and benefit increase of about 3 percent to MnSCU faculty
and staff.
But Pelowski, DFL-Winona, says he’s skeptical about the request.
Pelowski was named chair of the House Higher Education Finance and
Policy Committee after DFLers reclaimed control of the chamber in the
Nov. 6 elections.
Pelowski
says state government is still in a fiscal crisis, facing a projected
two-year deficit of about $1.1 billion. He says his goal is to avoid
further cuts to state funding for colleges and universities next year,
after those institutions sustained historic levels of cuts in the
previous budget.
“Anybody who says they want to spend new, they’re living in a fantasy world,” Pelowski said.
Sommerhauser notes:
The MnSCU system enters 2013 after absorbing an epic hit to its state
support during the last budget cycle. State funding for MnSCU was cut by
more than 10 percent in the two-year budget approved in 2011, the
second-largest funding cut in the system’s history.
Republicans interviewed for the article seemed to favor different
odds, but nobody quite reached around for the benchmark put forth by
Morris Sun reader Steve Fults of Donnelly, Minnesota. In his letter to
the editor, Congratulations Democrats, Fults writes:
You got rid of most of the conservative Republicans in the state. Now
you liberals will be free to raise the state budget billions of dollars.
Our schools and teachers will have unlimited funding, there will be
plenty of money for state programs and universities. There might even be
free funding for students to go to liberal arts universities where
learning the evils of capitalism and how to become a social Democrat is a
top priority. The best part is it will all be funded by taxing those
evil job creating corporations. I'm sure we will all get the promised
tax cuts and finally have utopia.
Perhaps they'll just have to focus on bashing the University, instead of the post-secondary education system that houses technical and community colleges along with those dirty-hippie generating liberal arts degrees.
Meanwhile, Forum Communications political reporter Don Davis writes in Policies and politics quiet ahead of the new session that Senator Majority Leader Tom Bakk is so planning to block Scott Newman's fantasy legislature when it comes to marriage freedom:
Given an expected state deficit and the federal questions, Bakk says
he wants to limit debate on items that do not involve the budget.
One issue he is fighting is eliminating a law that bans gay marriage.
“We
are getting some calls from some real liberal constituencies on the gay
marriage issue and repealing the language in statute,” Bakk said.
"Real liberal constituencies, " Tom? Perhaps he's more comfortable with the fake ones.
Bluestem has a hard time seeing how marriage equality will cost taxpayers a dime (having to buy wedding presents is just a private initiative that will spur consumer spending), but maybe it's that liberal arts education clouding our math.
Photo: Republican utopian fantasy projections might not provide a path to retaking the Minnesota House of Representatives.
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...DFLers would do well to learn from the GOP's missteps. Like the
Republicans two years ago, they too will experience pressure from their
supporters to advance an agenda that only one party backs. Higher-income
taxes on the rich would be on such an agenda. So would a move toward a
single-payer approach to health care....
After a full two decades of divided state government
in St. Paul, the three Democrats setting the agenda at Minnesota's
Capitol starting in January must prove the party can take advantage of
what may be a once-in-a-generation opportunity....
When the 2013 Legislature convenes in January,
Minnesota Republicans will be totally locked out of power the first time
since 1990. At the forefront of the debate among Democrats will be the
need to eliminate another projected state budget deficit, likely through
a mix of spending cuts and new sources of revenue. Dayton is expected
to push for an income tax increase on the state's wealthiest citizens,
the goal that defined his 2010 candidacy and his first year in office.
Democrats will be under pressure to spend more on public schools
and provide property tax relief after making it a goal for the last
decade. Liberal Democrats in the new Legislature could push left-leaning
causes, from unionizing home child care workers to legalizing gay
marriage....
Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk promises he won't reach for too much:
"Voters rolled the
dice on one-party control because they were tired of the
gridlock and the fighting and nothing getting done," said Bakk, whose
sprawling Senate district covers a large portion of northeastern
Minnesota. "There are a lot of people who think we will overreach. Those
people don't know me."
Republicans interviewed for the article seemed to favor differnt odds, but nobody quite reached around for the benchmark put forth by Morris Sun reader Steve Fults of Donnelly, Minnesota. In his letter to the editor, Congratulations Democrats, Fults writes:
You got rid of most of the conservative Republicans in the state. Now
you liberals will be free to raise the state budget billions of dollars.
Our schools and teachers will have unlimited funding, there will be
plenty of money for state programs and universities. There might even be
free funding for students to go to liberal arts universities where
learning the evils of capitalism and how to become a social Democrat is a
top priority. The best part is it will all be funded by taxing those
evil job creating corporations. I'm sure we will all get the promised
tax cuts and finally have utopia.
Morris is home the University of Minnesota's liberal arts college.
Photo: A new plan for the Morris campus, now that Democrats are here invest in some infrastructure.
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Governor Mark Dayton will headline a rally today sponsored by the Bemidji State University College Democrats Wednesday, October 24, at 1 pm. at Lower Hobson Memorial Union, BSU, 15th St NE in Bemidji.
Senator Tom Saxhaug (SD5), Representative John Persell (HD 5A), and Roger Erickson (HD2A) will also urge students to get to the polls on Election
Day.
The reelection bids facing six legislative candidates in Minnesota’s new Senate District 5 are unlike any other across the state this election cycle.
The shrinking population in the north central region of the state left the area with one less Senate district after the state’s redistricting maps landed in February. Thanks to that change, six incumbents from opposite parties found themselves paired up in the new Senate District 5. When the dust settled, they all opted to stay in the race and will now face each other on the November ballot.
One of the most-watched and telling of those races, operatives say, is the contest between freshman incumbent Republican Sen. John Carlson and 10-year incumbent Democrat Tom Saxhaug. Despite their differing party affiliations, the two candidates have surprisingly similar profiles. Both are or were insurance agents, both have been strong supporters of rural legislation and both describe the other as a “pretty nice guy.” What it’ll come down to, some say, is pure campaign politics.
“I think, much like any other district, this is really a referendum
on the last two years of Republican control,” said Mike Kennedy, Senate DFL elections staffer.
Unsurprisingly, the race has been targeted by Senate Democrats, who are hungry to reclaim the nearly 40-year majority status they lost in 2010. A victory in the district means protecting an incumbent while at the same time gaining a seat picked up by Republicans in 2010. Conversely, Republicans and business groups are working to protect Carlson as they aim to keep their majority in the Senate.
As those reading the Bierschbach article might guess, the handful of businessmen who contribute to Minnesota's Future have sent their cookie-cutter attack mailers to Senate District 5. The flyer is the same piece of junk mail delivered in southwest Minnesota's SD22 and southeast central SD24.
And, for that matter, to HD5B to go after the DFL incumbent there. Bluestem supposes that we should grant them points for persistence though not for creativity. Nor for subtlety in singling out public employees.
UPDATE: Bluestem has received an email from Vern Swedin disputing the
information in the Alliance for a Better Minnesota radio ad. He has
asked Bluestem Prairie to pull the YouTube, the factcheck document that ABM prepared, and the post that discusses
it.
Bluestem's editor has asked for a public statement from Vern
Swedin about his objections, as he now asserts that his emailed
objections about the ad and post are confidential.
We will certainly publish a rebuttal of the claims alleged in the radio ad and fact check should Mr. Swedin decide to make this information public. However, Alliance for a Better Minnesota prepared and produced the radio ad, not Bluestem Prairie, and we believe that it, like the Republican Party of Minnesota flyer, are part of the story about the race in Senate District 24. [end update]
October is still young, but two new independent attack pieces illustrate how the race between Vicki Jensen (DFL) and Vern Swedin (R) for the open seat in Minnesota Senate District 24 is heating up.
The Republican Party of Minnesota has sent a third, rather generic direct mail piece attacking small business owner and school board member Vicki Jensen as a tool of "Teacher Union Bosses and their special interest group allies who are spending millions (the horrors!) to elect candidates like Jensen" who will block reforming education by ditching seniority. The back of the mail piece is shown above.
Just as with the first pieces, this has the feel of boilerplate--there's nothing specific to Jensen's service on the Owatonna School Board, work as an active member of the local chamber of commerce, or anything tailored to be district.
The Alliance for a Better Minnesota Action Fund radio ad is an entirely different matter. The 60 second spot makes a direct Rovian attack on what many might say is Vern Swedin's strength: his business career. Swedin is accused of allegedly leading companies that outsourced jobs, piled up debts, were slapped with hundreds of thousands of tax liens, and faced nearly a million dollars in lawsuits from unpaid lenders.
Here's the audio: [note 11/25/2012: Swedin has asked Youtube to pull the ad over privacy concerns; if the youtube is no longer available, listen to the clip here on LiveLeak.]
A friend in the district sent the audio file. Bluestem contacted ABM for supporting documentation of the claims made in the ad, and received the following document. As the friend who sent the audio file said, "It's going to get ugly." The material against Swedin is very specific. Here's the fact check document:
Now, CWCS's policy recommendations on the mining industry and motorized vehicles in the BWCA are well documented on the group's site, and so it's no surprise that McReady supports the positions that politicians like Cravaack and the Range delegation DFLers take about mining and land swaps.
The close of her letter, however, suggests that Cravaack's tenure in Congress is lucky for students in district post-secondary training programs:
Iron Range community colleges and vocational-technical schools are
educating our young people to fill the jobs of retiring taconite workers
and are readying them for the skilled labor jobs to come. These jobs
enable our sons and daughters to remain on the Iron Range.
We are lucky to have Congressman Cravaack.
Have students gotten lucky with the Congressman? A review of key votes related to making those community colleges and technical schools (often one and the same in MNSCU's system) suggests probably not.
Cutting TRiO funding
Cravaack voted to cut TRiO funds that help first-generation post-secondary students pay for college. Jana Peterson of the Pine Journal reported in Cloquet students question Cravaack (the article is now posted on the College of St. Scholastica's website):
Cloquet High School student Sara Bush took the opportunity Thursday morning to ask U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack why he voted for a bill that would take away $26 million in funding from the TRiO programs, which help students like her go to college.
“There are a lot of other programs associated with that,” he told the senior, referring to the federal program designed to help low-income, minority and first-generation students go to college. “I understand it’s not going to be easy. But right now we’ve got $14.3 trillion in debt. If we don’t do something, here’s what’s going to happen to TRiO programs: We won’t have a TRiO program. We’ll be broke.”
Bush — who has been accepted to study pre-medicine at the College of St. Scholastica — thanks, in part, to TRiO funds — didn’t completely let Cravaack off the hook for his TRiO vote.
“This also gives up the opportunity for 90,000 people to go to college,” she pointed out.
Cravaack suggested that she work three jobs like his wife did to put herself through college. Duluth News Tribune reader Lee Peterson applauded Bush for taking Cravaack to task, since he's been willing to spend on other things:
Kudos to the Cloquet High School student who asked U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack about his vote to take $26 million from TRiO programs, which would result in 90,000 fewer students going to college; and kudos to the student who questioned Cravaack about general cuts to education (“Cloquet students question Cravaack, April 22).
We need to note Cravaack’s voting record because, so far, it doesn’t seem to reflect the values of the people of the 8th Congressional District. Contrasting his anti-TRiO vote with his reported support for building a second engine (by GE) for the F-35 fighter provides a good example of his disconnect from the 8th District and his affinity to connect with the defense industry and lobbyists. The extra engine, as I understand, has been opposed by Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, by the past two secretaries of defense, and by three branches of the service that would use the plane. Imagine that! Cravaack knows better? The extra engine reportedly has cost us $3 billion so far. Cutting it would save $450 million this year alone, according to my research.
It helps Cravaack that GE reportedly spent $39 million lobbying Congress last year. How much does anyone think low-income students spent lobbying to keep TRiO funded?
That's right: Cravaack voted to cut funding for poor students who want to continue their education, but found it in his heart to vote to spend millions more on a jet plane engine the military does not want.
Students and Duluth community leaders are criticizing newly elected
GOP Rep. Chip Cravaack for a vote that could lead to severe cuts to a
financial aid program.
They took turns at the microphone on
the University of Minnesota-Duluth campus to denounce cuts to the
federal Pell Grant program. The cuts are part of a spending bill that
passed the U.S. House two weeks ago.
According to the Chronicle of Higher
Education, the bill reduces Pell Grant spending over the next decade by
$64 billion.
. . .about 30 percent of UMD students receive Pell Grants. However, if left alone, the program faces a multi-billion dollar deficit.
Cravaack did not reply to a request for a response.
While the protest took places at the UMD campus, Pell Grants are an important source for MNSCU community and technical college students to pay for their educations.
Theresa O’Halleran Johnson, a recent college grad, spoke up
after Cravaack suggested that Pell grants are responsible for raising
tuition costs on “normal people.” “Pell grants have increased the last
four years by 139 percent. Dollar for dollar, as the Pell grants
increase, so does normal tuition on normal people,” Cravaack. “That’s
not true!” several constituents shouted. Johnson took the mic to say,
“That is completely incorrect.” . . .
Cravaack’s claim about Pell grants comes from analysis put out House
Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) in support of the GOP budget, which
cuts funding for the education program. As ThinkProgress has noted, the
study Ryan cites to support his claim actually finds the opposite,
concluding, “we find little evidence” that the grants increase tuition costs.
Robbing Health Care Funding to Pay for Student Debt
The bill, which would strip $5.9 billion from a program within the health care law
to pay to keep rates on subsidized undergraduate loans at 3.4 percent,
is all but certain to fail in the Senate, where lawmakers have put
together their own measure to keep the rate from reverting to 6.8
percent by closing tax loopholes for some wealthy business owners.
While the House legislation has little chance of becoming law in its
current form, the bill — the last piece of legislation considered before
a one-week recess — was an instructive metaphor for the current state
of Congressional politics.
As with other measures designed to appeal to middle-class voters, the
fight between Democrats and Republicans was less over the substance of
the bill than how to pay for it, with Republicans, as they have all
year, looking to cut government spending and Democrats, as has been
their approach, looking to extract more money from high earners.
Republicans, continuing their yearlong assault on the health care law,
proposed it as a source for the money while Democrats, persisting with
their accusation that the other party has been waging a “war on women,”
pushed that meme further, arguing that the money would reduce spending
on preventive health programs. . . .
In Minnesota, Democratic Congressmen Peterson and Walz were criticized by members of their own party for voting with Cravaack and the Republicans on this one. Thirty Republicans voted against the bill, as did Ellison, McCollum and 163 other Democrats.
A question for debate
Since Cravaack won't be back in Duluth until October 9 for a debate with
DFL-endorsed challenger Rick Nolan, perhap someone on the panel posing
questions to the candidates might just ask how lucky community and technical college students
would be in getting assistance in funding their educations and programs.
At the end of the piece, Tribune staff writer Danielle Boss writes:
"The country’s leaders also need to show the youth it’s OK to be a welder or to attend vocational school, instead of forcing youth into attending a four-year college, when they could better work in a different field, he added."
Because forced college educations are such an awful thing and four-year college slavery must end now.
This is truly peculiar language, since no one is "forcing" students to go to four-year colleges. In fact, Minnesota has a fairly robust system of technical and comprehensive community colleges within MNSCU. It's pricey compared to other public technical and two-year community colleges systems around the country, but still a bargain when compared to private vo-tech schools and online learning. Last fall, MPR checked out MnSCU’s new push for career technical education.
One wonders just who the hell Parry is talking about when he asks for national leaders who will show youth it's okay to be welders rather than "forcing" them to go to college. Parry might have been channeling NAS's Peter Wood channeling Rick Santorum on that snotty president who supposedly wants everyone to go to college. Like that snob said in his 2009 state-of-the-union address:
Tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.
Parry apparently has been successful in finding a national leader who doesn't want to force anyone to learn--although that generosity might also stop some from picking up training as welders or money to go to vocational school, public or private.
Parry and Quist both lavished praise on Romney's selection of Rep. Paul Ryan, and yet the New Ryan Budget Disinvests in America, with education and training slashed percapita by 48 percent, according to a review of the veep-in-waiting's budget proposal last spring by the Center for American Progress.
. . .the controversial Ryan budget, which proposes to cut spending by $5.3 trillion over 10 years, sets the FY 2013 discretionary spending cap at $1.028 trillion, $19 billion below the $1.047 trillion spending cap agreed to in the August 2011 debt limit deal.
There are 17 major government functions for which the budget committee recommends spending ceilings. CTE programs are part of the Function 500 category of education, training, employment and social services. The Ryan budget proposes to cut combined mandatory and discretionary spending for Function 500 programs by $9.5 billion below the current baseline.
Minnesota lawmakers voted to cut $300 million from college and university spending as they craft a state budget while plugging a $5 billion deficit.
That proposed cut was hard on the local technical college. The Eagle reported:
Jim Johnson, president of Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical, said because over 80 percent of the college's budget goes to staffing, the cuts would definitely mean laying off employees.
"We will be looking at less staff, doing some layoffs, looking at how we can do things more efficiently," he said.
Bills passing the House and Senate Tuesday set a $2.5 billion two-year budget for state-run colleges and universities. That is down from $2.8 billion in the current budget.
The technical college would have to shave off about $1 million from its budget this year and another $1 million next year, Johnson said. . . .
So in his haste to get away from those forced four-year college camps, Parry supported slashing technical schools. More mixed messages from the Parry-Dox.
Touring Jones Metal in Mankato today, Walz says the company told him they needed two things to remain successful: good roads to get their products where they need to go, and a workforce skilled in industrial technology:
"We have got to be producing students and have high quality folks that have the ability to follow directions, to read schematic drawings. One of the things they said was get technical education back into our schools and make the case that manufacturing is a noble profession. You're going to make good money here, you're going to get good benefits and you're going to end up doing something with your hands."
Edwatch's history of bashing STW; employer involvement in tech education
Even more strange: Quist and Parry both love them some Bachmann, who gained some earned media by bashing school-to-work programs in Minnesota. Both Quists were deeply involved in EdWatch, which trashed technical education and school to work in favor of high school curriculums that were geared toward the liberal arts.
The following article in yesterday's Naples Sun Times reports on a presentation Minnesota Senator Michele Bachmann recently gave in Florida regarding School-to-Work. Since the 1994 federal School-to-Work Act was not re-authorized in 2001, some try to make the case that School-to-Work is no longer an issue. Nothing could be further from the truth. Picking up where the 1994 School-to-Work Opportunities Act left off, federal funding for a federal STW system is generously funded and implemented through a number of other federal laws, including the Workforce Investment Act and the Carl Perkins Act. For a glimpse of that vast system, visit the website of the Career and Technical Dissemination Center, all funded with our tax dollars. It exists in every state, and it is transforming knowledge-based learning into job training for all students beginning at early as kindergarten.
Oh scary. (Aside: when Parry was asked at Farmfest about use of Perkins dollars to promote ag tech programs, he launched into a rambling screed about how all control should be local and didn't seem to understand the question; both Walz and Quist grasped why the question was important for farming).
[Bachmann and Michael Chapman] argued that public schools, in collaboration with business interests, would then funnel children to specific careers through a program called School to Work. Officials in Washington, in that dystopian scenario, would form "workforce boards" to promote different sectors of the economy—green jobs, say—depending on their political whims.
"Government is implementing policies that will lead to poverty, not prosperity, by adopting the failed ideas of a state planned and managed economy similar to that of the former Soviet Union," Bachmann and Chapman wrote. "The system is based upon a utilitarian worldview that measures human value only in terms of productive capability for the 'best interests of the state.'"
And so it appears that in Minnesota at least, leaders like Bachmann discouraged the notion that technical education had value, but was rather part of a Big Government plan to force kids into non-liberal arts programs. Or whatever.
Maybe the MNGOP can tell us when they make up their mind about whether four-year liberal arts degrees or technical programs are the road to serfdom.
Also on the menu in Albert Lea: Parry demogoguing on immigrant and English-only. Neither issue has been on the radar in this race--and those anti-job-creator business groups like the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce seek national comprehensive immigration reform because they're worried about having a workforce at all. Parry seems to be treading water here.
Who will Republican voters throw a lifeline to tomorrow? Neither isn't on the ballot.
All of the statements, opinions, and views expressed on this site by Sally Jo Sorensen are solely her own, save when she attributes them to other sources.
The opinions, statements, and views of contributing writers are their own.
Sorensen, editor and proprietor of Bluestem Prairie, served as a New Media training and strategy consultant for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party from October 2009 through mid-April 2010. She now serves clients in the business and nonprofit sectors.
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