In Peculiar postcards hit mailboxes in greater Minnesota House districts flipped in 2014, Bluestem looked at postcards the Minnesota Jobs Coalition (not the Minnesota Jobs Coalition Legislative Fund, which sent out postcards during last year's House campaigns) sent to voters in Minnesota House Districts 17A and 17B.
(Update: a friend notes that since the mail pieces don't say, "vote for" the legislators, no disclosure of the funding is required. Former Representative Ryan Winkler's legislation would have changed that situation).
The postcards praised votes by freshmen MN17A's Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg, and MN17B's Dave Baker, R-Willmar, on education and transportation, respectively.
Since posting, we've received a copy of the cookie-cutter education vote postcard sent to Baker's constituents--as well as an educational mailer sent to voters in MN12A, touting freshman Jeff Backer, R-Browns Valley.
The Backer postcard (preposition error and all) is at the top of this post; more on it in a bit. Here's the Baker postcard:
Baker didn't vote on the original, paltry House Republican bill because he was excused for the day--an absence related to the bird flu outbreak (a worthy excuse). But he did vote for the bill Dayton vetoed, and that veto is what forced the Republican-led House to invest this much in education.
As we noted in Peculiar Postcards, part I:
The Senate managed to get that paltry amount bumped up to $400 million, but Dayton ended up vetoing the conference committee bill, setting the stage for the special session compromise. The Grand Forks Herald reported in $17 billion education bill finalized in Minnesota, with $525 million added:
With the date and content of an upcoming special session still unsettled, the Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton did reveal significant agreement on the next Minnesota budget on Friday. . . .
The final bill is closer to the nearly $700 million in new money Dayton wanted than the $150 million House Republicans initially proposed.
“It’s worth it, $125 million for the extra few weeks,” said Sen. Charles Wiger, DFL-Maplewood, Senate Education Committee chair. “When you look at where the House started, I’m pleased. I admire the governor’s tenacity.”
More than half the new money, $350 million, will go toward increasing by 2 percent a year the per pupil funding formula schools use for general operations. The base per-student funding schools receive will grow from $5,831 this year to $6,067 in 2017. School officials said increasing that funding was among their top priorities this year. . . .
The final bill also includes several policy changes, including streamlining the process for licensing teachers. It does not include controversial changes to teacher seniority rules for layoffs or a requirement that transgender students use bathrooms based on their sex at birth. Republicans had pushed for those provisions.
. . . How bad was the original House Republican bill for rural Minnesota? Dilworth DFLer Paul Marquart wrote in GOP leaving Greater Minnesota behind:
This session, with a nearly $2 billion projected budget surplus, Republicans are increasing school funding by just 0.6 percent. This will put many school districts in the red, causing them to layoff teachers and increase class sizes.
Under a fully phased-in tax bill, Republicans will spend $29 in tax giveaways — mostly for corporations — for every $1 they put toward education. This kind of imbalance will leave our students behind and make it even harder for rural schools to compete with metro schools. With a surplus, education should be a top priority, but the GOP are choosing to underfund our schools so that big businesses can see a tax break.
Backer already sent to corner by retired teacher for this fib
As for the Backer-backing version, a retired school teacher in his district already rapped his knuckles and sent him to the corner for the same claims. In Retired teacher puts Jeff Backer in corner for stealing credit for Democrats' milk money, we shared her letter in the Morris Sun Tribune:
Former Morris area school teacher Judy Bluth writes the editors of the Morris Sun Tribune in Fund education right from the start. In the epistle, she sends state representative Jeff Backer, R-Browns Valley, to the corner for taking credit for education funding he had opposed, while Governor Dayton and his DFL colleagues worked to get into the budget:
. . .It’s disingenuous and frustrating to see so many Republican legislators bragging about the investments that were made in education last session, including our own Rep. Jeff Backer.
Rep. Backer is taking responsibility for an increase in school funding for which he deserves no credit, and didn’t initially support. The Republican K-12 education bill he voted for didn’t keep up with the rate of inflation, and would have caused teacher layoffs, program cuts, and over-crowded classrooms this year.
Last spring, Superintendents from around the region gathered in Morris to tell DFL Leaders that the Republican education proposal was inadequate and harmful for our schools. It took Governor Dayton vetoing the bill and forcing legislators into a special session to get Republicans to increase funding for our students. To be clear on their priorities- Republicans found a way to work over a billion dollars in property tax cuts for skyscrapers in Minneapolis into their budget, but they could only be moved to give schools a 0.6% increase, when Superintendents said they needed 3%.
Not only that, but Rep. Backer voted against the DFL plan which would have provided needed funds for special education, continued the tuition freeze and invested in optional all day pre-school statewide.
Republicans like Jeff Backer could do a lot to help rural communities if they would just fully fund education from the start, instead of waiting until special session (paid for by taxpayers) to do the right thing. It’s not rocket science.
Back then, we asked "Should freshman state rep Backer get a social promotion from voters in 2016, despite not learning this lesson?"
In late October, Representative Paul Marquart, DFL-Dilworth, also chastised Backer, as we noted in Colleague spanks Backer for patting self on back for ed budget Dayton forced on GOP House.
Photos: Friends share their mail with us.
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