As Governor Tim Pawlenty travels the country in an attempt to gain some name recognition, he continues to tout his record of a balanced budget even stating that MN will have a surplus at the end of this two-year budget cycle. Possibly I haven't been paying enough attention, but since when were we going to have a surplus? Does Pawlenty have one set of 'facts' for outside MN and another for his home state? One fact that Pawlenty doesn't seem too worried about is that MN has an increasingly aging population. By 2020 those over 65 will outnumber school-age children for the first time. Sadly, our governor has striped both populations of a secure future.
According to the Minnesota Elder Economic Security Standard Index, elderly women are especially vulnerable to poverty (1 in 6 in Minnesota). One of the largest expenditures for this population is housing and health care, unfortunately Governor Pawlenty's only solutions appear to be cutting services for our most vulnerable.
Pawlenty's cuts would also reduce the state rate for long-term care by 2.5 percent. Patti Cullen, president and CEO of Care Providers of Minnesota, says that reduction is a "cut on top of a cut" for some of the home and community-based long-term care providers.
As part of this balanced budget record he does mention in a RealClearPolitics interview the fact that he was sued over the unallotment, but not stating that the MN Supreme Court found his use of it illegal. His illegal use of unallotment and veto happy nature are nothing new as Pawlenty repeatedly demonstrates his unwillingness to work toward a solution. When asked about his deferred payments to K-12 education his bully-on-the-playground mentality comes out
The school districts have squawked a little bit about it but, frankly and bluntly, I just tell them "Hey, it's better than getting cut flat out. And if you keep complaining about it, my proposal would be just to cut you flat out." So I think they'd prefer to have their payments deferred instead of cut.
Hopefully, as Governor Pawlenty introduces himself to the nation, people will look at his real record in MN.
Contrary to initials reports, the Minneapolis DFL endorsing convention for school board did not refuse to endorse non-white candidates. The Star Tribune made the erroneous report, and the misinformation was flittering around Twitter. Fortunately the Star Tribune corrected the story before it went to print.
Nonetheless, I just want to get out the correct information, alleviate the anger of misinformed people, take the wind out of the sails of conservatives who think the suddenly can claim liberals are the real racists who won't give minorities a chance. There were two non-white candidates endorsed. I'll be generous and suggest the confusion came from people who did not check any facts, but assumed the contested endorsements were the only endorsements. The other two were uncontested and therefore apparently ignored, but in fact we picked two impressive candidates.
Alberto Monserrate was endorsed in District 5, which is my district. He's originally from Puerto Rico, and it was announced at today's DFL state central committee meeting, where I personally first learned of the mid-reporting, that he's the first Latino endorsed for municipal office in Minnesota.
Hussein Samatar was endorsed for District 3. According to Mayor Rybak, who said this while introducing Samatar, if he wins, he will be the first Somali elected official in the country.
I'm not looking to get into the weeds of the DFL's affirmative action policy, whether we elect enough people from underrepresented groups, or the ongoing disputes over the endorsement process. I just wanted to correct this false report that we refused to consider minority candidates. If we shared the bigoted tendencies of the right, we wouldn't have nominated another candidate named "Hussein".
UPDATE:
I've been informed that Alberto Monserrate would not be the first Latino elected to municipal office in Minnesota. I don't know if the person who told me was wrong, or if I heard "Minneapolis" and then forgot. I'm guessing the latter. Anyway, the point was that it wasn't true the Minneapolis DFL refused to endorse someone from an underrepresented group.
While I'm updating, I heard this evening of a Republican congressional candidate in Idaho who embarrassed himself by saying Puerto Rico is a country. I'm sure you all know, but just in case you don't, and feel free to pretend you always knew and keep your former misapprehension to yourself, Puerto Rico is not a country. It is a US commonwealth. Puerto Ricans are native born citizens. So yes, Montserrate is a Latino, but not an immigrant. It shouldn't matter and probably doesn't to anyone hanging out here, but just to save anyone looking ignorant, there you go.
(I'd like to thank Sen. Dibble for his insights into the session that just completed. - promoted by The Big E)
The Minnesota legislature adjourned the 2009-2010 session on May 17. The major focus of our work was addressing an additional mid-cycle $1 billion deficit. Just 10 days before session was constitutionally required to end, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled the Governor's 2009 unallotment actions were illegal. This was an important victory upholding a fundamental aspect of our system, the balance of powers between the branches of government. However our budget balancing task was greatly complicated and tripled in one fell swoop.
It was solely up to the legislature to protect our core principles of compassion and opportunity. It was also solely up to the legislature conclude the session with some measure of civility. Minnesotans have long since made clear their impatience with total gridlock and mean-spirited partisanship. In light of the fact that only one party has been responsible for that dynamic, someone had to play the part of the grown up, leverage as much as possible to protect those most vulnerable, and take our case for change, especially in the executive branch, to the people. We can be especially proud of the fact that health care for the tens of thousands of people whom the Governor would completely disregard was protected.
Lame duck Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty intends to screw over MN's kids one last time before he leaves office. Pawlenty has slashed the education budget every single year of his reign and oversaw the largest cuts in our state's history. MN has the opportunity to bid for up to $175 million in federal dollars to supplement our slashed-to-the-bone education budget, but Pawlenty won't do it.
"Eliminating the achievement gap is too important to walk away and do nothing, as the governor suggests we do," [Education Minnesota President Tom Dooher] said. "Tim Pawlenty had eight years to do something about the achievement gap in our schools. And now, given one last chance to make a difference, he chose to give up without even trying."
(Education Minnesota)
The DFL-led legislature didn't go along with Pawlenty's foolish, partisan education proposals and so he's doing the only thing he knows how to do, complain to the media.
"Based on the Legislature's absolute failure -- and I mean absolute failure -- to meaningfully address education reforms that are a growing matter of consensus in the nation, it is highly unlikely that we'll proceed with that application," Pawlenty said during a Monday press conference.
Minnesota wasn't named a finalist for money during the federal government's first round of funding earlier this spring. When that happened, Pawlenty demanded lawmakers change a number of laws to bolster a second application.
Chief among those demands was a push for changes in the way teachers are licensed and how they're evaluated. The licensure issue was centered on creating a quick but stringent process for mid-career professionals who want to become teachers to get licensed. The governor also wanted teacher pay linked more closely to student performance and a rating system for teacher effectiveness.
(MPR)
Pawlenty is holding MN's kids hostage to his ridiculous demands. His proposals were gimmicks and were not needed to apply for the second round of grants.
Yesterday, occasional Minnesota Governor and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty vetoed a bill that would have saved school districts nearly a billion dollars. Pawlenty vetoed the health coverage pool bill. The bill would allow school districts to pool all of their teachers together and negotiate for the best insurance coverage and prices.
Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Mpls) had this to say in an email press release:
"This afternoon [yesterday], Governor Pawlenty vetoed legislation that would have established a new statewide health coverage pool for school district employees. In doing so, he ignored the work of his own finance department, which determined this bill would have saved Minnesota school districts nearly $1 billion over the next ten years.
I am extremely disappointed by the Governor's decision. School districts are now spending close to $1 billion a year just to provide health insurance to their employees. This bill would have significantly reduced those costs, ensuring more of our education dollars go where they're needed most: the classroom.
Dibble goes on to accuse Pawlenty of holding significant cost savings hostage to get his partisan pet projects passed:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Chamber Foundation (NCF) will host seven bipartisan governors - including Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty - to discuss our nation's most important challenge: creating jobs and reviving economic growth.
Yes, Tea-Paw is part of this panel. The man who was governor during most of the period in which the median Minnesota income declined by 9%. Oh, and MN's ranking in employment growth slipped from 26 to 39. (The chart's from Minnesota 2020.) The stench of failure exudes from TBag's governorship as from a ton of rotting pike carcasses. (I admit it, I try not to let this get emotional, but the part below about school employees pisses me off.) Incidentally, he snuck out to California, well under the radar, last Wednesday.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Thursday public employees are "over-benefited and overpaid" when compared to private employees so cutting school employee salaries and benefits are one of the keys to solving the state's education funding challenges.
What a load of despicable crap. Yep, teachers and other school employees are sure overpaid and over-benefited compared to the obscene 'compensation' that goes to corporate upper management for running their firms into the ground, or the idle, parasitic beneficiaries of vast inherited wealth; that is, those who benefit from the conservative 'handouts for the haves' governing ideology TBag extols. Just how stupid does he think people are? I'm coming around to this conclusion: as just plain stupid as him and his equally imbecile right-wing cohorts.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty says Minnesota will opt out of running one of the first programs to take effect under the new federal health care law...Minnesota already has a high-risk pool, but the premiums in the federal program are expected to cost consumers less.
If you read the article, it's not cut and dried, but one thing that is clear is that Timmy is, once again, looking out for #1's political ambitions, first and foremost. Oh, and he's publishing a memoir. I'll ghost-write it for him! Any ideas on what it should be titled?
Real political leadership is an ongoing conversation within our community about our core values. Who we are as Minnesotans and what we need to do together to move forward. For far too long regular folks like you and I have not had our voices heard in Washington D.C. You deserve a congressional representative that will always ensure your voice is heard, both here at home and in Washington.
Over the last decade the middle class has been under assault. For-profit student loan companies have been taking our hard-earned tax dollars and selling loans right back to our kids in order to profit off the interest. Our country's biggest banks borrow money from the government at almost zero percent interest rates, while for-profit student loan companies have been charging a 6.8% interest rate on federally guaranteed loans to our kids. A vicious cycle that hands over our taxes to private for-profit financial institutions which then make money off of interest rates and put our kids into debt at the beginning of their working lives. Our kids leave college with student loan debt averaging $23,186 for a four year degree and enter an economy with the worst employment prospects since 1945. If today's students decide to postpone the inevitable and go on to grad school, law school or medical school, their debt burden grows by another $30,000 to $120,000 leaving our kids on the hook for anywhere from $53,186 to $153,186 dollars in debt just as they are starting out.
Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis), my Senator, and Rep. Larry Hosch (DFL-St. Joseph) have introduced a healthcare bill to save school districts money and guarantee high quality insurance to their employees. The bill is entitled School Employees Insurance Program (SEIP).
MMB Report: Health coverage pool for educators saves districts $93 million by 2013
Legislature moving forward with School Employee Health Insurance Pool bill
Lawmakers renewed a 2009 legislative proposal this week after a non-partisan Minnesota Management and Budget report estimated the legislation could save the state's school districts $10.6 million through 2011, and $82.7 million in 2012-2013. The total estimated savings to schools over the next decade are close to $1 billion.
Authored by State Senator Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, and State Representative Larry Hosch, DFL-St. Joseph, the legislation would require all Minnesota school districts that are not currently self-insured to obtain health insurance coverage through a new School Employees Insurance Program (SEIP). Such a move would mitigate annual, unpredictable cost increases and improve the ability of districts to negotiate for lower-cost, better insurance plans.
"School districts are facing two major budget challenges right now: rising health care costs and reduced funding," Sen. Dibble said. "It's gotten to the point that a significant portion of any funding sent to school districts is obligated to offset rising health care costs - it's a destructive cycle, and this bill can help put an end to it. The report issued this week proves this bill would save school districts millions of dollars, which means millions of dollars that now can be directed where they're most needed: the classroom."
According to the MMB report, school districts in Minnesota spent $990.3 million on health care costs in 2008. Had the SEIP been in place in 2008, the report states those costs would have been reduced by $88 million, with health care expenditures totaling $902.7 million.
(press release email)
Rep. John Kline (R-MN) was elevated to the top minority spot on the House Education and Labor Committee not because he has any expertise in education or much knowledge about economics and labor. No, he was the highest ranking available Republican not tainted by scandals involving prostitutes, diapers, corruption or some combination thereof.
So consider this little snippet of Kline displaying his ignorance in a New Hampshire newspaper:
Voting yes: Reps. Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes, both Democrats.
Abusive student discipline: Voting 262 for and 153 against, the House on Wednesday passed a bill (HR 4247) setting federal standards and authorizing grants to states to curb the abusive discipline of K-12 students in public and private schools. Now before the Senate, the bill addresses practices such as duct-taping and other forcible restraints that inflict harm, seclusion in locked rooms and the application of drugs not prescribed by the student's doctor. The bill would extend to schools the same federal protection against physical abuse that applies to hospitals and other community institutions receiving federal funds.
Rep. George Miller, a Democrat from California, said: "When these abuses occur, it isn't just the individual victim who suffers. It hurts their classmates who witness these traumatizing events. It undermines the vast majority of teachers and staff who are trying to give students a quality education. It's a nightmare for everyone involved."
Rep. John Kline, a Republican from Minnesota, said the bill infringes on state authority and is "an invitation to trial lawyers who will eagerly take every opportunity to sue school districts. . . . In fact, there's a very real danger that schools will stop addressing safety issues entirely out of fear they could be sued."
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
This bill is to prevent restraining kids with duct tape, locking in closets or restraining kids in ways that torture or even lead to killing children.
Kline is more concerned about trial attorneys than he is with the safety of our nation's children.
Here's my take on what the new DFL governor needs to do as quickly as possible.
1. Implement the Minnesota Health Plan
2. Revamp Minnesota's educational system. Talk to actual students about what works and what doesn't work. Get input from the students themselves on how to change things. Talking to the students will be more effective than getting all ideas for change from teachers and administrators. There's a huge gap in how the two groups see things. Above all, treat the students with respect. Treat them as the young adults they are, not like prisoners. Seniors in high school will soon be able to put their lives at risk in the military, will soon be able to vote, and will soon be out on their own. Many school administrations don't treat their students with the respect they deserve.
3. Find ways to get people back to work. The money we just got for high speed rail will help bring jobs to Minnesota. There is no doubt a ton of ideas for creating new jobs. We need to implement those ideas. Once the economy is up and running again, more and more jobs will open up. Meanwhile, encourage people to find nontraditional ways to bring money into their lives, such as internet and outside sales, writing, public speaking engagements, motivational seminars, pet walking/grooming. The imagination knows no bounds.
4. Find ways to get more doctors to keep up with the latest medical research so that they can better treat their patients. Some doctors are so far behind current medical knowledge because the requirements for furthering their knowledge are too lenient.
5. As soon as feasibly possible, put back the things that Pawlenty took away, especially as it pertains to Minnesota's poorest and most vulnerable citizens.
6. Expand a few of the sections at MDH.
7. Don't forget to stand behind and promote Toastmasters for state employees so that every employee can be an effective communicator and excel at leadership.
8. One of the top priorities should be fixing the roads. We have way too many potholes. Have you driven on Highway 61 through Maplewood/White Bear Lake lately? That road has been extremely bad for years now. The same holds true for almost every road in Minnesota.
9. Look for new ways to conserve energy and make buildings more energy efficient. Find other sources of energy. About 15 or 20 years ago I knew a senior citizen gentleman who had invented a device that attached to an engine part in a car. This device increased gas milage up to 100 miles/gallon. He told me that everytime such an invention is created, the oil companies come along, buy it out and bury it.
(In April of 2001, as quoted in the Aitkin Independent Newspaper, then Majority Leader Pawlenty said: "Children who are victims of failed personal responsibility are not my problem, nor are they the problem for our government." Here's a new addition to the MPP Community who feels otherwise. - promoted by TwoPuttTommy)
300 years ago an Irish Minister wrote a highly acclaimed critical satire ("A Modest Proposal" - in its entirety below) in protest of the cruel public policies imposed on poor families that were destroying the lives of Irish children.
Public policy at the time treated the Irish more like animals than people and their children were doomed to living lives of crime, prostitution, and destitution.
Jonathon Swift's satirical theme was that Irish children would be better off dead than raised in such horrible and inescapable circumstances.
As a long time guardian ad-Litem, I have come to understand Swift's rage at the cruelties a community can pile on to poor children.
The idea that America's poor working families don't deserve education, health care, & safe homes for their children in the richest nation in the world is a cruel and unsupportable position.
The other industrialized nations have figured out that caring for their youngest citizens guarantees healthy adults and productive communities. We now don't rank anywhere near the top in the majority of quality of life indices among the 24 industrialized nations.
America can't quit building prisons and filling them with juveniles and preteen moms. We continue to quit subsidizing daycare, early childhood programs, healthcare for the poor, & education funding, while at the same time listening more and more to the mean spirited philosophies of radio and TV hosts that blame the nations ills on people that have (and always will have) the least.
The economic arguments of caring for children are all in favor of creating productive citizens by early intervention and early childhood development. It actually costs a great deal more to continue to punish the weakest and most vulnerable among us.
Check out the most recent issue of the journal Science which takes a look at ways to improve food security as the world's population is expected to top 9 billion by 2050. To best nourish both people and the planet, the journal suggests a rounded approach to a worldwide agricultural revolution by encouraging diets and policies that emphasize local and sustainable food production, along with the implementation of agricultural techniques that utilize biotechnology and ecologically friendly farming solutions.
Everywhere I travel in Africa, there's increasing acknowledgement about the importance of nutrition when it comes to treating HIV/AIDS. Many retroviral and HIV/AIDS drugs don't work if patients aren't getting enough vitamins and nutrients in their diets or accumulating enough body fat.
According to Dr. Rosa Costa, Director of the Kyeema Foundation in Mozambique, many farmers are often too sick to grow crops, but "chickens are easy."
Unlike many crops, raising free-range birds can require few outside inputs and very little maintenance from farmers. Birds can forage for insects and eat kitchen scraps, instead of expensive grains. They provide not only meat and eggs for household use and income, but also pest control and manure for fertilizer.
Jessica Milgroom isn't your typical graduate student. Rather than spending her days in the library of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, her research is done in the field-literally. Since 2006, Jessica has been working with farming communities living inside Limpopo National Park, in southern Mozambique.
When the park was established in 2001, it was essentially "parked on top of 27,000 people," says Jessica. Some 7,000 of the residents needed to be resettled to other areas, including within the park, which affected their access to food and farmland. Jessica's job is to see what can be done to improve resettlement food security.
But rather than simply recommending intensified agriculture in the park to make better use of less land, Jessica worked with the local community to collect and identify local seed varieties. One of the major problems in Mozambique, as well as other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, is the lack of seed. As a result, farmers are forced to buy low-quality seed because nothing else is available.
In addition to identifying and collecting seeds, Jessica is working with a farmer's association on seed trials, testing varieties to see what people like best. In addition, farmers are learning how to purify and store seeds (see Innovation of the Week: Investing in Better Food Storage in Africa).
Weevils, the farmers tell Jessica, are worse than ever, destroying both the seed and crops they store in traditional open-air, granaries. But the farmers are now building newer granaries that are more tightly sealed and help prevent not only weevils but also mold and aflatoxins from damaging crops.
Today, farmers and breeders alike have a greater respect for Mozambique's indigenous seed varieties. According to Jessica, one of the biggest accomplishments of the project has been getting breeders and farmers to talk to each other. "It's been interesting for both groups," says Jessica, "and it needs to be a regular discussion" between them.
Jessica Milgroom isn't your typical graduate student. Rather than spending her days in the library of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, her research is done in the field-literally. Since 2006, Jessica has been working with farming communities living inside Limpopo National Park, in southern Mozambique.
