Dear Neighbor,
Today the House passed legislation that would make sure kids don’t go hungry at school because their families can’t afford a lunch. During the floor debate last year on the K-12 Education omnibus finance bill, Republicans offered an amendment to expand the free lunch program to include 62,000 low-income students. Unfortunately, House Democrats rejected the proposal. Now, a year later, Democrats brought forward a stand-alone bill to correct their error. So far this “un-session” seems to be focused on cleaning up the mistakes Democrats made during the 2013 Legislative Session.
As many of you know, I have deep concerns relating to the so-called “Safe and Supportive Schools Act” that’s making its way through the legislature. Last Tuesday, the Senate Education Committee passed the bill after a five-hour hearing. Its next stop is the Senate Finance Committee. Since this particular bill is different from what passed the House in 2013, a conference committee will be needed and a version of the “Safe and Supportive Schools Act” will come back to the House. I continue to believe that this proposal will do nothing meaningful to solve the problem of school bullying. Instead it infringes on the rights of students, parents, and locally-elected school boards. Should this proposal come back to the House, I’ll be strongly opposing it.
Now that it’s finally beginning to warm up outside, the snow is melting. One of the unpleasant parts of this is the emergence of potholes. Starting this week, Anoka County will have six crews working full time to patch potholes. This is a temporary fix until the ground thaws and dries. Anoka County encourages citizens to report potholes on county roads by going to their Report a Pothole page on the county website.
This week I met with constituents from several organizations including the Minnesota History Society, the Minnesota Restaurant Association, Girl Scout Troop 15288, Connexus Energy, the Minnesota Chapter of American Bikers Awareness Training and Education, Anoka-Hennepin Child Nutrition Program, Minnesota Beverage Distributors and Beer Wholesalers, Northwestern Health Sciences University, Minnesota Credit Union Network, and Minnesota Truckers Association.
As, always, I’m interested in your feedback. Please feel free to contact me by e-mail at Rep.Peggy.Scott@House.MN or contact my office at 651-296-4231. You can also send me mail to my office address: 201 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155.
Sincerely,
Peggy