Dear Friends,
From highly personal questions for COVID vaccines to sex education standards, Democrats were on top form this week talking about all of their favorite radical ideas. While it is fun to debate them, I always look forward to coming home at the end of the week to meet with my neighbors and get away from all the crazy in St. Paul!
Answer our highly personal questions, we’ll give you a vaccine
This week Gov. Walz finally laid out his timeline to get all Minnesotans vaccinated. Once 70% of those aged 65 and older have received their vaccine, vaccinations will be given to those with specific high-risk health conditions and targeted essential workers. This process is estimated to begin in April, with the general public being able to receive their shot in the summer.
There’s a very simple process to sign up for alerts on when you can receive your vaccine. Simply go to MDH’s vaccine connector portal and give a ton of personal information about your race, job, and sexual orientation. The very LAST QUESTION they ask is your age. Given that COVID has proven most dangerous for the elderly, perhaps age should have been the first question? If you want to sign up for these alerts, know that for these intrusive questions you have the option of selecting “Prefer Not to Say.”
It’s a promising step that Gov. Walz is finally giving us some sort of plan related to COVID. I suppose you could say it’s refreshing, but the real plan that we need is reopening our economy and getting our businesses running at full capacity once again.
Voting to end emergency powers for the 12th time
This week, the House voted for the twelfth time to end Gov. Walz’s emergency powers. It’s pretty incredible that the anniversary of the first detected case of COVID-19 in Minnesota happened a year ago this week. It’s also pretty incredible that Democrats continue to vote to allow the Governor to keep his emergency powers. The legislature is a co-equal branch of government and yet we have not been able to have a co-equal share of managing this pandemic.
Cases are plummeting. Hospitalizations are down. We are no longer in a state of emergency as more and more Minnesotans get vaccinated and we inch closer to herd immunity. I voted to end the emergency powers and will keep fighting to end Gov. Walz’s complete control of this crisis.
Proposed sex education standards hardly G-rated
My colleagues on the Preventative Health Policy Division and I held a hearing on Wednesday on the Democrats’ highly controversial statewide sex education curriculum bill. If enacted, schools would need to provide comprehensive sexual health education to not only secondary, but also ELEMENTARY students with little oversight from parents.
As a parent of public school kids, I am mortified by this proposal. Some of the literature they are proposing to use to form the curriculum is hardly appropriate for co-ed classroom instruction. I posted one example on my Facebook page. Keep in mind that book is for AGES 10 AND UP.
I highly encourage you to call legislators to tell them to vote NO on these sex education “standards.” This is not the sort of curriculum we want taught in our schools. Parents need to have control when it comes to their children’s education on sexual health. When Republicans proposed an amendment to give parents further oversight of the curriculum, it was voted down. Join me in the fight to make sure our children have an appropriate sexual health education.
$1.6 billion surplus and Democrats still want to raise taxes
This morning we got some good news that the state has a $1.6 billion budget surplus. Our job in the legislature this session is to pass a new two-year budget. Given this surplus, there are zero reasons why we should raise taxes. Democrats will keep pushing to expand the size of government and raise your taxes to pay for it. I will keep fighting back to make sure government tightens its belt the same way our families and businesses did over the past year. Our economic recovery is just beginning, tax hikes will only hurt the progress we desperately need after such a devastating year.
Please Contact Me
If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding any issue related to state government, please feel free to contact me at either 651-296-3201 or rep.mary.franson@house.mn. I would love to hear from you.
It’s an honor to represent the best!
Mary