Dear Friends,
Hello on a chilly Friday! I am sure you are looking forward to next week as much as I am when we will finally see these below zero temperatures go away. It certainly has been cold! Brrrr!!
IT'S TIME TO HAVE A PLAN TO REOPEN THE STATE
We are nearly one year into the Covid-19 pandemic and it certainly has been a tough and arduous year. The sadness of losing loved ones, especially the heavy numbers of so many of our grandparents in nursing homes, has been tough to watch. So, too, has it been difficult to watch the incredible loneliness of our elders as they have remained isolated for months on end in care facilities throughout the state.
My heart also breaks as we have witnessed the incredible hardships and trials that our many small businesses throughout the state have had to endure due to the Governor's executive orders. Many businesses have already had to close permanently due to these hardships, and many more are on the brink of closing. Longtime employees have lost their favorite jobs and watched their life savings being drained while on unemployment.
I believe we are finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel with the continued decline in cases and the advent of the new vaccines. As the vaccine rollouts continue, I hope that we will see a continued drop in virus cases and a move toward reopening our society.
It is time to have a plan to start opening up our state.
The states around us have been open for some time and their infection rates have been very consistent with Minnesota's peaks and declines. There really is little difference between our border states and Minnesota except that our state has been locked down tight and theirs have not.
It's time for our children to be in school. The CDC says it's safe. The WHO says it's safe. Our seniors need to be able to experience their iconic last year with their friends in the hallways as they prepare for graduation. Kindergartners need to be able to experience that first year in person to meet and get to know their favorite teacher.
It's time to have a plan to start opening up our state.
Earlier this week, House Republicans unveiled a plan for reopening businesses in our state with the goal of returning full operations to our job providers within a few months. Some will say it's too fast and some will say it's not fast enough, but I say at least it's a plan - and plans give hope. People need hope right now.
There comes a time when we need to trust people to do the right thing, and the majority of people will do the right thing if given that opportunity. It's time to begin our plan to open up the state.
SCHOOL CLOSING AUTHORITY BELONGS WITH LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS
Yesterday Minnesota House Republicans moved a bill on the House floor that would remove the Governor's ability to unilaterally keep schools closed to in-person learning and put those decisions into the hands of local school districts. I supported the plan. The proposal ultimately failed on a party-line vote, with House Democrats voting in favor of allowing the governor to keep his school closing control of our local schools.
As a former teacher, I understand well that the art of teaching is so much more then just the input of knowledge. Our children are not computers where we can just download information into them online. A critical part of teaching is engaging students by building relationships and students need to be in classrooms with their teachers in order to do that.
A parent of one of my former students contacted me a few months ago to let me know how much her daughter is struggling with distance-learning. This young lady, currently a high schooler, has always been a top student. Because of distance learning, she is now at risk of failing her classes. If some of our top students are failing under distance learning, how much more difficult is this for already struggling children? Every day that students are kept out of our schools continues to expand the already huge achievement gap that we have in Minnesota.
The CDC, the WHO, and all the experts say it is safe for schools to fully reopen. It is time to put reopening plans back into the hands of our local school boards, which is why I voted in favor of this measure yesterday. It is a sad day for Minnesota students that this did not pass.
MEASURING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GOVERNMENT FUNDED PROGRAMS
Once again, I am sponsoring a bill that would create a simple process to measure and report the effectiveness of any program that receives a pre-K through 12 education grant. My proposal had bipartisan support last year but once the coronavirus took over, movement of the bill ground to halt due to that disruption.
The concept is birthed out of my experience as a classroom teacher working with goals, strategies, and data collection. It is something all teachers do in their classrooms to determine the effectiveness of the strategies they are using to work with their students. I think it only makes sense that we would collect data on the effectiveness of the programs our government funds to make sure that what we are funding is actually working.
If the process this bill establishes is successful, I would like to expand the concept in the future to other government funded programs outside of the education field. Everyone wants their tax money used wisely and to go to programs and strategies that actually work. This is one way to make sure this happens.
Have a good weekend,
Peggy