By Rich Larson, News Director
Former Supreme Court Justice Alan Page is advocating for an amendment to the Minnesota State Constitution that
would guarantee every child in the state a quality education.
Justice Page said the “Page Amendment” would put children first and make a quality education a civil right. He said the current language in the Constitution mandates the state maintain an adequate public school system. This amendment would raise those standards.
He said the educational achievement gaps in the State of Minnesota are large and glaring. And while the gaps are certainly drawn on racial lines, the problem encompasses more than race.
“The system that we have now, the constitutional language that we have now, works well for middle class and wealthy children, but doesn’t work at all for poorer children, children with disabilities, there are rural children being left behind. And that’s just unacceptable.”
Page is working in this endeavor with the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Neel Kashkari. Among the Federal Reserve’s mandates is full employment, and both men feel that the road to that goal is built on the best possible public education. An undereducated child, Page said, becomes a diminished employee, a diminished taxpayer and will likely be a burden on society.
An amendment must be approved by state referendum, and Page said they are working to get this amendment on the 2022 ballot. In order to be on the ballot, the amendment must pass through both the State House of Representatives and the State Senate. He said the amendment has bi-partisan support, noting that it is supported by both State Attorney General Keith Ellison and the leaders of the largest businesses in the state, but there is still quite a bit of work to be done, and they would like to see it approved for voters in the current legislative session. He said they have polling that suggests once the amendment is on the ballot it would pass.
With a career that has seen great achievement, Justice Page said this is some of the most important work he has ever done.
“If we don’t change what we’re doing,” he said, “society suffers.”
The Page Amendment reads: “All children have a fundamental right to a quality public education that fully prepares them with the skills necessary for participation in the economy, our democracy, and society, as measured against uniform achievement standards set forth by the state. It is a paramount duty of the state to ensure quality public schools that fulfill this fundamental right.”
Lippert bill would slow hospital closures
State Representative Todd Lippert has introduced a bill into the House of Representatives that would require health
systems to notify the Minnesota Department of Health nine months in advance before closing a hospital or rolling back essential services.
Lippert, a member of the House Behavioral Health Policy Committee, said that he is very concerned about the state of mental health care in Minnesota. Already in need of more facilities, Lippert said that Fairview Health System is considering closing St. Joseph’s hospital in St. Paul, which would remove 100 mental health beds from the state. This comes on the heels of the closing of St. Paul’s Bethesda Hospital. Mayo Health System has closed its Springfield location and has curtailed behavioral health services in Albert Lea and Austin.
He said at a time when the state needs more behavioral health treatment centers, we are having to fight to keep what is already in place. To that end, Lippert’s bill would not only require a health system to notify MDH long in advance of a closure, but it would also have to hold hearings in the community where the closure is happening, take questions from the public, explain why the facility is being shut down, and talk about how a community would be able to find the services it would be losing.
Lippert said that he suspects the reasons these facilities are being shuttered is based solely on the bottom line.
“The suspicion is that they are doing this more for efficiency and trying to position themselves within the healthcare marketplace, rather than trying to address the needs of Minnesotans. And our role in state government is to protect the public and make sure that the public has access to those services that they need. So, that’s what this bill is about and what that conversation is about.”
Representative Lippert said Senator Erin Murphy is sponsoring the bill in the Senate.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Representative Todd Lippert can be heard here
‘Divestment Day of Action’ at Carleton and St. Olaf
Students at Carleton and St. Olaf College participated in a day of activism on Friday in protest of the Line 3 pipeline.
The controversial pipeline currently under construction would run from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin traversing Northern Minnesota. Enbridge, the Canadian company that owns and operates the pipeline, says the new pipeline is needed to replace an aging, less efficient one. Opponents say the pipeline is a danger to the environment and cuts through lands that are sacred to Native Americans.
Carleton Students from the groups Divest Carleton and Sunrise Carleton engaged in a tree sit in, climbing the trees outside of the college president’s home, while others stood with signs at the base of the trees as a sign, as they said, of solidarity with indigenous peoples. Meanwhile approximately 200 members the Climate Justice Coalition, a St. Olaf student organization, held a “die-in” on the St. Olaf Campus, laying down on the Buntrock Commons quad for 18 minutes and 17 seconds, which is one second for each mile of the pipeline.
The protests were part of a larger “Divestment Day of Action” held on campuses across the state. Student groups have submitted requests for both schools to divest themselves from fossil fuels. The St. Olaf investment committee plans to vote on the request they have received at their next meeting in May.
