Almanac: At the Capitol

The Organizing Apprenticeship Project issued a report card saying the legislature and governor share a "D" on racial equity. The group says there were missed opportunities on the teacher diversity loan program, reducing barriers to voting and reclaiming children from detention. The report card says "Minnesota is on the verge of a racial inequity crisis." We all know about the achievement gap in schools and there's also a huge racial gap on healthcare with African Americans being uninsured at a rate two times higher than whites.

One question I wondered about was the level of diversity in government. When you walk around the Capitol halls it's pretty white. I recently opened up a Legislative Manual from 1971 and found nearly as much diversity a quarter century ago as there is today. There were two commissioners of color in 1971 Elmer Childress headed the Department of Veteran Affairs and the Department of Human Rights Commissioner was Samuel Richardson, both African Americans. Today there are four cabinet level posts that are held by people of color (Human Rights, Mediation, MetCouncil, Enterprise Technology).

The place that has changed dramatically is the legislature. Back in '71, I count only one woman in the House and no people of color and none in the Senate. Now we have African American, Hmong, Indian, Latino members of the legislature. And lawmakers grades on diversity are going up. The report said last year 26 lawmakers made the "honor roll and honorable mention list" this year the number grew to 65.

Minority Leader Marty Seifert held a press conference pointing out the many new subcommittees and meetings that are happening. The Republican caucus made a big chart filled with all these new committees and sub committees and working groups he said the "chart makes Eric Eskola's office look immaculate." (If you've never seen Eric's Capitol office it's filled, and I mean filled, with decades of wonderful political memorabilia and a large moose head). Seifert said the committee budgets under DFL leadership have doubled while education and nursing homes only received increases of a couple percent. He called it "grandstanding and trying to prop up politically vulnerable members." Take the Drinking Water Source Protection Subcommittee chaired by Rep. Paul Gardner, a freshman who beat a Republican. But it has also been an unusual year, where lawmakers are dealing with the 35W bridge collapse. The Speaker of the House told my colleague at ECM next session the off session meetings should die down because people will need to be in their districts campaigning. Now I think this brings up the whole conversation of whether people want a citizen legislature or a fulltime legislature. It seems our state is in 'tweener land, lawmakers meet increasingly off session, they make an odd 'tween salary where many members can squeak by as fulltime lawmakers, but technically we still have a citizen legislature, but fewer and fewer members really work outside jobs. It's a question lawmakers don't often like to tackle.

A group of parents and school supporters just held a press conference at the Capitol about the results of last night's bond and levy vote. About 67% of the ballot questions passed, some with mixed results. Rolf Parsons from White Bear Lake said the voters send two strong and not necessarily contradictory messages: they're willing to pay for schools but also are overwhelmed by skyrocketing property taxes. The other common theme was that bond and levy referendums are no way to fund schools. They all called for a new way to pay for education. They said it creates a system of have and have nots where cities like Edina and Minnetonka voted yes overwhelmingly. Bev Petrie, a parent from Stillwater, said "what a crazy insane system to fund our education." When pressed, Mary Cecconi from Parents United for Public Schools, would not say where the money should come from. A reporter asked about property taxes, but received no response. Lynne Osterman a former Republican lawmaker from Robbinsdale who credited a dishonest outside organization for defeating her ballot question said, "I'm tired, we cannot give up." Lawmakers and the governor's education commissioner will explore a new funding model this session, but it's a huge issue to chew on when the bridge and transportation not to mention health care reform are all also on their plate in what's supposed to be a short session. Sen. Kathy Saltzman, who may win the award for most active off-session lawmaker, minutes later announced a hearing to "address dysfunction in K-12 funding" on Nov. 27.