Reporting on State Politics and Government
Reporting on State Politics and Government
Capitol View Digest reporting on state and politics and government
| | The Daily Digest for September 30, 2019 | | Posted at 6:33 a.m. by Bill Wareham |
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Good morning. It's Monday Digest time. 1. Police force panel considers mental health issues. Mental health took center stage as law enforcement officers, county attorneys, elected officials and other community leaders gathered Saturday in Mankato for the second meeting of a state working group on police use of deadly force. “The goal here is nothing less than to save lives — to save young people's lives in our communities, to save lives of officers, and to restore and build on the trust that communities and their police departments have to have if we're to function as a civil society,” Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said as the hearing opened. Relatives and friends of people who have died after encounters with police also attended, and — as they did at the group’s first meeting at the State Capitol in August — raised concerns about the makeup and focus of the panel. Harrington, co-chair of the panel along with Attorney General Keith Ellison, said the group was expanded in recent weeks to include representatives for Minnesotans with disabilities, after feedback received at the first public meeting in August. He noted that “over 50 percent of the deadly force encounters involve somebody that has either a mental health (issue) or some kind of disability." MPR News 2. Walz focusing on graduation rates. In the face of falling test scores and some of the biggest racial achievement gaps in the nation, the administration of Gov. Tim Walz is shifting its education focus from assessment tests to graduation rates, with the goal of reducing the number of high school dropouts to zero. “We’re looking a little more holistically at this, and I’m looking at that graduation rate. How do we not lose these kids?” said Walz, the first-term DFL governor, in a Star Tribune interview. “If we can get them to graduation, everything from social determinants of health to [job] placement to wealth increases exponentially.” Republican critics and some education advocates are concerned that an aggressive push for higher graduation rates could lead schools to cut corners or serve as a convenient deflection from recent test results that show overall stagnation and even decline in mathematics: “Do we have higher graduation rates because we’ve lowered the standards?” asked state Rep. Ron Kresha, R-Little Falls, a former teacher. “We’re also seeing this with younger readers not meeting grade level.” Star Tribune
3. Klobuchar battles anonymity. Before hundreds crammed into a college-neighborhood burger joint, Sen. Amy Klobuchar assumed the tone of a stand-up comedian as she recounted taking a selfie with fellow Sens. John McCain and Bernie Sanders at President Trump’s inauguration. A photographer captured the moment, with a caption that identified the two male senators but not her. “Woman in gold coat takes selfie with John McCain and Bernie Sanders,” Klobuchar recalled, as the crowd erupted with sympathetic laughter. Less funny, anonymity also has largely defined Klobuchar’s role in the Democratic presidential contest — even though she has been a senator from Minnesota for 12 years and serves in leadership, even though she passes more legislation each session than most Democrats, even though she’s regularly on cable news and is campaigning across the country. Washington Post
4. The politics of insulin. How did insulin become yet another partisan proxy war in Minnesota? Two legislative hearings this week raised that question (and a few others) as part of a dispute that has placed diabetics and their families in the middle of what is, in fact, a life-or-death issue: Insulin is needed to keep type 1 diabetics alive, but price increases have made it unaffordable to the under- and uninsured. Yet even lobbying from diabetics and their families, especially from Nicole Smith-Holt and James Holt Jr., who lost their son Alec in 2017, hasn’t been enough to shake free a plan to help the most desperate patients. At the center of the impasse is another question: who should pay the relatively small cost of an emergency insulin plan, taxpayers or insulin manufacturers? MinnPost
5. Moving the line along. Aspiring Minnesota motorists could face shorter wait times to take their required driving tests under a new state proposal. Teens and parents across the state have for months reported scheduling challenges and long delays for taking the road test required to obtain a driver’s license for the first time. Some have resorted to traveling for hours,and even staying overnight, to secure a testing spot in another city. A lack of available appointments, as well as staffing issues, appear to be contributing to the delays. State Sen. Karin Housley, R-St. Marys Point, has an idea for how to clear the backlog: Allow private driving instructors to administer the road tests. Star Tribune
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