Capitol Visits

I met with several people at the capitol this week. I appreciate you taking the time to stop in and see me at the capitol to share your thoughts and concerns.   

Owatonna, Faribault, and Waseca Firefighters

Owatonna Mutual Insurance Companies

Faribault Parks and Trails

County Recorders and Treasurers

Legislation

Child Advocacy Centers

There are currently seven child advocacy centers in Minnesota. They were created because child abuse victims were enduring several interviews by multiple professionals during an investigation, causing extra trauma for the child and the family. These centers are safe locations that partner with child protection, law enforcement, medical, mental health, prosecution and advocacy to provide services for the abused child.

The interview process allows one interviewer to perform the interview in a forensic, child friendly, sound proof interview room allowing everyone on the multidisciplinary team to observe from an observation room and communicate with the interviewer through audio and video equipment. 

That is why I introduced Senate File 512 , to establish a grant program that would enable the creation of additional child advocacy centers across Minnesota. These centers offer families a complete and comfortable solution for their children that have suffered from abuse. By providing greater access to these facilities, we'll increase the chances that we'll see positive outcomes in these cases.

After School Programs

The state created after-school enrichment programs to increase the number of options parents have to bridge the gap between the end of the school day, and when parents can get home from work. This is a problem that many families deal with every single day. We've seen this program, which coordinates with established local community groups, have great results, which is why I'm sponsoring Senate File 441 to increase state funding for the program.

The whole purpose is to give parents another option for their kids, while giving the kids the opportunity to play sports, increase technology skills, or get academic help.

Committee Work

MNsure

This week, in the Commerce Committee, MNSure executives, the Chair of the MNSure Board, along with the Commissioner of Commerce provided an update on the health insurance exchange. I was thankful for the update and the open conversation about the issues they continue to work on and some possible solutions. I focused on the uncompensated work of agents and brokers enrolling people in the private plans on the exchange and discussed the possibility of compensation for public plan enrollments. I pressed the issue of the "broker portal" which was supposed to be developed to assist agents when enrolling small businesses into the shop program. They have yet to set a timeline for that tool and without it agents have only limited ability to assist people enrolling in that program. Regrettably, without the tools they need, problems with  compensation, along with liability questions, the number of agents certified to help people enroll has dropped 75% from last year.    

Charity Floen from Minnesota Priarie County Alliance which includes Steele, Dodge, and Waseca counties came to testify to the problems they are facing with enrollment into public plans. She also shared the desire of the counties to have a representative on the MNSure Board to ensure their concerns are addressed. I will be working with them along with hospitals and clinics in the district to do what I can to make their concerns known. 

Solving the Teacher Shortage

Minnesota is facing a real problem finding teachers across the state, and that was the topic of conversation in our Education Committee hearing on Thursday morning. Superintendents and principals testified to the committee about the extreme shortage of teachers in dozens of areas – particularly in the STEM fields, special education, and even elementary education. The Superintendent of Thief River Falls schools spoke about having four job openings last year, with only 11 total applicants.  A superintendent from Fairmont public schools told a similar story, and informed the committee the number of applicants these days is shocking compared to a decade ago when one elementary education position opening could garner between 200-300 applicants. This year they had four openings in elementary and only four applications.

The bill we were discussing is a proposal for temporary licensure for students having trouble passing the Minnesota Board of Teaching MLTE Basic Skills Test. There are several other performance board tests a graduating teacher must pass in order to get their license but the testimony from the board of teaching stated the basic test is not and has not lived up to what was meant when the test was created. There seems to be particular trouble for diverse population groups, which has led to an over 90% caucasian teaching force in Minnesota. Another group affected are those with learning disabilities and those that have difficulty taking timed tests. The stories from those students was heartbreaking and worth taking a few minutes to hear. Click on the photo to watch some of the testimony. 

I'm working to help us solve this problem by ensuring we do what we can to allow qualified teachers from surrounding states move to Minnesota without having to deal with huge amounts of red tape, and to ensure that we're not keeping good teachers out of the classroom. Why would a middle-school Art teacher need to be able to do mid-college level math to teach his students?