The voice of Saint Paul's working families since 1897
As Minnesota lawmakers announced a breakthrough in negotiations over the state’s E-12 education budget yesterday, the faces behind the financial figures – students, parents and teachers – rallied against staff and programming cuts in St. Paul. “We cannot nickle and dime our kids’ future,” school board candidate Zuki Ellis, the parent of a first-grader in the St. Paul Public […]
The frenzied finish at the Capitol yielded mixed – and uncertain – results for Minnesota’s working families. Although the Legislature approved a record investment in long-term care before adjourning last night, unions said lawmakers squandered an opportunity to use the state’s $1.9 billion budget surplus to restore cuts to public schools, expand access to pre-kindergarten […]
Minnesota’s projected $1.9 billion state budget surplus, announced today by Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans, is proof that progressive policies pushed by DFL lawmakers over the last two years have helped foster economic growth, the state’s unions said. The Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state’s largest labor federation, representing more than 300,000 union members, said […]
After another third-grade teacher at the Community School of Excellence in St. Paul “got fed up with some of the disrespect” and resigned last October, Eric Johnson saw the number of students in his classroom swell from 22 to 31. “The third-grade teachers, we agreed we’d absorb the kids,” Johnson said. “It’s better than the […]
Jeff Johnson, the Republican nominee for governor, provided a glimpse of his leadership style May 15, telling a Tea Party group he would “go all Scott Walker on Minnesota” if elected Nov. 4. So what is it about Walker’s Wisconsin that Johnson believes is worth replicating? To answer that question – and to get a […]
The state that introduced charter school legislation to the country has its first union of charter-school employees, as teachers from two St. Paul schools returned to the classroom this fall as members of Education Minnesota. About two dozen teachers at Twin Cities German Immersion School, a K-8th grade charter located at 1031 Como Ave., […]
Progress is what Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton promised he’d deliver if given pro-worker majorities in the Legislature. Progress on job creation, better schools, economic justice and budget stability is what Dayton and House DFLers will point to when they campaign for re-election this fall. In the 2014 session, Dayton and legislators picked up where they […]
As the 2013 Legislative Session drew to a close in May, supporters of a bill to strengthen Minnesota’s anti-bullying laws made one last push, urging their state senators to vote on the Safe and Supportive Schools Act, which had already won approval in the House. The session gaveled to a close before senators could take […]
At least three union members are running campaigns for local office in the East Metro this fall, a positive sign in an odd-year election cycle for those who believe union members naturally make the best advocates for working families’ issues. Don Mullin, a second-generation trade show decorator and member of the Painters and Allied Trades, […]
Minnesota’s working families will see the most obvious fruits of the 2013 legislative session in their public schools and property-tax bills, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg of investments, reforms and initiatives passed by labor-endorsed majorities in the Legislature this year, union leaders said. The Minnesota AFL-CIO called the session, which adjourned May […]
Union Advocate 