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School lunches are an important part of many children’s diets across Minnesota. Yesterday the House of Representatives passed legislation that will pick up the difference in school lunch costs after the subsidy from the federal School Lunch Program. I believe every student should have access to healthy meals each day but this program is a costly solution that overspends in districts that need it the least. At nearly $400 million each biennium there are much more effective ways to spend this money on education, especially when the free and reduced program picks up much of the need.
We absolutely need to help lift our students up, and we should be doing that with targeted and effective education dollars.
To try and make the Democrats' bill at least somewhat better I offered an amendment to HF 5 that would have raised the qualifying threshold for free and reduced lunches from 185% of the poverty level to 250%. This would allow more families who are struggling right now with the out-of-control inflation of the Biden-Walz economy. It is fiscally irresponsible to send this money to families who don’t need this funding and in some cases don’t even want to be forced into this program.
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In the education committees this week we continued to hear about their plans to address education including the Governor’s Education Policy bill and the shortages in teaching staff to keep our students learning. Unfortunately one of their proposals is to eliminate our tier two teacher license. This license was designed to get individuals from industry with career experience a jump start into the classroom to address these exact shortages. The governor’s proposal also creates unnecessary mandates for those homeschooling their children to report mandated test scores to their local school district’s superintendent. This is just the beginning of the list of onerous mandates that will tie the hands of local school districts and create top-down education mandates so that bureaucrats can control our student’s education.
Another of the House Democrats' priorities this session is to severely limit our second amendment rights. These bills have already been to their first committee stop in Public Safety.
These bills include:
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HF 14: Universal Background Checks (aka Universal Gun Registration): Criminal background checks required for firearm transfers, and grounds modified for disqualification of transferee permit.
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HF 15: Red Flag Gun Confiscation Orders: Law enforcement and family members enabled to petition a court to prohibit people from possessing firearms if they pose a significant danger to themselves or others by possessing a firearm, and money appropriated.
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HF 396: Safe storage of firearms and ammunition required, locking device required to be included in each firearm transfer, and criminal penalties imposed.
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HF 601: Lost and stolen firearms required to be reported promptly to law enforcement. Criminalizing the victims of these thefts.
I will always stand up to defend the second amendment and will be active in opposition to these flagrant overreaches of government power. Look for more updates here and on my Facebook page as these bills make their way to the floor.
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I appreciate all of the feedback on what issues matter most to all of you. We face a lot of heavy topics, so it is quite valuable to hear from all of you to guide what is best for our district. You can reach my office at Rep.Krista.Knusdsen@house.mn.gov or by phone at 651-296-6746. Follow me on Facebook for more frequent updates.
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/RepKristaKnudsen
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225 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Saint Paul, MN 55155
651.296.6746 |
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