Here’s a Twitter thread worth reading. Minnesota done good.
I was told not to tweet this until the houses adjourned for fear of jinxing it, but the Minnesota legislature just completed what is probably the most productive session anywhere in the country since probably the New Deal. Sweeping bills and reforms across every area of life.
— Will Stancil (@whstancil) May 23, 2023
Pay attention, Democratic parties everywhere:
Among the many things accomplished, some were of personal interest: they increased education spending by 10%, and also made college tuition at our public colleges (like the one I work at!) free to all Minnesota families with income under $80K.
That’s fantastic!
That IS fantastic. Any deets on how much they had to backfill, where they got the money from, etc.?
Welcome to the club! NY made tuition at SUNY schools free a couple of years ago (Excelsior Scholarship). Essentially, it covers the gap between tuition and whatever aid the student gets. Household cap is $125k. Student must be a NY state resident. Does not cover fees or room & board.
Good things can happen when you get the whiny, crabby, deadwood out.
We know Republicans don’t worry about that shit. I still recall George W. Bush proclaiming a mandate after losing the popular vote and only winning in the Electoral College because Florida couldn’t come up with a sensible ballot and the Supreme Court halted the recount.
Now they expect to attain and retain power even when they lose every which way possible.
Congrats to Minnesota.
THIS is how you govern. Republicans govern like they have an insurpmpountable majority, when they hold a legislature by only a seat or two. It’s about time team D started doing the same.
I was just about to re-tweet it to you, but decided to check here first. Good thing I did.
And good on MN. And, obviously, they managed to find a way to pay for it.
And meanwhile, here in [ick] Ohio, the gerrymandered General Assembly is sticking it to us as much as possible The latest is looking to enact “American Birthright” history in the schools. (And yes, the name hides an awful lot of awfulness.) https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/2023/05/22/republicans-push-to-rewrite-ohios-social-studies-standards/70235216007/
Reading the Twitter thread, I see the usual GQP talking points, perhaps most prominently “this is COMMUNIOSM!2@@!!!!!”. Curiously, none of the people who spew said talking points seem to be able to identify where, exactly, stuff like voter’s rights can be found in the Communist Manifesto.
Echoes of the success – largely unheralded & toooften forgotten now – of Julia Gillard’s parliament in Australia which passed a lot of legislation and did some really good things notably the Carbon price (“tax”) despite governing in minority with the help of the Australian Greens. See among other places :
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/jun/28/australia-productive-prime-minister
So, yeah, it can & has been done. Quite a number of times.
The Bill Clinton clones in the US senate and congress will completely ignore this.
Congratulations to Minnesota!
I cannot tell you how much this little story warms my heart: a legislative body that wants to achieve some things for the good of the people. Instead of the usual bile and poison you get from other places, the remorseless desire to hurt as many people as possible as badly as possible, here we have some people who actually want to try to make life better for their constituents.
Well done!
@3
Tennessee of all places has been doing this for a while now.