Latest news with #MinnesotaConstitution
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Metro softball players sue Ellison, MSHSL director over transgender athlete participation
A lawsuit was filed Monday against Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison, Minnesota State High School League executive director Erich Martens and numerous others by a group representing three metro high school softball athletes centered on the state allowing an athlete to play high school softball who plaintiffs allege was born male. The organization behind the suit is Female Athletes United, which is representing one softball player from Maple Grove and two from Farmington. The suit cites an unfair playing field. The MSHSL voted in 2015 to allow the inclusion of transgender athletes into girls sports. That decision came back under fire on Feb. 5, when President Trump signed an executive order aimed at prohibiting transgender women and girls from competing in female sports. At the time, the Minnesota State High School League said the executive order is at odds with the Human Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the Minnesota Constitution, which prohibits discrimination 'against any person in any protected class, which includes sexual orientation and gender identity.' The U.S. Department of Education then announced it was launching an investigation into the high school athletic associations in Minnesota and California. Ellison filed a suit against the Trump administration last month, saying in part that the he viewed the President's executive orders as 'bullying' of transgender children. The lawsuit states that Minnesota's policy 'expands opportunities for male athletes to compete and experience victory at the expense of female athletes. Minnesota's female athletes suffer as a result — experiencing fewer opportunities to play, win, advance, and receive recognition in their own. And these female athletes also suffer the mental burden of knowing that their rights are secondary. Their hard work may never be enough to win.' The lawsuit describes the three represented players' interactions with the athlete it alleges to be male as one player's team repeatedly losing to and struggling to score against the pitcher, one pitcher having to compete with the other athlete for playing time on a club team and the third athlete getting hit by a pitch thrown by the alleged male athlete. The suit stated that the athletes didn't believe it was 'fair' that that would have to potentially compete against the alleged male athlete in postseason competition. Section softball tournaments opened across the state this week.
CBS News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
As lawmakers near deadline with no budget deal, special session "inevitable," Minnesota leaders say
Wildfires still out of control in northern Minnesota, and more headlines Wildfires still out of control in northern Minnesota, and more headlines Wildfires still out of control in northern Minnesota, and more headlines Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders have been meeting for hours over the last few weeks to hammer out the terms of a budget agreement, but they still haven't inked a deal as the clock winds down. With just five days left, is going into overtime with a special session inevitable? "Yes," DFL Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, one of the key leaders in the talks, told reporters going into the latest round of negotiations on Wednesday. Special sessions are not unique. There have been four in the last five sessions where lawmakers had to draft the next two-year budget — which falls during odd-numbered years — because the Legislature didn't pass the state's spending plan before the clock ran out. There were additional special sessions focused on pandemic response in 2020. The Minnesota Constitution requires adjournment in mid-May. This year, that day falls next Monday. All of those special sessions in the last decade happened when there was a divided government, like this year. In 2023, when Democrats controlled the House, Senate and governor's office, they finished on time. "I think at this point it is really difficult to get done and do the work in the way we need to. So yes, I think a special session is very, very likely, if not inevitable," said Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul. So far this session has been unlike any other. There was a delayed start in the House amid a power dispute and that chamber is tied for only the second time in modern history; there were three special sessions for vacant seats; and a former GOP senator was arrested and charged for soliciting a minor for sex. When asked if she thinks a special session is likely, Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth did not answer the question as she entered the governor's office for another meeting Wednesday. Instead she replied: "We're going back in for more conversations, and we're talking and it's good." The Legislature must balance its budget for the next two years, but it's keeping an eye on the following two years where budget officials are projecting that $6 billion deficit. That state financial forecast is casting a cloud over negotiations this year. Some other points of contention extend beyond funding the government and its program — and where lawmakers should cut to find savings. Senate Democrats, for example, want to raise revenue by implementing a special tax on social media companies, but Republicans say tax hikes are a nonstarter for them. Meanwhile, Republicans say they want to eliminate or change DFL-backed laws they passed in the last two years, like unemployment insurance for hourly school workers and paid family and medical leave. Conference committees, or small panels of lawmakers in both chambers, have started their meetings hashing out the differences between some of their policy and budget bills on a specific topic — whether that's transportation, judiciary, commerce or others. But they need the budget blueprint agreed to by leaders and Walz with the top-line numbers in order to finalize those bills and get them to the floor for passage. Murphy said she expects lawmakers to work through the weekend up until Monday's deadline, even if a special session follows. "It is important for us to recognize that we do our best work if we get some sleep, and we need to do good work for the people of Minnesota. And I think that is more important than finishing at midnight on the 19th of May. We all want to get done on the 19th, and we're going to do our part," she said. "But I do think it is important to recognize that human beings work here, and human beings need sleep."
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill aims to promote school integration in Minnesota with state funding incentives
Lyndale Elementary Schools studets board the bus after school on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minn. (Ellen Schmidt/Minnesota Reformer) The number of intensely segregated school sites in the Twin Cities has grown almost five-fold, from 21 to over 100, since the turn of the century, according to University of Minnesota researcher Will Stancil. If enacted, HF2899 would fund incentives for districts to integrate schools within their boundaries, as well as participate in programs to bus students across district lines to reduce segregation between school districts. The bill would also create a system of four magnet schools open to students in the metro. Additional state funding would go toward transportation costs for the three integration programs. A hodgepodge of other proposals are included, like more money for summer school; new data reporting requirements for districts participating in the integration programs and an on-campus summer credit recovery pilot with the University of Minnesota for high school students behind on credits to graduate. A work group led by Minnesota Education Equity Partnership joined with bill author Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, to craft the bill over the past year. The group included two attorneys — Daniel Shulman and Myron Orfield — who have spent over three decades advocating for desegregation, including a single, metro-wide school district to promote racial and economic integration of Twin Cities public schools. The bill is intended as a vehicle for community engagement as well as a placeholder for a potential settlement of the Cruz-Guzman lawsuit, first filed by Shulman in 2015 on behalf of a group of parents against the Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts and the state of Minnesota. The parents allege that the de facto economic and racial segregation of Minneapolis and St. Paul schools violates the Minnesota Constitution, which guarantees a uniform and adequate education. Whether the court finds in favor of the plaintiffs, or if a settlement is reached, any changes to state law — including additional funding for schools — would need legislative action to be implemented. The bill's proposals echo previous attempts to integrate Twin Cities public schools. In 2001, the Choice is Yours program, in which the state paid to bus low-income Minneapolis students to suburban school districts, came out of a settlement from a similar lawsuit, also filed by Shulman. That program also created inter-district magnet schools through the West Metro Education Program and the East Metro Education Program. Minneapolis Public Schools changed its school assignment policies, school attendance boundaries and magnet programs in 2021 — partially in response to the Cruz-Guzman lawsuit — in an attempt to draw the district's wealthy students into magnet programs in schools that had previously served primarily low-income students of color. The changes have largely failed to create integrated magnet schools, and last year the district removed almost all of its additional financial support to help the magnet schools succeed. In other respects, the proposals in Frazier's bill differ from earlier attempts at desegregation. The focus is now on balancing the economic status of students within schools, rather than relying on race. The state would also provide additional revenue for districts that participate in the various integration programs, not just transportation aid. Unlike Choice is Yours, which only bussed low-income Minneapolis students out of the district, the bill would also pay to bus high-income students to schools serving primarily low-income students. Charter schools would also be eligible to participate in the integration programs. The bill has been referred to the House Education Policy Committee but it has not yet had a committee hearing.
CBS News
18-04-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Minnesota Legislature to return from break Monday with budget battle ahead
There is a budget battle brewing when the Minnesota Legislature returns to the state capitol on Monday after a week-long break, as the sprint to the finish line in mid-May begins. No matter how the final spending plans shake out, cuts are coming because of a looming $6 billion deficit in future years if lawmakers don't act wisely. Negotiations have already begun among legislative leaders and Gov. Tim Walz, and key lawmakers in both chambers have received marching orders about the top line numbers they have to work with within their specific budget area. There are wide gaps, though, between some of the proposals that in the next few weeks, they will have to bridge. For example, the tied House pitches no new money for transportation, while the DFL majority in the Senate is proposing slashing spending by $226 million. Some parts of the budget, by contrast, would see a small funding boost. But there are steep cuts earmarked for human services in all of the budget blueprints put forward by both chambers and the governor. "We know the budget implications that are ahead of us," House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, told reporters last week before the Legislature paused to observe Easter and Passover back home with their families in their districts. When lawmakers return on Monday, they will begin debate on budget bills that have been finalized in each chamber. Eventually they will go to conference committees, small panels made up between House and Senate members to sort out any differences. They must adjourn by May 19. "We are on a path to get our work done and get a balanced budget for the people of Minnesota," said DFL Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy. Republican strategist Amy Koch was the majority leader in the Senate in 2011 when there was a big deficit that she contends was actually much worse because the state was "dead broke" and did not have any emergency funding to tap into when the budget situation was what she described as dire. At the beginning of that year's session, the projected deficit was also around $6 billion , though that was for the budget lawmakers had to plan for in the following two years. Minnesota's estimated shortfall is for the "planning" years in fiscal years 2028 and 2029—the biennium after the upcoming two-year spending cycle. Right now, the state's reserves exceed $3.1 billion. "They spent it all because we had a string of deficits, and the reserves were empty. There was a mouse with a piece of cheese in there," Koch said. "So there's been some strengths that they will have that we did not have in dealing with this." Longtime former DFL Senator Dick Cohen of Saint Paul, who steered the powerful finance committee during other sessions when lawmakers had to pinch pennies, said this Legislature will need to have a particularly close eye on the future budget years—during which the deficit is projected—because of uncertainty clouding federal funding and any cuts Congress may approve. The Minnesota Constitution mandates a balanced budget, so lawmakers must find a way to erase any gap between revenues and spending. "I think one of the problems the Legislature is having this year is the 2023 surplus was a very unique surplus. It was in the aftermath of COVID. It was not something that's likely to be seen anytime in the near future, and it never existed in the past," Cohen said in an interview Friday. Legislative leaders in the last few weeks have conveyed confidence that lawmakers will wrap up all of their work on time. But given the unique circumstances of a tied House this year, Cohen wonders if a special session is inevitable. "The calendar catches up to you, and over the more recent years, you quite often have had legislative sessions lapse into a short special session," he said. "This year you would think it's tailor made for a lengthier special session."
CBS News
26-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Minnesota school district sued by students, parents over book ban policy
Two lawsuits were filed Monday against St. Francis Area School District over its book banning policy. The ACLU of Minnesota and Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP filed one of the two lawsuits on behalf of two parents of children in the school district to end the "illegal banning of books from the district's school libraries and classrooms." The lawsuit is in response to the district's recent policy change that removed librarians and teachers from the book approval process and replaced them with a website called "Book Looks," founded by Moms for Liberty, a group that has been at the forefront of the conservative movement targeting books that reference race and sexuality. The website rates books on a scale of zero to five, with zero being "for everyone" and five being "aberrant." St. Francis banned books with a rating of three and above, according to the ACLU. If a book is already in the library and has a rating of three or above and is challenged, policy dictates that the book must be removed. Since the policy change, the lawsuit claims at least 46 books were removed or are in the process of being removed from St. Francis schools. Education Minnesota-St. Francis also filed a separate lawsuit over the book ban on behalf of eight students in the district whose parents are teachers. That lawsuit claims the district's policy is "antithetical to the values of public education and encouraging discourse." Both lawsuits allege the policy violates the Minnesota Constitution and state law, saying school districts cannot discriminate against viewpoints expressed in books and that it violates the right to free speech and to receive information, as well as the right to a uniform and adequate education. "The Book Looks rating system that is now binding upon the school district discriminates extensively based on viewpoint, particularly with regard to topics of gender, race, and religion," the lawsuit said. The teachers' union says the Holocaust memoir "Night" by Elie Wiesel is set to be removed after a recent complaint. On Sunday, Book Looks announced it was ceasing operations and taking all reports down from its website. "Our charge was always to help inform parents and it would appear that mission has been largely accomplished. We pray that publishers will take up the torch and be more transparent regarding explicit content in their books so that there will be no need for a in the future," an announcement posted to the website says. St. Francis Area Schools says its legal team is reviewing documents from both lawsuits and determining next steps. About 4,100 students attend the school district.
