Alright – so, the MN state legislature session has started, yay! Not really. The dflers are in complete control. You know what that means. More disparity, more Minnesota nice racism, and more inequalities. Ugh.
Let’s dig in and see who is chairing what committee and what that all means for autism and our community.
The House:
Human services policy is chaired by Rep. Fischer
Human services finance is chaired by a Somali this year. Does this mean DHS will finally do the right thing. Nope, let’s not hold our breath. Hell would have to freeze first. It is sooooo frustrating when they look like us but do not address our community’s needs.
Senate: It is even worse in the Senate. First, crying that Sen. Abeler is not in charge. Second, Sen. Melissa W is chairing the health and human main one. She is by far one of the worse elected officials I have ever met in Minnesota. She is your typical Minnesota nice grass snake. She represents Bloomington, you know the area with some of the worst racial disparities in the state, including the school district. Sen. Melissa will not do anything good for autism at all – period. Can’t we find someone to run against her and defeat her at the polls? Ugh.
Then there is the human services committee chaired by Sen. Hoffman. Well, what can I say about him. He is charming, charismatic, and smiles all the time. He reminds me of those cold sunny days in Minnesota that we see in Jan. What is that called – fake sun. The sun that shines but never warms anything. That is Hoffman in a nutshell. He will use and say the right words like disability, mental health, equity, and disparity, but he doesn’t mean any of them. He will only make you think he cares. He does not. Sadly, this is the Senator that DHS uses when they wanna push salty EIDBI policies and laws down our throats. Now he is in charge – yay! Not really. Ugh.
My goal was to advocate for EAA and county accountability, I just do not see success with all privileged white dflers in charge.
The only good news here in health is that the Minnesota Department of Health’s commissioner Jan M left. Goodbye and good riddance. She was useless and could care less about autism research or support. If One Minn Hoax Gov Walz was to do the right thing, he will hire Dr. Nathan C to lead MDH. I doubt that. MDH now has a black commissioner. We will have to see what she accomplishes. I hope it is not for decoration. Even MDE – the education department now has a black commissioner. I have to say I was not expecting this from One Hoax Minn Gov, Walz. There are two scenarios for this. Either, he is starting to come around and has appointed diverse commissioners who will change the trajectory of education and health disparities in Minnesota or they are the black liberals of Clarence Thomas. Time will tell.
Education – The talk of the town for a minute there was that MDE was going to be led by retired rep Davnie. While he is charming and pleasant in committees, he is and will always be in the pockets of unions and never in the corner of students and families. Do you know how many useless and meaningless hearings he gave discipline disparities and education gap? None of which produced any fruits. He always smiled and then screwed with us. It seems that Gov Walz hired an African American person to lead MDE. I do not know this one and could not write anything good or bad just yet. Let’s see what he does and how he manages to decrease discipline disparities and the education gap for students with disabilities and black/brown kids.
So, who will be leading the House and Senate committees in Education?
Senate – the policy is in the pockets of the teacher’s union. I have seen him here for years with no progress.
The finance is Sen. Kunesh. She is native American in name only. Ever since I have been advocating in the education system, Sen Kunesh has been in opposition to increasing teachers of color, reducing, and eliminating racial discipline disparities, and getting rid of the education gap.
This is my last legislative session as I will be retiring in May of 2023. Don’t worry, I will write a blog on this and tell myself, wait for it…. Drum roll pls…. Goodbye and good riddance. Yes, I know so many in Minnesota agencies and legislatures will be saying that. Maybe even a few federal agencies will too. I am ok with that. You see the idea of policy advocacy is to change policies and laws. That means people who benefit from current policies and laws won’t be happy. I have always said, I did not become an advocate to join Paris Hiltons’ BFF show.
The above words do not reflect any candidate, agency, or committee.
Idil – Somali Autism Mom & Advocate