Our Republican Rep. Rich Murray has been making the claim that he has been an excellent advocate for education. It simply doesn’t match up with reality. On July 1, 2011, the Republicans shut down state government. This cost state parks $1 million per week, and cost local tourism $12 million per week. This displaced about 5,000 campers. This was done in order to protect tax breaks for millionaires.

The GOP majority borrowed $2.4 billion from our kids’ schools. Despite his claims, they haven’t offered any plan to pay our schools back in full. The borrowing forced many schools to borrow themselves, which takes money out of the classroom and away from kids. Minnesota now ranks 47th in the nation in terms of classroom size. On Nov. 6, I’ll be voting for DFL candidate Shannon Savick. She will work to pay back our schools as quickly as possible and make them a true priority once again.

 

Julie Ackland

Albert Lea