Hawkins & MinnPost Join MELF’s Disdain for Constitution

As we have previously reported, the mainstream media and left-leaning websites (pardon the redundancy) have reported (Jeremy Olson) or even cheered (Gail Rosenblum and MPR) the efforts of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF) to stomp on the Minnesota Constitution and do an end run around the legislature by unilaterally implementing the Parent Aware quality rating system (QRS) that was clearly and formally rejected by 92-100% of the Republican majorities in both the House and Senate.

However, besides MELF itself, nowhere have we witnessed more sneering disdain for the decision of the people’s elected representatives and the rule of law than by Beth Hawkins of MinnPost in her August 2^nd column.  She is almost swooning with admiration for MELF executive director Duane Benson’s recommendation for Governor Dayton to ignore the legislature and implement Parent Aware statewide via administrative dictate:

In the wee hours of the morning after the special session, Duane Benson, the velvet-gloved force who directs MELF, hatched a modest proposal for seeing that a quality-ratings system does get implemented this year before the business-led nonprofit quietly closes its doors. Trust a onetime GOP Senate minority leader to figure out how to end-run the Legislature.

Hawkins is delivering this gushing praise of this Arne Carlson style “Republican” that compromised, collaborated, and caved with one of the Senate’s chief leftists, the now thankfully retiring Linda Berglin, to impose the infamous 2% sick tax on all health care visits in the state.  In addition, even though MELF was given authority and money back in 2005 to make recommendations on statewide childcare policy, they refused the money so that they would not have to comply with the state’s open meeting laws and involve the public and policymakers in the deliberation of their schemes.

Hawkins also seems to have no trouble blatantly cheerleading for the use of this administrative fiat to qualify Minnesota for one-time federal Race to the Top money even as the U.S. government is teetering on the brink of insolvency and its credit rating has been downgraded for the first time since 1917:

Benson did not add, but I will, that this would once again put Minnesota in the running for a slice of some $500 million in new Race to the Top federal stimulus funding aimed at pre-K.

At the same time, she breathlessly reported how painful the “cuts” from the use of one-time school shift funds were going to be for school districts:

The pain: In addition to borrowing at the state level, the spine of the deal on the table would allow the state to hold back 40 percent of schools’ already bare-bones budgets until next year. This will force virtually every school system in the state to borrow in addition to cutting back.

Worst of all, both Hawkins and Benson don’t seem to care a whit if the legislature might actually object to their authority being unconstitutionally usurped as long as the ends justify the means – more expansion of government control  over private childcare and  government approved curriculum for young children:

An angry Legislature could vote the program out of existence next year, but given the amount of GOP support the initiative enjoyed until late in the game, that’s not likely to happen, he said. And if it did, Dayton could simply veto the bill.

“If you don’t like what we’re proposing you must like what we have, and hardly anyone does,” Benson said yesterday. “With this, you know what you’re getting — and that’s high quality.”

I’m pretty sure they didn’t have great early ed in Machiavelli’s times — if they did, they wouldn’t have needed all those scribes — but my guess is that the prince, author of both political works and comedies, is beaming.

Senator Dave Thompson’s statement about this matter clearly defines the problem with special interest groups and former legislators throwing a tantrum and trying to get their way even though the adults in the situation said no:

It is disturbing to see a former Senator advocate for such actions.  I understand the disappointment experienced by those who do not succeed in gaining appropriations from the legislature.  But circumventing the legislative process in pursuit of government money is not the right thing to do.

The last thing either the state or the federal government needs right now is to be spending more borrowed money to expand government reach into more areas of our lives and the education of our youngest children when, despite all of their bluster to the contrary, these programs either do not work or cause academic and emotional harm.

Again, to his great credit, Governor Dayton has not yet given in to this really bad idea of usurping the legislature.  Please consider calling him (651-201-3400) and thanking him for not doing so and asking him to remain strong.  Hopefully, both he and the legislative Democrats are wise enough to see that doing this kind of thing now for something that he and his supporters want will ultimately cause problems as he must negotiate with the legislature on many things that he will want and need to accomplish later.