Governor Walz July 30 announced the back to school plan. I was impressed by how the plan was data driven and gave a clear framework that local school boards can now use to develop a detailed plan that is tailored to what is locally doable, safe for children, teachers and parents and works for their unique situations. It was clear that there was input from many key stakeholders, each I am sure providing hundreds of hours of work to develop this complex plan. This was clearly not a unilateral endeavor.
Governor Walz is a "the buck stops here" type of leader and provides exactly the type of leadership we need at this point in time for the situation we are in.
I was not impressed by some of our state GOP leadership who made comments such as " it didn't provide much clarity to parents and schools," "this is a dictatorial approach," and other mumbling and grumbling about Governor Walz's continuing emergency powers. I guess in my mind if the situation we are in is not an "emergency" I certainly would not want to experience a "real emergency."
It sounded to me like the gist of the comments were "we weren't asked to participate." I understand the separation of powers concept, but rule by committee doesn't work well in an emergency situation. You only have to look at the result of the bonding bill in the most recent special session to see how that worked. We can't subject the safety and education of our children to political bickering and non-action.
Lou Anderson
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Brainerd
