The Center for the American Experiment is based in Minnesota and does excellent work on a variety of issues, some Minnesota specific and many national in scope. A couple of recent articles reinforce how bad Minnesota’s public policy has been under whacked Dems and what the real life consequences are. I have noted before that national statistics show that Minnesota’s education system has declined precipitously, with high school graduation rates below those of Mississippi and other Southern states and an enormous lowering of test scores. Large numbers of students in Twin Cities are chronically absent from school, preferring to begin a life of crime, knowing that they won’t be arrested, prosecuted or punished.
Poor performance isn’t due to lack of money; education accounts for 35% of Minnesota’s budget now, projected to rise to 40% in the next couple of years. Minnesota has among the highest per pupil spending in the country. We just don’t get anything for it. And while the performance of the school system has declined, compensation to those who run it and the teachers has soared, along with the number of staff. Since 2002 the number of students in the school system has only grown 2%. The number of teachers has risen by 5%. But the number of principals and assistant principals has grown 50% and the number of staff by 132%!! And most of that staff is getting paid very high salaries and receives rich benefit packages. Those are astounding numbers and indicate absurd growth of a bureaucracy that isn’t doing squat to actually educate children. I guarantee a lot of that extra spending is for DEI work and other indoctrination of pupils to become Dem voters.
The education funding goes to provide do-nothing well-paid jobs for people who will contribute to the Dem party and force students to be Dem voters. It is doing nothing to help students but is making a lot of administrators and staff rich. And the real-life consequence is students who are not prepared to succeed in college or have a meaningful job, much less be good citizens. (CAE Article)
And all that education funding is one reason for Minnesota’s current budget problems. In just five years, after inflation state government spending per sperson has risen an astounding 23%. You can’t blame this increase on inflation, you can’t blame it on a much bigger population, as it is calculated per person and Minnesota isn’t gaining population anyway. We are headed for a large deficit, which our whacked weirdo Governor, Little Timmy Walz, will take no credit for and which he will want to raise taxes to fix. This is what happens to your state when Dems have control of it for any period of time. (CAE Article)
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at 
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Minnesota is not alone, and I wonder if this approach was based on the belief that there would be endless democrat control of the white house and the presses would keep rolling. People like Walz and some of the big blue city mayors may have assumed a federal bailout was inevitable. It may still be, but it will come with a steep price. I also wonder if really, really high local real estates and other gimmick taxes aren’t designed to crush middle class homeowners and force support for government subsidies and other programs that will lessen the value (and power) of home ownership.
All the best for the New Year. Better must come!