All three incumbent members of the Anoka-Hennepin School Board were re-elected on Tuesday night amid controversy surrounding the school district’s controversial policy limiting discussions of LGBT issues in the district’s school.

Marci Anderson and Tom Heidemann, both of whom support the “neutrality policy” won, as did Scott Wenzel, who opposes the policy.

Heidemann won over challenger Darin Rorman, 70 percent to 27 percent. Anderson won with 40 percent of the vote, beating challengers Mary Nelson and Randy Kolb who both got 29 percent. Wenzel ran unopposed and got 95 percent of the vote.

The district’s policy limiting discussions of LGBT issues has become a national controversy after reports of bullying and several suicides among LGBT students. It has sparked protests at the district and at least six lawsuits against the school.

The Minnesota Family Council, which supports the policy and endorses only negative portrayals of LGBT people in public schools, implicitly endorsed Heidemann and Anderson on Tuesday.

The district has been battered by accusations that its “neutrality policy,” which restricts discussion about LGBT issues. The district is currently being sued by six former students and their families for this policy. Conservatives have long been active in the district, pushing to maintain the policy.

The policy, often dubbed the neutrality policy, is at the center of a nationwide discussion about suicide and anti-LGBT bullying and the subject of a lawsuit by six district students and their families.

The family council wrote that this is a “critical election” for the board.

“As you may know, the district has been targeted by national liberal organizations for its neutrality policy on sexual orientation. The neutrality policy states that school officials and teachers will remain neutral on issues involving sexual orientation. The school district believes these issues are better addressed by parents and families than by school officials. For taking this reasonable position, the school district is being sued by national liberal organizations.”

The MFC asked supporters to “vote their values” by supporting Tom Heidemann in District 1 and Marci Anderson in District 2.

At the bottom of the email was a short disclosure: “Prepared and paid for by Minnesota Family Council, in support of Tom Heidemann and Marci Anderson. This is issue advocacy and is not approved by the candidate nor is the candidate responsible for it.”

Tuesday’s election has been higher profile than in recent years due to the controversy over the neutrality policy. Three of the board’s six seats are up for election on Tuesday, and two of the seats–those of Heidemann and Anderson–are being contested.

Anderson’s opponents, Mary Nelson and Randy Kolb, oppose the neutrality policy. Heidemann’s opponent, Darin Rorman, hasn’t stated where he stands on the issue. Current school board member Scott Wenzal opposes the policy, but is running unopposed.

The Minnesota Family Council has been at the heart of the controversy surrounding LGBT issues in the district. In the past, its employees have played a part in forcing a transgender music teacher to quit, backed a policy that said “homosexuality not be taught/addressed as a normal, valid lifestyle and that the district staff and their resources not advocate the homosexual lifestyle” and worked to ban posters with suicide help-lines targeting LGBT students.

The Anoka-Hennepin School District drew national attention after a number of students, some of whom were gay, committed suicide.

Obama’s plan would let current students cap their monthly repayment at 10 percent of discretionary income and any unpaid amount would be forgiven after 20 years. It also allows some borrowers to consolidate their loans at a lower interest rate. The president issued the new student loan plan through an executive order that beefs up a current law regarding student loans.

“This administration has been bypassing Congress on issue after issue after issue — they’ve sort of famously issued hundreds of rule changes and executive orders to bypass Congress, so I think that’s a mistake,” Rep. John Kline said on Fox and Friends. Kline, who chairs the education committee in the House has been sharply critical of most of Obama’s education proposals since gaining the post in 2010.

Kline added that the government should stop subsidizing student loans altogether.

“We simply can’t keep providing money from the federal government in the form of subsidized or actual loans and Pell Grants when we don’t have the money,” Kline said.

Kline had previously put out a press release saying Obama’s plan puts “politics before policy.”

“Despite the administration’s rhetoric, this plan will not create a single job, strengthen our economy, or promote fiscal responsibility,” Kline said. “What this plan will do instead is encourage more borrowing across the board. That means more debt for students, more debt for taxpayers, and more red ink on the government’s books.”

The Minnesota Independent reported this summer on close ties between Kline and for-profit colleges. Kline fought regulation of that industry, which industry critics say siphons off public tax money through deceptive practices.

Private and for-profit educational institutions are the top donors to Kline’s campaign and political action committee. Kline’s campaign has also benefited from private financial corporations that provide student loans.

Here’s Kline’s appearance on Fox and Friends:

A poll released Sunday found that a majority of Wisconsin residents disapprove of Gov. Scott Walker’s performance in office, although state residents split on whether he should be recalled.

The survey by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute mirrors results six months ago. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed strongly or somewhat disapproved of Walker, while 42 percent somewhat or strongly approved.

The poll also found Wisconsin residents had grown less pessimistic about the economy in the last six months.

“There is a rising sense of optimism, and tempers that were flaring in March are subsiding a bit,” said University of Chicago Professor Will Howell, who directed the poll, in a statement. ”Interestingly, this is has not redounded to the benefit of the governor.”

Howell said Walker could benefit if the recall effort came to be about the economy or recall elections rather than his performance in office.

And in the battleground state of Wisconsin, the poll found high support for Pres. Barack Obama, 54-42, with Obama beating all Republican challengers by at least 10 percent.

Source: MyEyesSees, Flickr

A Florida-based group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled an anti-gay hate group is taking aim at Minnesota-based Target for advertising during a Teen Nick show, Degrassi, that contains gay characters. The group, the Florida Family Association, is calling for a boycott.

Pres. Barack Obama released a plan to provide student loan debt relief to millions of Americans this week. Sen. Al Franken, who has sponsored similar legislation, praised the executive orders. But student loan advocates said the reforms were too limited.

The Occupy Wall Street protests saw their first serious injuries this week as Oakland, Calif., police used crowd control tactics on a peaceful march. One of those injured was former Marine and Wisconsin native Scott Olsen, who took a police projectile to the head and is expected to undergo surgery. Warning: the embedded video is intense.

Campaign finance disclosures filed for October show both the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and Republicans are in debt. The Republicans carry more than half a million dollars in debt, while Democrats have about half that.

Less than a week after a Minnesota Independent story on Rep. Erik Paulsen’s intimate connections with the medical device industry, the New York Times published a piece profiling his attempts to relax Food and Drug Administration oversight of device approval.

The Inver Grove Heights City Council rejected a measure that would have allowed a domestic partnership registry in the city. One of the main opponents on the council, Dennis Madden, said he was “tired of these weird little groups that do all these strange things.” The rejection came after a pressure campaign from religious conservatives.

A union locked out since Aug. 1 will take the most recent offer from American Crystal Sugar to a vote by the end of the month, although the union isn’t happy with the offer. Replacement workers brought in by Strom Engineering of Minnetonka, which specializes in supporting companies involved in labor disputes, have staffed the plants since the lockout started. Union members have blamed replacement workers for a number of fires at the plants this summer and fall.

Just weeks after a Minnesota Independent article retraced the political influence wielded by Comcast’s to push through their early 2011 merger, Pres. Barack Obama hired one of the company’s paid lobbyists. The lobbyist has also been involved in pushing for the Keystone XL pipeline, which Obama has not opposed.

After almost three weeks of protesting, someone left a box labelled “riot equipment” on Hennepin County Government Plaza. The spokesperson for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department sent out an email to all media, attaching photos of the box and listing incidents where police have responded to the plaza since the occupation started. Occupy MN organizers blamed a “provocateur” for the box, and said protesters aren’t responsible for many of the incidents downtown.

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum appeared on the show of controversial preacher Bradlee Dean. Santorum reinforced his support for “sodomy laws” and accused gay people of using marriage rights issues to “secularize our society.”

The Minnesota Independent also reported at the start of this week that an anti-abortion activist was planning to use a run against Rep. Keith Ellison to force Twin Cities media to play graphic anti-abortion ads. Legacy media later picked up on the story.

Former Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller will resign from the legislature to take the head position at the Minnesota Office of Higher Education.

Gov. Mark Dayton announced Pogemiller’s appointment Thursday in a news release. Pogemiller said in the release that he’s honored to be offered the position.

“I’m extremely excited by the opportunity and cognizant of the challenge of making quality post secondary education affordable,” Pogemiller said. “I want to add though, how difficult it is to leave the Minnesota Senate—an institution I love, and a group of people I admire and deeply respect.”

Pogemiller has served in the legislature since 1980, first in the House, then in the Senate. The Minneapolis lawmaker was known at the State Capitol for his willingness to scrap, and presided over budget and policy battles with former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Politics in Minnesota reports that his move will trigger the third Minneapolis special election in recent months. Sen. Linda Berglin also resigned, and Rep. Jeff Hayden won her seat in a special election, meaning his House seat is now also up for grabs.

Our sister site, the Colorado Independent, reported that Obama was in full campaign mode as he told a Denver crowd that he intends to relieve economic distress without going through the gridlocked Congress.

Obama’s plan is for speeding up student loan repayment reforms passed last year but wasn’t scheduled to take effect until 2014. His executive order will lower the maximum percentage of income students will have to pay toward their student loans to 10 percent. After 20 years, the remaining debt will be forgiven. There is also a loan consolidation component to the plan.

The plan would help 1.6 million borrowers reduce their monthly payments, according to the White House. Another 5.8 million could benefit from the loan consolidation program. But the conditions of the plan are restricted. The Education Finance Council told Reuters that they were disappointed by the limited scope of the proposal.

“President Obama’s proposal, available to a limited group of students for a limited amount of time, does not address the real student loan problem: rising tuition and the lack of well-paying jobs,” a statement from Education Finance Council said.

Student advocacy groups told the Chronicle of Higher Education that they were thankful, considering the gridlocked political scene, for the new measures.

“The president is doing what he can with a paralyzed Congress,” said Richard T. Williams, a lobbyist with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. “It might be a limp when we need a leap, but we need Congress to provide that leap.”

Sen. Al Franken commended the President on the proposal.

“I’ve traveled around Minnesota and have heard how much families are struggling to make ends meet, and I’m glad the president recognizes that people need this kind of relief now,” Franken said in a statement. “The cost of a college education shouldn’t bankrupt a family, and with our struggling economy, these reforms couldn’t come at a better time.”

U.S. Student loan debt has recently overtaken credit card debt. There is roughly $1 trillion in outstanding loans and this year’s crop of university graduates holds the highest average debt to date, the Colorado Independent reported.

Obama also touched on the economic impact of student loan debt.

“Other countries are hustling to out-educate us so they can out-compete us tomorrow. They want the jobs of the future. I want you to have those jobs. I want Americans to have those jobs. I want us to win the future. That means we should be doing everything we can to put a college education within reach for every American,” Obama said. “It’s never been more important, but let’s face it, it’s also never been more expensive.”

The president spoke about the debt he and his wife Michelle racked up as students. He said together they owed in excess of $100,000 in student loans when they married.

“We combined liabilities, not assets,” he joked.

John Tomasic contributed to this report.

Arguing the current standard for student assessment is a “perversity” that leads to a “race to the middle,” Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) successfully introduced an amendment that would better gauge student learning and knowledge. The proposal is part of the ongoing Senate debate over how to move the nation’s major education law of the land beyond No Child Left Behind.

His amendment, one of a handful passed so far by the HELP committee as it undergoes a markup of the sweeping K-12 education bill authored by leading sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), would lift the restrictions that bar states from testing students based on their skill level.

Just like the higher education entrance assessment the GRE, Sen. Franken’s amendment opens the door for states to use Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT), software that increases or decreases the difficulty of questions based on the test taker’s response. Present state efforts, like Oregon’s, to incorporate CAT have been stymied since current law views such methods as introducing questions not on level with the skill level of middle of the road students.

CAT methods of student assessment, Franken said, can assist teachers in identifying a student’s strengths and weaknesses in real time, since results for the tests are generated immediately. He described the current testing standard — states issuing exams and receiving results months later — as an “autopsy” of student skill-level rather than an evaluation.

Frequent criticism of the assessments borne out of the No Child Left Behind era is that they focus on getting students up to speed on a certain level of proficiency.

Franken said one of the few things he liked about No Child Left Behind was its name. “Well you’re leaving that kid behind, you’re leaving this kid behind,” he said.

A fact sheet e-mailed to The American Independent by Franken’s staff included the following analysis of assessments today:

Fixed form tests allow students who are high-performing to look good all year with out much effort and struggling students who work and grow dramatically to still be counted as under-performers. Students and teachers are not accurately assessed and evaluated, and it makes it more likely that these students will not get adequate attention from teachers.

The amendment clearly states that a CAT evaluation method is not mandatory.

The reliance on technology has been one of the prevailing themes of the current markup session to reauthorize ESEA, the 1965 law passed by the Johnson administration that outlines the federal government’s role in education spending.

Computer systems were presented as solutions for creating cross-tabulation systems that would determine the performance of a subset of student groups, like African American females, and monitoring the matriculation of eighth graders to better understand high school drop out rates.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced an amendment slightly tweaking the language of the Harkin-Enzi bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act on the federal government’s expectations for teachers. Her focus was on Native American, Hawaiian, and other indigenous communities that have a rich oral history but are kept out of the classroom anyway.

“These Native languages are dying out at astonishing rates,” Murkowski stressed, and when the  languages die out, she says, cultures follow with it.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) was uncomfortable with the amendment since it lured the Senate down, “a slippery slope on this high quality teacher thing,” he said. Sen. Murkowski elaborated, making clear her amendment doesn’t affect teacher standards nor does it require Native American history and culture in the curriculum.

“It doesn’t mandate teaching of culture,” she said. “It shows respect for our first peoples and for our elders who want to carry on that language… for the young people.” Murkowski said.

She explained there are various restrictions holding back an indigenous child from receiving formal access to his or her native language and cultural expressions like dance and music. For one, federal regulations view indigenous languages as foreign, something she thought was absurd. More importantly, tribal elders who have the greatest insight into their culture’s processions “is not going to get out to get a teacher certification,” Murkowski added.

Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) were supportive of the Alaskan senator’s effort to strip down the regulations, and the amendment ultimately passed.

Although Democrats are often accused of increased accountability and regulation, on specialized tests for students with disabilities, the tables turned between Sen. Harkin and Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.). The Georgia senator, despite vehement protest from disabilities groups, brought up an amendment that would have expanded alternative testing for students with disabilities. Sen. Harkin, who has a strong history of supporting the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and whose brother was deaf, argued Isakson’s amendment amounted to a type of segregation against students with disabilities.

The Georgia senator made it clear he took umbrage to that characterization, but spoke with defeence of Sen. Harkin’s experience in the field. Ultimately, Sen. Harkin said, “special education means students needs additional tools to learn” as opposed to different ones. He added current law tests 1 percent of students with disabilities, with was based on academic surveys that found .5 percent of students need them. Isakson’s proposal would expand the testing pool to two percent, something Harkin said was not a “rational” choice given limited testing supporting the move and would lower expectations for more students.

Isakson’s amendment did not pass.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who surprised many by using an arcane procedural rule limiting committee discussion while the Senate was in session, agreed to withdraw his objection after striking a deal with chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). The arrangement allows the markup to proceed normally, while Sen. Paul will have a chance to voice his frustration during a full hearing on the bill before it goes to the Senate floor for a vote.

Sen. Paul also announced he is removing all but 7 of his submitted 75 amendments to speed the markup session along. The Kentucky junior senator admitted to submitting the amendments to slow down the HELP committee’s discussion of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act’s overhaul. Sens. Harkin and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) co-authored the bill.

Of the amendments he proposed, one was to fully repeal No Child Left Behind. Though he admitted it was a mostly symbolic gesture, he argued it was important for the record to note who stood by complete repeal of the law. The Harkin-Enzi bill constitutes as an overhaul of NCLB already.

Other highlights include Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) successfully introducing a bill that would monitor the enrollment of eighth graders to better understand how many of them graduate from high school. Dropout rates are determined by comparing the amount of ninth graders enrolled to how many graduated high school.

Humphrey is the son of former Vice Pres. Hubert Humphrey and U.S. Sen. Muriel Humphrey. He served as a Minnesota state senator and attorney general, but lost U.S. Senate race and gubernatorial race.

The office for the needs of older Americans was created with the bureau by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Its intent is to educate older people about finances and prevent financial abuse.

“I am honored and excited to bring my experience in consumer protection and my work with seniors to the CFPB to help educate seniors about fair practices and how to make financial decisions that are right for them,” Humphrey said in a statement. “A well-informed consumer is the best protection against fraud and deceptive practices—especially if that knowledge is backed up by tough regulatory enforcement.”

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) immediately lauded the choice.

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau couldn’t have picked a more qualified and committed person than Skip,” Ellison said in a statement. “While serving as Minnesota’s Attorney General, he created many educational programs to reduce the number of crimes targeting consumers, especially the elderly. These programs still help Minnesotans today.  I look forward to working with him in his vital new role.”