Monday, November 08, 2010

When a Tea Party guy wins in 25A

Those of us here in SD 18 know State Representative-elect Glenn Gruenhagen well, after all, he served on the Glencoe Silver Lake school board for 4 terms/15 years.


His win over Mick McGuire was disappointing.  Mick is a long time public servant and would have provided a balanced and well rounded approach to government.


Gruenhagen is an extremist who will likely fill the rhetoric void left with Tom Emmer's departure.


Typically, legislators serve in areas of expertise.  Veterans often serve on a Veterans committee, you get the picture.


It's not a stretch that Representative-elect Gruenhagen will serve on an education committee.  With his extremist past as a school board member, education professionals across Minnesota should shudder.


How extreme is Gruenhagen?


At a statewide school board association meeting Gruenhagen pushed his extremist agenda.

Resolutions:
Stop labeling and drugging students - 2 for; 103 against.
Emphasize rote learning - 2 for; 130 against.
Implement phonics reading - 8 for; 94 against.
Teach principles of patriotism - 13 for; 88 against.
Implement abstinence - 7 for; 95 against.
Separate classes by gender - 16 for; 86 against.
Teach fallacies of macro evolution - 7 for; 100 against.
All children are gifted - 12 for; 89 against.


At his best, 14% of school board association members supported his proposals.  And this guy is going to get things done for Greater Minnesota?


Elections have consequences...I sense a recurring theme here.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello Mr. Kimball,

I read your comments about Glenn Gruenhagen. I don't see anything extreme in his views. Perhaps you should look at your own views on the issues. Why is it you only received 36 percent of the vote in SD18? Glenn received 50 percent in his race. You supposedly knocked on thousands of doors in the last two years and only recieved 36 percent of the vote.

Craig Bishop
CD7 Chair
Hutchinson

Norma said...

I'm from Ohio--doesn't sound extremist to me--sounds like when I went to school and our board was serious about educating us. Looks like the voters knew something the other board members didn't.

Hal Kimball said...

Thanks Mr. Bishop!

I certainly appreciate your criticism of my work ethic on Veterans Day of all days. At least you didn't follow the lead of your Party Chair and label me a "quisling".

Of course you don't see anything wrong with Mr Gruenhagen's views, you're the party that forced Steve Dille out of office.

Yep, we got 36%. How did Byberg do against Collin again? In the same district so heavily favored by McCain and Emmer and Byberg can't garner 38%?

But I love your concept of time Craig, its tough to knock on doors for 2 years as a candidate when I was only in the race 11 months.

Don't get too cozy with the majority though, the DFL will have it back soon enough...

Unknown said...

Wow Hal. Now you start to show your colors after losing the race against Scott Newman. Why is Phonics a radical idea? It is working great with our children. And teaching abstinence.... oh dear, telling these poor children that having sex out of wedlock can have negative consequenses? Duh. I think the fact that at most 14% of the association members sided with Glenn shows how far out of touch the government run schools are. Go Glenn!!! Shake up Saint Paul!
(and Hal, don't be so sensitive about the timing of people's comments. If you shed tears about being criticized on veterans day you need to grow up. That said, it is very unlikely that Craig did that intentionally.)