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Center of the American Experiment Issues Commentary: Signs of a School District Under Strain as Minneapolis Elementary School Uses PTA Money to Hire Teacher
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minnesota, Oct. 25 -- The Center of the American Experiment, a civic and educational organization that says it creates and advocates policies, issued the following commentary on Oct. 23, 2025:
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Signs of a school district under strain as Minneapolis elementary school uses PTA money to hire teacher
By Josiah Padley
Minneapolis School District is facing a potential teacher strike and a $75 million budget shortfall. But Minnesota's second largest school district, serving 26,076 students in 2024, is showing additional signs of strain: last week, the school board voted to allow
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GOLDEN VALLEY, Minnesota, Oct. 25 -- The Center of the American Experiment, a civic and educational organization that says it creates and advocates policies, issued the following commentary on Oct. 23, 2025:
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Signs of a school district under strain as Minneapolis elementary school uses PTA money to hire teacher
By Josiah Padley
Minneapolis School District is facing a potential teacher strike and a $75 million budget shortfall. But Minnesota's second largest school district, serving 26,076 students in 2024, is showing additional signs of strain: last week, the school board voted to allowthe elementary school Lake Harriet Lower to use $22,000 of crowdfunded money to hire a teacher emeritus to work as a reading interventionist.
The Lake Harriet Community School PTA raised the funds for the teacher emeritus to serve on staff. Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) have long been Tocquevillian social organizations that create community buy-in and trust for schools. In particular, the Lake Harriet Community School PTA has been tax-exempt since 1945. Examples of common PTA initiatives include donations for the arts, classroom supply drives, and building or grounds upgrades.
While financial and physical gifts have historically been given to the Minneapolis School District and approved by the Superintendent, a December 2024 rule change required that all gifts be manually reviewed by the school board and approved by a two thirds majority. This case is one of the first major cases reviewed by the school board containing such a large sum earmarked for a particular staffing purpose.
In the October 14 school board meeting, Deputy Superintendent Ty Thompson read from an email purportedly sent by Lake Harriet Lower Principal Ness, which argued that the funds were needed because Lake Harriet Lower is not a Title I school, and so does not receive adequate funding for Tier 2 and 3 reading interventionists.
Title I funding is federal funding designed for low-income and academically struggling school districts. Funds are often used for academic support programs.
However, the dearth of Title I funding at Lake Harriet Lower wasn't immediately clear. A Minnesota Department of Education Data Report from 2024 (the most recent year available) notes that Lake Harriet Lower received $46,217.18 in Title I funds in a district allocation. As the school doesn't receive Title I dollars generated by the student driven funding formula, but rather through the district's reported Title I expenditures at the specific site, the school could be framing the Title I discussion through the lens of per-student funding. Lake Harriet Lower Elementary has a site council whose purpose is to provide guidance on the use of Title I funds.
It's a complex situation. While Lake Harriet Lower does receive dollars through district distribution that originated in Title I funding, it doesn't receive specific dollars generated by the student-driven funding formula and thus receives a much smaller amount of Title I funding than other schools in the Minneapolis district. It also spends less in general. Lake Harriet Lower spent $19,698.13 per pupil in 2024, while the similarly-sized North Minneapolis school Webster Elementary received $337,776.67 in Title I funds and spent $24,870.68 per pupil.
Local activist Sarah Spafford Freeman slammed the school board's decision, calling it "plainly inequitable." She pointed to the disparity between (majority-White) schools in Southern Minneapolis who tend to have active PTAs flush with cash, and the (majority-Black or Hispanic) schools in Northern Minneapolis who do not, arguing that the practice means that only students without robust school PTAs feel the effects of recent budget cuts. Minneapolis Public Schools board member Sharon El-Amin remarked in the October 14 meeting that a future solution might be to require PTA funds to be pooled across the district.
The geographically large, dense, and socially diverse Minneapolis Public School District, it appears, contains so many unique populations that it is struggling to adequately serve all its constituents. A failed piece of 2015 legislation attempted to carve the district up into six more manageable small districts that could give specialized care to students. As concerns about budget shortfalls, wealth inequalities, bussing routes, and adequate targeted academic services mount, it might be time to revive similar efforts that keep district leadership as close to the ground as possible.
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Josiah Padley is a Policy Fellow at Center of the American Experiment.
josiah.padley@americanexperiment.org
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Original text here: https://www.americanexperiment.org/signs-of-a-school-district-under-strain-as-minneapolis-elementary-school-uses-pta-money-to-hire-teacher/
[Category: ThinkTank]
Center of the American Experiment Issues Commentary: Sen. Klobuchar Seeks Sympathy for Retired 61-year-old With Six-figure Income Who Will Have to Vacation Less If Temporary Taxpayer Subsidies Expire
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minnesota, Oct. 25 -- The Center of the American Experiment, a civic and educational organization that says it creates and advocates policies, issued the following commentary on Oct. 23, 2025:
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Sen. Klobuchar seeks sympathy for retired 61-year-old with six-figure income who will have to vacation less if temporary taxpayer subsidies expire
By John Phelan
The wood
One of the issues at the heart of the current federal government shutdown is the expiration of certain tax credits.
When it became apparent that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 had completely failed to provide
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GOLDEN VALLEY, Minnesota, Oct. 25 -- The Center of the American Experiment, a civic and educational organization that says it creates and advocates policies, issued the following commentary on Oct. 23, 2025:
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Sen. Klobuchar seeks sympathy for retired 61-year-old with six-figure income who will have to vacation less if temporary taxpayer subsidies expire
By John Phelan
The wood
One of the issues at the heart of the current federal government shutdown is the expiration of certain tax credits.
When it became apparent that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 had completely failed to provideaffordable care, the premium tax credit was created in 2014. It provided financial assistance to lower- and middle-income Americans purchasing health insurance through the ACA marketplace. In 2021, the American Rescue Plan temporarily expanded the tax credits for two years, increased the amount of assistance, and eliminated the rule that prevented households with incomes over 400% of the federal poverty line from qualifying. As my colleague Matt Dean noted recently, "When the Inflation Reduction Act [IRA] passed in 2022, every Democrat in Congress voted for these subsidies to expire in 2025." Indeed, the IRA "passed without a single Republican vote."
Now that these subsidies are about to expire -- exactly as Democrats wished in 2022 -- they have changed their minds and decided to shut the federal government down until Republicans reverse a decision made by Democrats and vote to extend the "temporary" tax credits still further.
The trees
Minnesota's own Sen. Amy Klobuchar has shared this story, illustrating what the expiration of these credits -- which she voted for in 2022 -- will mean for one couple if it actually goes ahead in 2025.
"The enhanced tax credits [in 2021] meant families like the Galls qualified," CNBC reports.
The couple had a modified adjusted gross income of about $123,000 in 2023 and $136,000 in 2024, mostly from pensions and some from individual retirement account withdrawals, according to their tax returns.
If the temporary tax credits are not extended, they will no longer qualify.
Bill, who worked for more than 31 years in local and state government in Nevada and Idaho, said he expects their household to get pension income of about $127,000 in 2026, exceeding the 400% threshold.
In that case, CNBC continues:
Based on figures available through Idaho's online insurance marketplace, Bill, 61, and Shelly, 60, expect to pay almost $1,700 in monthly health insurance premiums in 2026 if enhanced premium tax credits expire at the end of this year as scheduled. That sum -- a nearly 300% increase from their current $442 premium -- would add $15,000 a year to their household medical costs.
To avoid this, Sen. Klobuchar is demanding that the taxpayer cover the $1,258 a month via an extension of the tax credits which she voted to end in 2022. "Extending the enhanced subsidies would cost $350 billion over ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office," CNBC notes, adding, helpfully, "That's an average of about $35 billion a year." In January, the Congressional Budget Office forecast a deficit of $1.9 trillion in 2025, rising to $2.7 trillion in 2035.
What will happen if taxpayers do not pick up the Gall's tab? "With significantly higher health premiums, the couple said, they would have to make tough financial and lifestyle decisions," CNBC records, such as "traveling less." Mr. Gall -- who retired aged 58 in 2022, shortly after the tax credits were expanded -- "could try to find part-time work." "Early retirees such as the Galls...are perhaps 'the most vulnerable population' when it comes to expiring subsidies," CNBC continues, because they "are too young to qualify for Medicare."
The wood, again
I must confess to some surprise that Sen. Klobuchar chose to offer this family's story as an example of the dire consequence of these temporary tax credits expiring as she wanted them to back in 2022. Perhaps, as the Republican vote gets, on average, less well off and less white and the Democrat vote gets, on average, better off and more white, she is simply catering to her base. Or, perhaps, she just has a tin ear. Either way, I do not think it will have the effect on public opinion she expects.
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John Phelan is an Economist at the Center of the American Experiment.
john.phelan@americanexperiment.org
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Original text here: https://www.americanexperiment.org/sen-klobuchar-seeks-sympathy-for-retired-61-year-old-with-six-figure-income-who-will-have-to-vacation-less-if-temporary-taxpayer-subsidies-expire/
[Category: ThinkTank]
Center of the American Experiment Issues Commentary: Read to Your Babies and Improve Their Brain Structure
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minnesota, Oct. 25 -- The Center of the American Experiment, a civic and educational organization that says it creates and advocates policies, issued the following commentary on Oct. 24, 2025:
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Read to your babies and improve their brain structure
By Josiah Padley
Words, words, words!
Babies and young children build the cognitive foundations for the rest of their life during their early years. From birth to age 5, a child's brain develops more rapidly than at any other time in life and at a rate of 1 million neural connections formed every second. Most adults would do anything
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GOLDEN VALLEY, Minnesota, Oct. 25 -- The Center of the American Experiment, a civic and educational organization that says it creates and advocates policies, issued the following commentary on Oct. 24, 2025:
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Read to your babies and improve their brain structure
By Josiah Padley
Words, words, words!
Babies and young children build the cognitive foundations for the rest of their life during their early years. From birth to age 5, a child's brain develops more rapidly than at any other time in life and at a rate of 1 million neural connections formed every second. Most adults would do anythingto be given a period of five years where they could learn new languages, musical rhythms, and physical skills at that scale. They'd likely have grand plans as to where they'd direct their advanced brain function. But babies experience this rapid growth at a time when they are completely dependent on the adults in their life to give them the appropriate stimuli to learn with.
Parents might not know how to best foster growth in this time period. After all, not every parent is degreed, credentialed, and loquacious. Many parents erroneously think that it might be more beneficial for their children to watch educational television than to learn their vocabulary from conversation with their parents. Many also erroneously believe that literacy will come naturally to their child once they begin kindergarten -- and so they put bedtime stories on the back burner.
New scientific research from the Harvard School of Education suggests that literacy strengths and struggles can be measured by brain activity in children as young as 18 months old. Just like painting or playing the violin, there is no specialized learning center in the brain for reading. It's a skill that many of us take for granted, but it's actually an intense feat of education -- one that's strongly helped along by the accelerated learning abilities present in young brains -- when any of us learn to read. The study found that "the bases for reading skills begin to develop in the child's brain by birth and continue building between infancy and preschool." Researchers learned that literary skills began to diverge at around 18 months, with some children's brains began to show signs of developing dyslexia and others showing the foundations of strong literary scaffolding.
Perri Klass, national medical director of the pediatric nonprofit Reach Out and Read, which provides books for families at well-child pediatric visits, emphasizes that family reading is a relational practice that can lead to transformative benefits for children later in life.
We know that the developing brain is shaped most of all by the interactions with the adults taking care of that child...We're hoping with...the books the caregivers are taking home, the child is learning a motivational lesson: 'I like books. If I carry a book and give it to my parent, they might sit down and talk to me in that voice'...Your baby wants to be on your lap hearing you read. Your baby will love books because your baby loves you.
In addition to this study, there is an abundant body of research that shows that children's language and vocabulary skills, cognitive function, and even brain structure is strongly positively related to consistent, two-way conversations with adult caregivers. Reading to a child in their early years can be a deeply fruitful vein of conversation. In many areas, there are programs available that teach parents how to best interact with their children in order for them to grow well.
Literacy is strongly on the decline, leading some thinkers to hail the dawn of the post-literate society. Literacy isn't just about the delights of Winnie the Pooh or the drama of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Literate children can understand truth, form an argument, deliberate nuance, and pierce through fictions to facts. In other words, reading to your child and teaching them to read is akin to teaching them how to think. Even reading for ten to fifteen minutes can have measurable benefits. Don't leave them defenseless.
While local libraries, churches, and community centers are excellent repositories of free books, there are other programs available. Dolly Parton's Imagination Library will mail children a free book a month from birth until the time when they start school. For parents who wish to up their own literary skills, The Catherine Project offers free online literary seminars on classic books every semester. Hillsdale College also has a large library of free videos that explain seminal texts. Local education programs for adults and children are available through local public schools and community organizations.
It only takes a few minutes a day to lay a strong foundation for a child's capacity to learn. The reading time that parents spend with their child will be a deeply worthwhile labor of love.
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Josiah Padley is a Policy Fellow at Center of the American Experiment.
josiah.padley@americanexperiment.org
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Original text here: https://www.americanexperiment.org/read-to-your-babies-and-improve-their-brain-structure/
[Category: ThinkTank]
Center of the American Experiment Issues Commentary: Pervasive Myth of 'Cheap' Wind and Solar
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minnesota, Oct. 25 -- The Center of the American Experiment, a civic and educational organization that says it creates and advocates policies, issued the following commentary on Oct. 23, 2025:
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The pervasive myth of 'cheap' wind and solar
By Sarah Montalbano
A recent letter to the editor in the Star Tribune -- from a Minnesota Department of Commerce official, no less -- argued that "wind and sunshine are free." Minnesotans are so often told that solar panels and wind turbines are the lowest-cost ways to generate electricity that it's become dogma.
The truth is that wind
... Show Full Article
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minnesota, Oct. 25 -- The Center of the American Experiment, a civic and educational organization that says it creates and advocates policies, issued the following commentary on Oct. 23, 2025:
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The pervasive myth of 'cheap' wind and solar
By Sarah Montalbano
A recent letter to the editor in the Star Tribune -- from a Minnesota Department of Commerce official, no less -- argued that "wind and sunshine are free." Minnesotans are so often told that solar panels and wind turbines are the lowest-cost ways to generate electricity that it's become dogma.
The truth is that windand sunshine are free in themselves, but powering a grid on wind turbines and solar panels is far from it.
The misleading calculations of Lazard's Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE)
In June 2025, a headline in pv magazine blared that "solar, wind remain cheapest sources of power in U.S." The article is based on the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) from financial firm Lazard, which releases an annual analysis. For years, activists and even regulators have waved around Lazard's charts claiming that wind and solar are "cheaper" than coal and gas.
The LCOE is an estimate of the long-term average cost of producing electricity from a power plant on a per-unit of energy basis. The calculation reflects the capital costs of building the plant, fuel costs, variable and fixed operation and maintenance costs, an assumed lifetime and the annual capacity factors.
Former policy fellow Isaac Orr wrote a four-part series in 2023 explaining how wind and solar promoters misuse the Lazard LCOE findings and wrongly suggest that these are the cheapest sources of electricity. Here is the short version:
1. Lazard's LCOE compares new wind and solar with new coal, natural gas, and nuclear -- not existing resources: The U.S. electric grid is not being built from scratch, and there are many existing coal, natural gas, and nuclear plants online today. Running existing power plants through the end of their useful lifetime is cheaper because capital costs are paid off over time and are fully depreciated, leaving only the marginal costs of fuel and ongoing maintenance.
2. Lazard LCOE doesn't factor in system-wide costs: The Lazard analysis explicitly does not examine the effects of "network upgrades, transmission, congestion or other integration-related costs; permitting or other development costs," and the "costs of complying with various environmental regulations (e.g. carbon emissions offsets or emissions control systems." These add hidden costs.
3. Wind and solar don't provide the same reliability value to the grid: The LCOE metric was developed to compare resources that were able to provide the same reliability value to the grid. Wind and solar cannot supply reliable, dispatchable power in the same way as coal, natural gas, or nuclear power can. It isn't apples-to-apples.
4. Lazard's LCOE is meant for financial institutions, not grid planners: The calculation does not factor in considerations the grid planners find important, including load balancing, projected utilization, capacity value, and the aforementioned reliability values.
5. Capital costs for wind and solar are starting to rise: The unsubsidized capital costs for wind and solar have dropped between 2009 and 2015 but have flattened out since 2015 and ticked upward since 2021. Costs are rising due to higher material costs of components, supply chain disruptions, and federal tariffs and import restrictions. It's possible that wind and solar have already seen the floor for how cheap they will get.
LCOE doesn't include the cost of making the grid reliable. It ignores transmission lines, backup generation, overbuilding, battery storage, and the curtailment that happens when wind or solar produce power nobody needs. Those system costs don't show up in glossy charts, but they show up on your electric bill.
What happens when you account for system-wide costs
Mitch Rolling, former American Experiment policy fellow, demonstrated in 2023 the unsubsidized cost of electricity from wind and solar in Minnesota from 2012 to 2023. Minnesota's newest wind facilities now cost about $62.91 per MWh, up from $39.12 per MWh in 2019, or a 61 percent increase. New solar installations were even higher at $103.83/MWh in 2023, up 47 percent from $70.46/MWh in 2020.
Compare that to existing generation sources. Note that Sherburne County (Sherco) Unit 2 closed at the end of 2023.
New wind costs twice as much as existing coal. New solar costs 3.3 times as much as existing coal.
Then add to that the cost of additional transmission and natural gas backup power plants and the costs of replacing wind and solar generation every 20 to 25 years rather than 40 to 80 years for other types of generation. It becomes clear that Lazard's LCOE misses a big part of the picture. One peer reviewed study suggests that including the costs of reliability increases the costs of solar between 11 and 42 times.
If wind and solar are cheap, then they don't need subsidies or mandates
The argument that wind and solar are the cheapest forms of energy has reared its head in response to the July 4, 2025 reconciliation bill.
There are two problems with blaming the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for raising electricity prices. The first is that the subsidies for wind and solar are still in effect: the bill doesn't remove tax credits retroactively, and phaseouts won't start for several years. Projects must start producing electricity by the end of 2027 or by 2030 if they begin construction by next summer. It's difficult to blame actions in the future for prices rising today, but critics like former mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel still make the attempt.
Second, if wind and solar are as cost competitive as wind and solar proponents claim, then losing the tax credits shouldn't strand capital and lead to developers abandoning their projects. It's telling that after 30 years of taxpayer dollars for wind and solar, developers have merely shifted costs to taxpayers.
Reliability has a price, and you're paying it
If policymakers were honest about the costs of wind and solar, they would invite transparency into system-wide costs instead of citing the Lazard LCOE as gospel and repeating the tired refrain that "wind and sunshine are free." Minnesota would keep what works, continuing to operate paid-for coal and natural gas plants through the end of their useful life, which have tremendous reliability attributes that wind and solar can't match. And Minnesota would repeal its moratorium on new nuclear construction, to allow for zero-carbon energy generation that is reliable and dispatchable.
Until renewables can compete on a full, systemwide basis, let's not bankrupt families chasing the mirage of "free" wind and sunshine.
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Sarah Montalbano is a Policy Fellow at Center of the American Experiment.
sarah.montalbano@americanexperiment.org
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Original text here: https://www.americanexperiment.org/the-pervasive-myth-of-cheap-wind-and-solar/
[Category: ThinkTank]
Center of the American Experiment Issues Commentary: Former Auditor Makes Explosive Fraud Claims About DFL
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minnesota, Oct. 25 -- The Center of the American Experiment, a civic and educational organization that says it creates and advocates policies, issued the following commentary on Oct. 23, 2025:
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Former Auditor makes explosive fraud claims about DFL
By Bill Glahn
Yesterday, former Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles published a commentary in the Minnesota Star Tribune under the headline,
Former legislative auditor: Is the Walz administration finally awake about fraud?
The recent messes in state programs represent failures in the executive branch and among some legislators.
It's
... Show Full Article
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minnesota, Oct. 25 -- The Center of the American Experiment, a civic and educational organization that says it creates and advocates policies, issued the following commentary on Oct. 23, 2025:
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Former Auditor makes explosive fraud claims about DFL
By Bill Glahn
Yesterday, former Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles published a commentary in the Minnesota Star Tribune under the headline,
Former legislative auditor: Is the Walz administration finally awake about fraud?
The recent messes in state programs represent failures in the executive branch and among some legislators.
It'sthe "some legislators" part that should raise eyebrows. The occasion of Nobles' piece was in response to a recent commentary on his successor in the Auditor post (OLA), Judy Randall.
Her interview on the subject of state fraud crises jogged some memories lose for Nobles. He writes in paragraph 6,
While executive officials were obviously negligent, less obvious is the fact that some key legislators tried to minimize the fraud problem and shield the Department of Human Services [DHS] and the Walz administration from criticism.
Tell me more,
For example, when the Office of the Legislative Auditor issued a report on child care fraud, the then-chair of the House Human Services committee dismissed the report and the problem, saying, "there's always going to be fraud," and she refused to allow OLA to present its report to the committee.
The OLA's report on child care subsidy fraud was issued in March 2019. American Experiment covered the report when it first came out. In a March 2019 story, MPR News quoted then-Chair of the House's Human Services committee Tina Liebling (DFL-Rochester),
We need to be very careful when we start accusing people and accusing entire communities really of being less than concerned about where our public money is going.
Rep. Liebling continues to serve in the legislature. In his commentary, Nobles recalls another 2019 event,
As like-minded House members joined in criticizing OLA for investigating allegations of fraud in human service programs, I met with [then] Speaker Melissa Hortman. As always, she was thoughtful and supportive of OLA's work but acknowledged that some members of her caucus were upset. They felt that OLA reports were subjecting human service programs to too much criticism, particularly programs administered by Somali community organizations.
"Too much criticism" of DHS programs? Six years later it turns out to have been far too little. Billions of dollars' worth of new frauds have gone out the door since the OLA's March 2019 report.
That report struck a nerve and Democrats are still smarting over it. When I testified in front of the new House Fraud Prevention committee back in March 2025, committee Democrats went out of their way to trash the then-six-year-old OLA report.
The most explosive claim made by Nobles about the late Speaker Hortman from 2019,
[Hortman] did, however, acknowledge that House committee chairs had been instructed not to give OLA reports about fraud any public hearings.
"Instructed." We find out after the fact that Democrats actively covered up reports of fraud in state government. Had those report received the airing they deserved way back when, billions of taxpayer dollars could have been saved.
Now it can be told.
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Bill Glahn is a Policy Fellow with Center of the American Experiment.
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Original text here: https://www.americanexperiment.org/fmr-auditor-makes-explosive-fraud-claims-about-dfl/
[Category: ThinkTank]
America First Policy Institute: Congressional Radicals Prioritize Healthcare for Illegal Immigrants Over Fixing Emergency Rooms
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following statement on Oct. 24, 2025:
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Congressional Radicals Prioritize Healthcare for Illegal Immigrants Over Fixing Emergency Rooms
Today, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) issued the following statement from Matthew Schmid, Health and Harvest Campaign Director, regarding the ongoing government shutdown:
"Radicals in Congress are holding the government hostage to undo the Working Families Tax Credit's (WFTC) reforms to the Medicaid emergency care system. One major cause of overcrowded Emergency Rooms is the
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following statement on Oct. 24, 2025:
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Congressional Radicals Prioritize Healthcare for Illegal Immigrants Over Fixing Emergency Rooms
Today, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) issued the following statement from Matthew Schmid, Health and Harvest Campaign Director, regarding the ongoing government shutdown:
"Radicals in Congress are holding the government hostage to undo the Working Families Tax Credit's (WFTC) reforms to the Medicaid emergency care system. One major cause of overcrowded Emergency Rooms is themisuse of ERs as primary care clinics for illegal aliens.
Instead of reserving ERs for true emergencies, federal Medicaid funding has been exploited to provide routine care to illegal aliens in emergency settings. This creates long lines, overworked hospital staff, and delays care for Americans with genuine medical emergencies.
The WFTC made an important reform by shifting some funding responsibility to states, incentivizing them to better manage their emergency care systems and closing the loophole that allowed this abuse. Now, bad actors in Congress want to undo that progress--and they are using a government shutdown as leverage to make it happen.
Americans deserve a healthcare system and a Congress that serve them first."
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Original text here: https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/congressional-radicals-prioritize-healthcare-for-illegal-immigrants-over-fixing-emergency-rooms
[Category: ThinkTank]
AFPI Condemns Ohio School for Allowing Alleged 36-Count Felon to Attend Classes With Victims
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following news release on Oct. 24, 2025:
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AFPI Condemns Ohio School for Allowing Alleged 36-Count Felon to Attend Classes with Victims
Emily Moreno, Deputy Director of State Action and Executive Director of the America First Policy Institute's (AFPI) Ohio Chapter, responded to news that Maggie Cook, Mentor Schools and School Board President, is allowing an alleged felon to continue attending classes.
"Maggie Cook has a responsibility to protect the children at Mentor Schools. Instead, her decision to allow a student charged
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following news release on Oct. 24, 2025:
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AFPI Condemns Ohio School for Allowing Alleged 36-Count Felon to Attend Classes with Victims
Emily Moreno, Deputy Director of State Action and Executive Director of the America First Policy Institute's (AFPI) Ohio Chapter, responded to news that Maggie Cook, Mentor Schools and School Board President, is allowing an alleged felon to continue attending classes.
"Maggie Cook has a responsibility to protect the children at Mentor Schools. Instead, her decision to allow a student chargedwith 36 felony counts, including child pornography and bestiality, to freely roam campus and attend classes with 17 of his alleged victims is reckless, traumatizing, and endangers the students," Moreno stated.
The issue came to public attention through a courageous parent's online post, highlighting the school's failure to prioritize student safety. Despite parents' concerns that the student would remain on campus, Maggie Cook has taken no action.
"Providing a safe environment for Ohio's students to learn is a non-negotiable. Parents entrust their School Boards to make decisions in the best interest of their loved ones. Allowing this individual to remain in close proximity to students and victims is indefensible and seriously calls into question the leadership of the Mentor School Board," said Erika Donalds, Chair of Education Opportunity at AFPI.
Student safety is a top priority for all American parents. Allowing an alleged felon to attend classes with other students is a security risk, and parents are right to be concerned.
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Original text here: https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/afpi-condemns-ohio-school-for-allowing-alleged-36-count-felon-to-attend-classes-with-victims
[Category: ThinkTank]
