Minneapolis Star Tribune, Sept. 1
Answers, results needed at Minnesota Department of Human Services
New leader needs to explain how she’ll shore up and reform the long-embattled state agency.
A recent North Carolina TV station’s editorial likely didn’t get many Minnesota readers. That’s a shame, because the opinion piece, which lauded the Southern state’s innovative health and human services secretary, was a reminder that there are positive reasons why a state agency shouldering these vital responsibilities can make news.
It’s all too easy to forget that in the blizzard of troubling events that have enveloped this state’s Department of Human Services. Leadership churn, whistleblower allegations and overpayments triggering questions about systemic accounting gaps have left Minnesotans with legitimate concerns about the agency.
Information is still lacking to diagnose what went wrong and evaluate whether satisfactory solutions are in place. The need for this transparency does not evaporate because a new commissioner takes the helm on Tuesday.
Jodi Harpstead, who previously led Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, will barely have 24 hours to settle into her new office before she’s expected to take the hot seat before a legislative hearing on Wednesday. In an Aug. 30 Star Tribune commentary , state Sen. Michelle Benson, R-Ham Lake, served Harpstead notice that the GOP-controlled Senate wants a turnaround artist who moves quickly.
Benson’s ire is merited. One of Harpstead’s most prominent public appearances after her appointment came on “Almanac,” a public television news and affairs show. It did not inspire confidence.
Those looking for the hard-charging executive who climbed the ranks at Medtronic before a midcareer move to Lutheran Social Service, were sorely disappointed. Harpstead had shockingly little to say about her strategic vision for the agency and what operational fixes are needed. Instead, she offered up gauzy comments about healing at the embattled agency.
Shoring up morale is indeed important, but the agency also needs a pragmatic leader with a game plan. The Wednesday hearing will certainly make that clear, and that’s a message that Harpstead apparently needs to hear.
With a day under her belt, Harpstead won’t have all the answers that lawmakers want, and employment law may prevent some details about the high-level staff changes from being made public. Still, there are many other issues to be aired, such as what qualities Harpstead is looking for as she puts together her team, what operational solutions she’ll focus on first. We’ll also suggest that she look at whether breaking up the sprawling agency would address some of its challenges.
Answers are also needed about whether the high-level staff remaining at the agency were responsible for the overpayments or other mistakes that have generated headlines. If so, should they stay on under Harpstead?
It’s important to note that the Office of the Legislative Auditor is delving into the overpayments. The report from James Nobles’ office is expected this fall and may shed important light about systemic weaknesses within agency accounting. Answers about crucial fixes may need to wait until then.
Harpstead should also see this hearing as a chance to begin enlisting legislators as allies. Lawmakers are frustrated that questions about staff turnover have lingered for months and that they’ve heard about agency problems in the news media before hearing about them from leadership.
Repairing this relationship will take time. But as the North Carolina opinion piece notes, that state’s health and human services head won over an “obstinate” legislature, then moved forward with nation-leading innovation. Lawmakers and Minnesotans should wish Harpstead the best of luck, but they’re also right to demand results.
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The Free Press of Mankato, Sept. 3
Trump continues attack on the environment
Why it mattes: President Trump’s plan to roll back rules that have cut methane emissions is a senseless move as the Earth is cooking.
Of all the greenhouse gases, methane is one of the most potent because it so efficiently absorbs heat in Earth’s atmosphere. It is dozens of times greater at warming the Earth than carbon dioxide.
That is why the Obama administration instituted rules that forced oil and gas companies to restrict methane emissions.
President Trump is targeting those rules, which require oil and natural gas companies to install technology to detect and reduce leaks at wellheads and during transportation. Natural gas, while burning much cleaner than coal or gasoline, has a high methane content. That’s why stopping the escape of natural gas into the air during extraction and transmission is so important.
Even some of the world’s biggest oil companies say the restrictions shouldn’t be lifted.
But Trump, in his disjointed and failing approach to improve the economy, thinks lifting the rules will put money into the economy. While he believes the move would help some of the energy companies he is so tied to, it would dangerously increase global warming while the Earth is already burning.
And it ignores the economic impact of global warming, which has already shredded tourism as oceans rise and has created ever bigger bills to cover damage from increasingly dangerous storms.
And limiting leaks makes economic sense for energy companies, which in the past lost millions of dollar a day in natural gas released into the atmosphere.
While the rest of the world is far past arguing about whether human-made climate change is real, Trump and other global warming deniers continue to push for going backward in the hopes of economically benefiting a few major corporations.
Trump’s horrible idea to roll back methane rules faces contentious court battles. Hopefully the idea will die there. But the fact he is proposing it is just another piece of evidence of his disdain for the environment and future generations.
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St. Cloud Times, Aug. 30
Investment in K-12 facilities can take many forms - except ’none of the above’
This week, students in St. Cloud and Sartell school districts will walk back in to classrooms - and into new eras.
Tech High School students will start a new chapter in a story that started more than 100 years ago. Sartell-St. Stephen high school students will be launching the next era for a district whose story has been one of exponential growth.
Both sets of students will be making those advances in new buildings that represent the best intents of the adults in their communities, backed up by the material offerings that brought the new Tech and Sartell-St. Stephen high schools into existence.
There’s plenty to celebrate, not least of which is the optimism ensconced in the public decisions for those students’ - and those communities’ - futures. It’s not the end of a story in either district; it’s a transition and a new beginning.
There’s more to be done.
In Sartell, more students will, in time, move into still-useful school buildings that will be repurposed to serve different grades in new and better ways.
The school board there has much work to do to convince voters an operating levy to fund the district is an essential move. The voters have work to do to educate themselves in detail about that proposal and weigh the benefits and risks of the plan.
In St. Cloud, the future of Tech Version One is still unclear. The decision about the fate of that site holds no less than the potential to change the face of St. Cloud’s core, for better or worse. “Better” will only come with reasoned, detailed, public decision-making that puts the long-term benefit to the community ahead of short-term fixes.
And there is another aging school for St. Cloud residents to consider: Apollo High School is approaching its 50th year, calling in to question how much longer it will serve the needs of students and educators - 10 years? Twenty-five years? More?
Voters should be ready to answer that question as soon as next year, according to district leaders.
And Sauk Rapids-Rice voters, too, have facilities challenges to resolve. The debate about the proper way to solve those building questions has gone on for years now, even sparking changes in whom and how the district educates.
If Central Minnesotans have learned anything in the past decade, it’s that investments in school facilities are rarely quickly decided. It can take several years and several rounds of proposals to find out the will of the people. Waiting until there’s a building crisis in the works means the process started too late. In fact, the conversation is best an ongoing one between every community and its district leaders.
Buildings are not the core of a quality education, but they are part of it. They need not be brand-new, but they must be safe and serviceable for students, educators and the educations we need to provide today.
That will take continued public investment, whether through aggressive maintenance and reimagination of spaces we already have, or replacement of those spaces. There’s no viable “none of the above” option.
What a great start we are seeing in the new Tech and Sartell-St. Stephen high schools whose classrooms will fill this week.
We can’t stop now.
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