Capitol Report: Licensing Teachers, Student Diversity, Sunday Liquor Sales

This may be the year Minnesota’s prohibition on selling liquor on Sundays is lifted. Legislation to repeal the ban is moving easily through the House, and Governor Dayton has said that he won’t veto a bill that lands on his desk. The question remains as to whether the Senate can pass the bill, and Senator David Osmek, R-Mound, talks about the chances his bill will pass the Senate.

Throughout the summer, a bipartisan group of legislators met to devise a plan to address problems with teacher licensure. In March, 2016, the Office of the Legislative Auditor released a report calling the teacher licensure laws “complex, unclear, and confusing”. As a longtime educator and school administrator, Senator Greg Clausen, DFL-Apple Valley, discusses his views on governance, tiered licenses and licensure-by-portfolio.

Finally, Minnesota's classrooms are diversifying, and Education Policy Chair Eric Pratt, R-Prior Lake, talked with Shannon last fall about some of the ways Minnesota can respond to the changing classroom.