Minnesota Republican running on platform of abolishing early childhood education and funding

In January 2022, Republican state Sen. Mike Goggin of Minnesota announced he would not seek reelection this coming November. Republican state Reps. Barb Haley and Steve Drazkowski announced their plans to run for the vacant seat. Haley has been established in the Minnesota Republican Party for some time; it was thought by some that she might run for governor. In April, Drazkowski received 70% of the GOP’s delegate vote, becoming the party’s endorsed candidate for the race.

What are Drazkowski’s qualifications? He calls Democratic officials’ policies “anti-freedom policies,” for one. That’s a thing. But what exactly are Drazkowski’s ideas on how to institute his policy ideas? During debate on an omnibus tax cut bill this past week that Democrats hope will lessen the tax burden on families with children and seniors on a fixed income, Drazkowski offered up his thoughts on the bill’s call for an increase in “early childhood spending.” What did Drazkowski believe needed to be cut? Early childhood education. No, not a cut to the budget for childhood education—the entire concept.

In a clip posted by WCPT820, Drazkowski voices this collection of untruths and terrible ideas:

We should get rid of the early childhood committee, and we should let parents raise their kids until they’re 5 at least before government comes with a school bus, backs it up to the maternity ward room door and takes them to the government school.

Did you get all of that?

This is an interesting bit of business from the guy whose daughter, during a custody trial, said “that one of the reasons my dad wants me to come stay with him is his campaign,” and she was “tired of feeling used.”

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This isn’t Drazkowski’s first trip into our dimension to share his awful ideas with the world. A little over a decade ago, he was connected to a GOP-led movement to have Minnesota secede from the union. You might remember that in 2010, President Barack Obama was Black and that really motivated the antebellum ideologies of the right wing in our country to come out and remind the world that they are super racist and afraid of non-white human beings.

This is the same divorced guy who said banning same-sex marriage was better for the economy. It isn’t. He’s offered up ending pay equity for public employees and to replace nurses with baby monitor cameras. Surely that must be hyperbole. Nope.

In the beginning of May, the Minnesota House, controlled by Democrats, passed an omnibus tax bill that would cut the tax burden for families with children, senior citizens, as well as including rental assistance and other pandemic-related relief. The bill passed along party lines, 69-62, with Republicans complaining that big businesses didn’t get the lion’s share of tax breaks, which is the GOP’s general policy. The chances that it will pass through a Republican-controlled state senate unscathed are next to nil.

This content was originally published here.