I am responding to an article in the Minnesota Educator November issue. The title of the article is, Reform governor sets education as one of his top priorities. This article tells of how Education Minnesota members congratulate Jesse Ventura and running mate Mae Schunk. It states how our newly elected governor supports smaller class sizes and opposes diverting tax money to private and religious schools. Sounds good to me! I feel that Education Minnesota puts themselves at risk by endorsing certain candidates. It looks pretty bad when we as educators start demanding things from the very person we were not suppose to vote for. Is it because Jesse is a radical, flambouyant type of guy that our union chose not to endorse him? Maybe it's time for educators to be less conservative with their ideals. If many young people were said to have voted for Jesse, then why shouldn't we? Young people are who we deal with at work each day. I think we need to be more concerned with who will help our profession instead of what people will think of educators endorsing a former professional wrestler.

-- Anonymous, January 18, 1999

Answers

Tony, I feel that between the two major party candidates that "Skip" was the better person for the job. I listened to Jesse during one of the televised debates and thought he was the most forward and the straighest talker. He gave shorter answers that were to the point as opposed to the career politicians who danced around the questions. However I have my doubts about Jesse because he does not have the clout or cooperation of a major party to help him implement his plans. I hope that because we have a Republican Senate, Democratic House and a Reform Governor that we have a four year stalemate.

-- Anonymous, January 20, 1999