For Immediate Release
February 1, 2021
Contact: Samantha Hanson
ICYMI: Page Amendment Campaign Manager Says Amendment is the Transformative Education Policy Minnesota Needs in Duluth News Tribune Op-Ed
“Page Amendment is a chance to boost our failing public-education system.”
ST. PAUL, MINN. – This weekend, the Duluth News Tribune published an opinion editorial written by Page Amendment Campaign Manager and Executive Director Nevada Littlewolf about the amendment and our state’s need for bold, transformative education reform.
The Page Amendment is a proposed amendment to the Minnesota state constitution that would provide every Minnesota child with a civil right to quality public education. Despite many good-faith efforts to narrow Minnesota’s education gaps, they persist today, cutting across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines. The amendment targets the system, enumerating new constitutional language that would not only establish education as a paramount duty of the state but also bring the conversations around education and equity into the year 2021 and beyond.
See highlights from the op-ed:
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“The Minnesota state constitution has been amended over 100 times since its ratification in 1857, though one provision of the constitution has remained unchanged: Article XIII, Section 1. The education provision.”
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“Predominantly serving Indigenous, rural, and children of color, I have witnessed firsthand the challenges and nearly criminal disparities for our children.”
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“Minnesota ranks 47th in the nation for American Indian students who graduate on time and 50th for Black and Hispanic students.”
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“We have the opportunity to advance the Page Amendment with these same values in mind: bipartisanship and community partnership. With the most diverse legislative body in the history of Minnesota, we’re poised to get this accomplished.
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“It’s never been more clear that we need education reform in Minnesota that targets the status quo. Targeting the system is the only way to solve the systemic issues we’re facing.”
Before joining the Page Amendment team, Littlewolf served as Minnesota’s state Political Director for the 2020 Biden Presidential Campaign. She served on the Virginia City Council for ten years from 2008-2018. Littlewolf is a citizen of Leech Lake nation and has two children.
Our Children MN is the bipartisan coalition working to inform Minnesotans of our state’s education gaps and to build support to pass the Page Amendment. Read the full opinion editorial here. Learn more information about the Page Amendment at www.pageamendmentmn.com.
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