Politicizing The Classroom

We got an interesting piece in the TN inbox this morning. It appears that a group by the name of "Wildwood Passing Lane" is using Mahtomedi Schools to pass out campaign literature for DFL House Candidate (and former Mahtomedi School board member) Kate Christopher. The MN DFL has Wildwood Passing Lane listed on their website as a local affiliate and on their website they describe themselves as "Grass roots group for MN House District 52B. A group of progressives dedicated to winning elections and influencing public policy in the Mahtomedi area. ". However, when one looks for Wildwood Passing Lane on the MN Campaign and Finance Board records - guess what we found....no listing at all. Rep. Dean has asked the Campaign Finance board to take a look into this to see if any campaign finance laws may (or may not) have been broken.

So one has to ask just what the Mahtomedi School District is doing delivering campaign literature for ANY CANDIDATE to parents in their childrens backpacks? One has to wonder if any school resources (like salary for secretarial staff or teachers) were used to distribute this literature. One also has to wonder if the Mahtomedi School District will offer the same services to Ms. Christopher's opponent, Matt Dean?

We ran into a similar situation last year in ISD 719. ISD 719 used school resources to distribute pro-referendum literature. A group that was questioning the need for the referendum had to go to the school district and demand "equal access". Because you see, schools are not supposed to be campaigning for a single candidate or issue. As a taxpayer funded organization, they are supposed to refrain from campaigning - or if they do decide to engage in campaigning, they need to provide equal access.