HF 989

as introduced - 82nd Legislature (2001 - 2002) Posted on 12/15/2009 12:00am

  1.1                             A resolution 
  1.2             memorializing the President and Congress to cease 
  1.3             imposing on the states unwelcome mandates under Title 
  1.4             I of the Improving America's Schools Act. 
  1.5      
  1.6      WHEREAS, the United States government was constructed on 
  1.7   the twin principles of limited government and the separation of 
  1.8   powers; and 
  1.9      WHEREAS, the limited government and the separation of 
  1.10  powers principles are expressed in the Tenth Amendment to the 
  1.11  United States Constitution which states:  "The powers not 
  1.12  delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
  1.13  prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states, 
  1.14  respectively, or to the people"; and 
  1.15     WHEREAS, the Constitution of the State of Minnesota 
  1.16  clarifies that education policy is ultimately the right and 
  1.17  responsibility of the State of Minnesota when it states that 
  1.18  "... it is the duty of the legislature to establish a general 
  1.19  and uniform system of public education"; and 
  1.20     WHEREAS, the setting or influencing of education policy by 
  1.21  the federal government is, therefore, contrary to both the 
  1.22  letter and spirit of the Constitution of the United States and 
  1.23  the Constitution of the State of Minnesota; and 
  1.24     WHEREAS, the setting or influencing of education policy by 
  1.25  the federal government is, therefore, also contrary to the 
  2.1   limited government and separation of powers doctrines upon which 
  2.2   the federal government was founded; NOW, THEREFORE, 
  2.3      BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota 
  2.4   that Congress amend the Secondary and Elementary Education Act 
  2.5   to stipulate that education policy is established and 
  2.6   implemented by the several states, not by the federal 
  2.7   government, and that the federal government shall not withhold, 
  2.8   nor threaten to withhold, any federal education grants to the 
  2.9   several states on the basis of the education policy decisions of 
  2.10  the states. 
  2.11     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the 
  2.12  State of Minnesota is directed to prepare copies of this 
  2.13  memorial and transmit them to the President of the United 
  2.14  States, the President and Secretary of the Senate, the Speaker 
  2.15  and Clerk of the House of Representatives, the chair of the 
  2.16  Senate Committee on Education, the chair of the House Committee 
  2.17  on Education and Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in 
  2.18  Congress.