Readers Write: Education, minimum wage, copper theft

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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As a product of public schools and community member in Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District 191, I am deeply concerned about ongoing efforts in this country to undermine public education, most recently through executive actions by the Trump administration that include attempts to eliminate the Department of Education.

In 2024, Minnesota schools received more than $233 million from the DOE to support students with disabilities and around $194 million to support students from low-income backgrounds, among other investments in our more than 2,000 K-12 schools. Jeopardizing the flow of these federal dollars will take away vital resources like student lunches and special education programming and limit our state’s ability to provide equal opportunities to all students.

Some lawmakers in Washington are also pushing the proposed Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA). If enacted nationwide, the ECCA would divert billions of taxpayer dollars from our public schools to subsidize private institutions. Public schools are already grappling with budgetary and operational challenges. Voucher programs worsen these issues, benefiting a privileged few while leaving low-income and rural students with fewer resources.

Public education is the foundation of a thriving democracy. If we are serious about ensuring quality education for all students — not just the wealthiest — we must reject efforts to defund our public schools. I urge all of us who care about our public schools to tell Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, as well as our representatives, to oppose private school voucher initiatives and invest in strengthening public schools.

Nicole Hill, Burnsville

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Dear education colleagues,

As a retired fellow educator and a product of Minnesota public education from kindergarten through grad school, I’m appalled by the insane, stupid, hateful “Dear Colleague” email from the DOE that you educators and administrators are having to waste your time reading.

There is not one point in it that would improve education or society. It’s a huge middle finger to your beliefs, ethics and efforts. You are our educators; you’re smart, dedicated, nurturing, committed. You know better than to waste even one synapse considering accommodating this insanity. Don’t do it. Heaven forbid any school board or board of regents would decide that the bullying threat of losing federal money is more important than their own employees and students. Threats do not belong in education.

Remember, no one in Washington is your boss; every one of them is your employee. You’re the professional. You’re the bridge between ignorance and knowledge. You’re the transmitter of truth. That’s your job. Do your job. If educators can’t fight stupid, who can?

If you’re going to put your precious energy into this, put it into making “good trouble,” put it into creative problem solving; find workarounds; think like Maine Gov. Janet Mills. You can’t defeat all this cruelty, hate, greed and discrimination if you buckle and cave. Say no.

You’re not alone; there’s strength in all your numbers, and there are a lot of us who have your backs. Put your “Minnesota nice” in your back pocket and sit on it. Keep doing the good work you’ve been doing. Do what your heart knows is right. Do it for the students. It’s your job.

Jackie Dubbe, Minneapolis

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Apparently, the bar for abject, pointless cruelty by the Donald Trump and Elon Musk regime is not yet low enough. I see the purge of anything seemingly DEI-related now includes the cancellation of a concert featuring a collaboration of the U.S. Marine Band with a group of high school musicians. This is about who the students are — students of color who auditioned for this opportunity through a Chicago organization called Equity Arc. We know that words like “equity” and faces of any color other than white are the ultimate triggers for MAGA Republicans, who believe that by removing people and programs from their sight means they will cease to exist.

Their white insecurity could not tolerate the sight of a highly qualified Black general as the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I imagine the prospect of a bunch of talented teenagers with Black and brown faces bearing saxophones and flutes was equally terrifying. Sadly, these deserving students will not have memories of visiting the White House and sharing their passion for music with the esteemed Marine Band. But as they and their friends become voters, and when their parents, relatives, school community, neighbors and all who lauded their achievement next enter a voting booth, I believe they will all nevertheless remember this moment.

Mary McGarry Woitte, Eden Prairie

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Red Wing Schools Superintendent Bob Jaszczak says “Educating students about racial harm is essential” (“Red Wing schools cancel Black History Month event with AG Keith Ellison over concerns for ‘significant disruptions,’ ” StarTribune.com, Feb. 27). I agree. But by canceling the event because of fears of disruptions, you are teaching students — and the community — that it is better to cede to possibilities than to stand up for what you believe. The students who would have benefited from this event lose out while perceived problems cause proactive cowardice. If “disruptions” occurred, they would be on the part of the disrupters, not those attending.

Stephanie Wolkin, White Bear Township

While I appreciate D.J. Tice’s nuanced looked at unintended consequences of the minimum wage hike, the piece buries the biggest impact — raising workers out of poverty wages (“What society pays in consequences for a higher minimum wage,” Strib Voices, Feb. 26).

The federal minimum wage of $7.25 is literally a poverty wage, insufficient at 40 hours per week to exceed the federal government’s own poverty threshold. That means workers paid so little may also need public assistance to make ends meet, for health care or food. In the Minneapolis area, according to Zillow, a person making the federal minimum wage would spend more than 80% of their earnings for rent on the average studio apartment.

When I had my first job in 1995 at Mervyn’s California in Eden Prairie (remember Mervyn’s?) I was paid just under $7 per hour. In the subsequent 30 years, increases in inflation mean that to make the same amount of money in 2025, I’d need to earn $14.40 per hour. That’s still less than the $1.60 federal minimum wage of 1968 would be in today’s dollars: $14.91. At a $15 per hour minimum wage, the widespread target of minimum wage advocates, a person working 40 hours per week will make around $30,000 per year. That’s still a poverty wage for a family of four, according to the federal government.

Minimum wages certainly may have unintended consequences, but let’s not forget the enormous benefits they provide to workers, who can have the dignity of work and be out of poverty.

John Farrell, Minneapolis

The writer is a public policy researcher.

For many years I’ve told everyone who would listen copper wouldn’t be stolen if there was no market. It took until now? (“Copper recyclers key to halting thefts,” front page, Feb. 24.)

Brenda Steinberg, New Brighton

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Can’t cope contemplating creepy crooks copping copper cables? Certainly cooperation concerning cops and copper-buyers can catch copper coppers and cancel consternating copper capers.

David Wiljamaa, Minneapolis