Minnesota House of Representatives
Bennett was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2014, and has been reelected every two years since. She defeated one-term DFL incumbent Shannon Savick, [1] criticizing Savic and Democrats for raising taxes. [4] During the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary, Bennett joined two dozen state lawmakers in endorsing Florida Senator Marco Rubio. [6]
Bennett is the minority lead on the Education Policy Committee and serves on the Education Finance and Veterans and Military Affairs Finance and Policy Committees. From 2015-16, Bennett served as vice chair of the Education Innovation Policy Committee. She was an assistant minority leader from 2019 to 2022. [1]
Education
Bennett has called for more local control in education decisions. [7] She opposed efforts to provide free meals to all school children, regardless of family income, calling it a "shotgun approach". [8] [9] She supported a bill that would speed up the licensing process for substitute teachers in response to workforce shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that DFL proposals didn't go far enough. [10] Bennett has spoken against bills to increase recruitment of teachers of color. [11]
Other political positions
In 2018, Bennett authored legislation that passed unanimously creating a "sibling bill of rights" to help children in the foster care system avoid being separated from their siblings. [12] She supported legislation increasing penalties on distracted driving and on protestors that block freeways. [13] [14] Bennett has been in contact and worked directly with an anti-LGBTQ group in Minnesota, the "Child Protection League." [15] [16] [17] She has opposed proposals to raise the gas tax to pay for roads and bridges improvements. [18] Bennett stated she carries a handgun while at the State Capitol. [19]
Bennett led House Republican opposition of the Mayo Clinic for its vaccine mandate policy for employees, calling for a halt in state funding for health care facilities that fire employees "due to unrealistic vaccine mandate policies". [20] [21] [22]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
