 Lakeland Public Television, the Bemidji Pioneer, the Brainer Dispatch and Northern Community Radio are proud to present Debate Night 2016, a look at our area legislative candidates and now the State House of Representatives District 9A debate. Your moderator tonight is Ray Gildow. Good evening everyone and welcome to our second debate this evening. This is the debate for House 9A legislative district and this is debate 2016 where we have 11 state legislative debates over four nights. This particular debate is coming from our Brainerd studio and our candidates this evening are Meg Litz who is the endorsed Democratic farmer labor candidate and John Poston. Poston, I'm going to get that right John. I'll get it right. John Poston who is the Republican candidate. Our panel this evening is Dennis Wyman who is Lakeland Public Television news director, Zach Kaiser, the Brainerd Dispatch news writer, and Heidi Holton, news and public affairs director with Northern Community Radio, KAXE and KBXE. I'd like to take just a second to a couple minutes here to give you the rules so everybody knows what we're doing. Each candidate will begin the debate with a three minute narrative of themselves who they are and what they do. The panel will ask questions after opening comments. Some will be their own questions and some will be questions that have been sent in from the public. The candidates will rotate the order they speak beginning with opening comments and finishing with closing comments. Each candidate will get two minutes to answer the questions and then each candidate will have a one minute rebuttal period and new this year each candidate will have the option of using one minute of bonus time to add on to one of their answers at any time tonight. This can be used during the answer to the initial question or during the rebuttal but it can only be used one time. Questions continue until we've gotten about 50 minutes into the debate and then we'll move on to closing comments and each candidate has two minutes for closing comments. So we'll begin with opening comments and Ms. Letts if you would be the first. Thank you very much. So my name is Meg Letts and I am a very proud mom of two daughters who are 16 and 19 and also have an incredible son-in-law and they're all attending MSUM in Moorhead. I'm very proud of them for that work there and I'm also a proud daughter of educators and an educator myself so this is an area of great passion for me and one where I've worked for a large number of years. Particularly working in some of the neediest districts some of the districts that are in some of the poorest areas and who needed to make some of the most rapid and dramatic turnaround and working with the people who are fiercely committed to educating and supporting our kids has been an amazing experience particularly as we work on large-scale change. The other piece that I want you to know about me is that I'm very committed to serving the people in the region in the District of 9A that I have a real passion for the Democratic farm labor community and the committee and I'm also incredibly excited about the fact that we have such a diverse group of people in our region to be able to represent and to serve and to tell their stories. I currently serve as the director of Discovery Woods Montessori School here in Brainerd and it's a great honor to serve there and I'm very appreciative of the committed staff who this week in conferences are making great things happen for kids there and I want to make sure that we continue to make great things happen for the people of Minnesota and make sure that the voice of the people of our district are heard in St. Paul to make sure we take back the house and that we're supporting the lives and the livelihoods of the people of this district. We've got great tourism, we have agribusiness, we have small business owners, we have health industry and we have education. We have an incredible district and we need to continue to support them with legislation, with policy and with funding and that is what I am very excited about doing for the people in my district. Thank you Mr. Poston. Good evening. First I'd like to thank Lakeland Public Television, the Brainerd Dispatch and KAXE Radio for putting on this event this evening. My name is John Poston. I'm the endorsed Republican candidate for House District 9A. A little bit about me. I'm a retired retail executive with 40 years of management experience. In my retirement I've become a business owner in District 9A and in my retirement for the first time in my life I've been able to really get involved in my community. I have served as a city council person and I am currently the mayor of the city of Lakeshore. I am also the founder of a humanitarian food aid organization called Kids Against Hunger in the Brainerd Lakes area and I spend a lot of my time in retirement volunteering as well. I love being involved and I love serving people. I deeply care about our state. I deeply care about our country. Like many of you I'm frustrated by the way things are and I know they can be better. I know I can make a difference. I know I will make a difference. I'm endorsed by the MCCL, Minnesota citizens that care about life. I am pro-life. I'm endorsed by the Minnesota Farm Bureau. I'll be an advocate for agriculture. I'm endorsed by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. I will be an advocate for small business. My commitment is that I will be present in the district. I will be out in the district. I will listen and I will represent the concerns and the needs of District 9A in St. Paul. I humbly ask for your vote and I look forward to representing District 9A and the state of Minnesota. Thank you. Thank you. Our first question will come from Heidi Holton and it will be directed towards Mr. Poston. Mr. Poston, women make up half the population but not half of leadership roles especially in rural areas. As you've been meeting women voters what are their concerns and how would you encourage opportunities for women? Well I will say to you that I've had very few conversations directly about that subject but I believe it is something that we all need to pay attention to and be concerned about. In the business that I operate here in the district we are almost 50-50 male-female management people in our business and it's important that we have that equality. It's important that we have opportunities for women to grow within companies or organizations here in Minnesota. It has been out of balance that needs to change. Thank you. Do you have a rebuttal? I guess what I would add. I'll go ahead and answer the question. Yeah very sorry. So this is a great question and it is it's fascinating because as a woman who works in a school that is almost entirely served by women it's a great place to be pleased to come by and visit anytime. Really amazing people but the other part that I would add to this is that there are so many women that I speak with and that I work with and who have been integral to supporting my candidacy and my campaign that don't necessarily lead by title they lead by influence and this is one of those defining characteristics about women and leadership is that the truth is we have long led we've led in the home we've led in the community we've led in our churches we've led in many different sectors of business and society not always by title and certainly we know on a national level that we're not leading or we're not competing in terms of our salaries with men. This is an area that we need to continue to think about how do we continue to promote that. Obviously from my perspective education is one of those areas that I promote and think that that starting early when we develop our children not only our girls but also our boys to think about how women provide leadership and we give them good examples of that we also have to remember that we we want to give both men and women the opportunities to make choices. There was a point in time when my husband stayed home to take care of our children he should have that choice just as I want to be able to have that choice as well. So there are many different ways of looking at women in leadership we want to celebrate them we want to tell their stories and we want to continue to provide ways for more girls and women to enter into leadership in our schools communities and our country. Thank you Mr. Poston would you like to rebuttle? I agree that there certainly should be equality between male and female both in position and in pay and it's it's something that we're going to have to continue to work on and continue to progress forward. Thank you Miss Litz would you like to rebuttle or make any other comment? I just want to say that there are those areas again where we know that women have been underrepresented and we need to continue to look at ways that we can encourage them to be more and more involved and I think again going back to our schools we're looking at more ways that we can get students involved and particularly women in the area of STEM or STEAM science technology engineering arts and mathematics looking at ways for them to have opportunities for job experiences and to really think about themselves being mathematicians and scientists and and some roles in the technical fields that have typically been for men so we want to continue to promote that and and I think education is a fantastic way to do that. Thank you the next question will be from Zach Kaiser and it will be directed towards Miss Litz. Which presidential candidate do you support and why? Great just what we all want to talk about tonight right John the presidential race we can't get enough of it. The presidential race has been really difficult and and I know that for some of you you've already heard my stories about how it's affected me personally I am going to be voting for Hillary Clinton. I have been a big supporter of Hillary Clinton for quite a long time I believe she brings to the table a great deal of experience and expertise and she really understands what this job is going to entail. I feel very confident in voting for her. There are some other reasons why I would vote for her and why I wouldn't vote for other candidates but for now and for tonight I'm going to rest on the qualifications that Secretary Clinton brings to the table and I feel very confident that she will lead our nation to progress into a great future. Thank you Mr. Poston. I will be voting for Donald Trump. I will say that Donald wasn't my first choice back when there were 16 Republican candidates but Donald has become my choice over time. I don't like some of the things that that we've heard and seen in the press some of the things that he's that he said I certainly don't agree with. I wish he hadn't said them there are things he wished he hadn't said and that he's apologized for. I hate to see this campaign come down to that kind of a battle. He did this she did that it's got to be more substantive and it's got to be more about the topics and the things that need to change in America. Like Meg I'm not going to say anything negative about Donald's contender. I will just tell you that I will be voting for Donald Trump. Thank you. Any rebuttals? My only rebuttal would be to remind folks that the most important thing that we can do in this election is to vote and since long before I could vote I've been passionate about the fact that this is a civic right and a responsibility. I can't speak even more highly. My victory alone could be that we would have 100% voter turnout. That would be amazing. I am embarrassed at a nation that doesn't turn out to the polls and sits back and lets others make those choices for them because George Orwell warned us that if we don't think for ourselves others will do the thinking for us and we don't get to sit back and complain when we haven't stood up and made our voices heard. Our voice our vote make sure you do it this year. Thank you Mr. Poston. I agree with Meg completely. Please get out and vote and if you don't like the top of the ticket get out and vote for all the other positions but please get out and vote. Thank you. Our next question will come from Mr. Wyman and it will be directed towards Mr. Poston. What is your plan for a long-term transportation fix to ensure Minnesotans have good roads and bridges and would you support a rise in the gas tax to fund road and bridge improvements? First of all I'll start with the end of your question. I do not believe that a gas tax is the way for us to go so I would not agree with the gas tax. I think we need to tax some other things like automotive parts, automotive parts being the biggest one, tires, you know every part that you need for an automobile I think that would be a more consistent revenue stream to come in to rebuild and build new roads and bridges. I am not in favor of the southwest light rail. I think it is far too expensive for the people of Minnesota and it's a non-efficient system and that's kind of what held up our $700,000 bonding bill as it pertained to roads in this last session. So I think the future is not light rail. I think the future in the metro is probably less expensive, more efficient, more flexible buses but in rural America we need our roads and bridges for our farmers, for all the goods that come and go from Main Street in Minnesota and we've got to find a consistent way to collect tax revenue to support those things. Thank you Ms. Litz. So would I support a gas tax? While I am a progressive and a liberal, when it comes to matters that are financial I tend to be more towards the moderate side so I don't jump immediately to taxing and I certainly want to take a closer look at other opportunities for us to look for revenue that can help support the infrastructure that we so desperately always need to support not only in greater Minnesota but around the state of Minnesota. So in greater Minnesota we do need to look at how we support the bridges and the roads that transport our children, that transport people to and from our beautiful area in terms of tourism and in that industry that transport goods and services in our agribusiness and we also need to consider how we can do that more efficiently and effectively and hopefully we'll be able to have an opportunity to talk more about the support for broadband because that's actually another area for business that we must must must address. In terms of how do we do that more effectively, I disagree with Mr. Poston. I believe that light rail is not the enemy and it's not the reason that we didn't pass the bonding bills or the transportation bills. There were a lot of other leadership issues that were at play there. Furthermore I believe that we can do both and. There are parts of the region that need different transportation support and light rail is something that we actually in our region do take advantage of when we go to the cities and we have the opportunity to park and to ride and to be free of having to find parking spaces, be free of having to deal with all of the congestion and contribute to the emissions and it it does support the people that we have in our region as well. So I think there's a both and and we'll be able to continue to look for those solutions together. Thank you Mr. Poston. I talked to very few people in outstate Minnesota that use light rail. I would be for light rail if we could learn how to do it properly. The light rail that we have today, there are some facts about it that are really disturbing. Almost 40% of the people that ride the light rail do not pay to ride it. There's a subsidy on every ticket of more than twenty dollars and and that's a just a poorly managed system. It's also a slow system. I recently went to Mall of America with a friend. The friend took her car and drove to target field and I took the light rail and she beat me there. That's not how a metro light rail should work. Our rail doesn't go under things. It doesn't go over things. It stops too much. It's way too slow and it's way way too expensive for taxpayers. Thank you Ms. Litz. This is one of those areas that's been fascinating to work with John. We've had the opportunity to sit in forums together and to to share our stories and to share our perspectives. This is one of those areas that in terms of our research we vastly differ because in speaking with those who currently serve in the legislature the amount that is actually subsidized on the light rail per ticket for the blue line is a dollar eighty six per passenger for the green line is a dollar forty six per passenger. So the average subsidy is a dollar sixty seven per passenger. Our light rail fare compliance is actually closer to ninety percent than sixty percent and so that's a figure that I would also contest and again there are many of us who do use it. The purpose of using light rail or public transportation is not that we get there faster. It's that we're contributing to a better environment and that we're lessening the toll on our roads and our bridges. So there are many reasons for light rail that are far beyond getting there faster. Thank you. The next question comes from Heidi Houlton and it will be addressed to Ms. Litz. Every month the DNR identifies more lakes that are infested with one kind of invasive species or another. This is despite efforts by the DNR admirable education prevention and volunteers who monitor public access sites. What else do you think might be done and would you support testing the effectiveness of closing public access to some lakes that are not yet infested. We definitely water quality and the quality of our lakes and as as natural resources is a huge issue. My family and I have the incredible privilege of living for five years on Lake Onemia and of course in the Lake Malax area and the benefit of enjoying those beautiful lakes and many many wonderful evenings spent watching sunsets and enjoying the beauty of that area. The infestation is a challenge. There are many challenges actually to our lakes and I think that we need to take very careful study. We need to consider many different approaches to the infestation issue. We need to look around and figure out what has worked well in other areas and so closing sometimes the lakes may be the right option just as sometimes suspending the fishing for the walleye season was something that was necessary in order to help restore that lake and that population. Is it something that we all wish were the truth? No but sometimes those are the extreme measures that we have to take because we see that there has been an issue much like with the musky situation that we're facing here in our Brainerd Lakes areas so we do have to take a very close look at all of these issues continue to do the good research and continue to look at a multi-pronged approach to ensuring that we either restore or retain the good quality of the lakes that we have in our region. Thank you Mr. Poston. Our lakes are why many of us live here and why people like to come here and vacation and visit our lakes area. We have to do a better job with the transfer of invasive species from one lake to another. In my particular community in the city of Lakeshore along with the DNR our police officers monitor the access points when they're off duty. They work for the Gull Lake Association and monitor the access points and I think that has made a big difference on the Gull chain. We have the biggest access to the lake in the city of Lakeshore and by having the DNR there and by having our off-duty police officers there we believe that it's made a big difference and there probably needs to be more of that type of work done on some of the bigger lake accesses. We all need to be very concerned about it. It's again why a lot of us are here and why people come to visit this area. It drives our economy. It's important that we maintain our waters. Thank you Ms. Litch. Any rebuttals to that? The only thing that I would add would be again as we enjoy these lakes and we think about how we continue to ensure that they stay safe and that they stay viable waters for the industry and for the recreation that we so much enjoy. We need to think about telling the stories and educating the public about why this is really important and on top of that as John already said it's important that we do have partnerships that help to patrol and prevent and monitor because we know that not everybody takes the care that they need to take and that's really how we've gotten into the situation that we're in already. So continuing to do more of the same the educating as well as the monitoring is essential. Mr. Bolston any other comments? It's interesting and I'll just echo something that Meg said. Our officers and the DNR folks that are on the accesses are really there to educate. They're not there to write tickets. In fact we write very few tickets. We're there to educate and hopefully you know through that education we stop this transfer of those invasive species from one lake to another. Thank you. Our next question will be from Zach Kaiser and it will be directed towards Mr. Poston. What's the single most important social issue to you and how should the state address it? There's a lot of social issues that concern me. One that concerns me a great deal is senior citizens and senior mental health in our area of the state. In the last few years I have lost my mother and my father both to a form of dementia and my father to a brain hemorrhage and so I've gone through first handed how hard it is to find good assisted living, good nursing home care, nursing homes that do full service nursing and help the mentally ill, elderly people in our area. So that's something that's very near and dear to my heart. I went to a forum a couple of weeks ago and listened to nursing home operators, assisted living operators and people that are in the health care industry talk about this crisis in Minnesota. There's many health care crises but the elderly is quite severe and quite near and dear to my heart and very important and I will be very active and an advocate in trying to improve the services that are available. Thank you. Ms. Litz. Actually mental health is the social situation that I would say is probably one of our most important areas we must address. John's identified already one of those groups that is it's critical and I think they've been for far too long a silent group or one that's been ignored and that is our elderly. Those who are not always, the stories are not always told and not always well supported or well understood so we need to look at how do we continue to support their health care support particularly in the area of mental health. I'm also incredibly passionate about early childhood mental health. We have made some great gains in this area in the last 10 years. I'm very proud of our state for the work that we have been doing in early childhood mental health. We are leading the nation in the model that we are setting for providing those services and we have some fantastic agencies even in our own area who are actively providing services. One area like so many of the things we do well we can continue to improve upon this. Providing assessment and services for those in child care settings is an area we've yet to touch so right now we have children and families who can be turned away from child care settings due to those mental health issues and what we do know is that when we have children with mental health issues we have families who need support as well so this needs to be a comprehensive program that addresses those needs and that we're adequately funding with policy as well as with the legislative funding for these services. Thank you Mr. Bolston. With our aging population it's important that that more and more infrastructure start to be built to to care for them. When my father had his brain hemorrhage I was his caretaker and the closest facility that we could find that was full nursing care to care for him with his mental health illness was an hour and 15 minutes away and that that was a pretty tough thing you know to be his caretaker and to have to drive an hour and 15 minutes one way on a daily basis to spend time with him and to check on him and to make sure he was doing okay so we have to build more infrastructure for that night and I see it happening but Meg is also absolutely right mental health is an issue not just with the elderly but with young people and middle-aged people and with all Minnesotans and we need to improve upon on the services that we have for those folks. Thank you. Just let's see any other comments. You know I think that the whole area of health care is one where we know that we are doing amazing things in the state and again leading the nation in terms of health care services and innovations and technology. People come here from all over the world for our world class health care and mental health care is just one part of that. John has so well described the other components that go into the health care system and how we are reaching people who need that support not only in our fantastic hospitals like my own hospital and healthcare system of Lakewood and we have Ascension we have fantastic Tri-County Health in our area but we also have in-home health care and we need to continue to look at how do we support those who are providing for those who are in their most needy and who have the least a number of resources or ability to take care of themselves or to take care of relatives. I'm thankful that John was able to be there just as I'm thankful that I was able to help care for and help my father-in-law and my mother die at home not everyone's that fortunate so we need to continue to support this. Thank you. Our next question comes from Dennis Wyman it'll be directed towards Ms. Litz. According to the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities the LGA appropriation to cities across the state is 45.5 million dollars less now than it was in 2002. Would you support an increase to get back to the 2002 level? LGA or local government aid is something that we do need to look at getting back to and restoring. It is a fundamental part of how I feel committed to serving and representing and making decisions at the government level down in St. Paul to provide more opportunities for local government for the local level people to be able to make those decisions about what is best for themselves so we do need to really seriously look at how do we get local government aid back to where it was. Along with this in terms of how do we continue to support our local areas is we need to be listening to what else they need in terms of of taxes in terms of how do we provide some tax relief that way and again I'm going to come back to broadband. High-speed broadband is a critical area that we need to really address and again sometimes that seems like it's an off-topic topic to bring up here but it's not because when we're asking people to support what the infrastructure that's necessary for our local governments and our local businesses to be successful if we're not offsetting that with things like local government aid then we're putting the burden back onto the business owners and to the local governments to take care of that themselves so we do have to address this on a statewide level. Thank you Mr. Poston. I agree that local government aid is very important. Townships, cities, all municipalities need some support from time to time in various different areas and it is the responsibility of the state to step up and help. I think we have to very carefully weigh those that support with tax increases. I'm not in favor of tax increases, I'm in favor of figuring out how to do more with the tax money that we already collect and figuring out ways to take some of the fraud and abuse out of some of the programs that we already have and put it into things like local government aid. Thank you. Any rebuttal? I would just once again affirm that it's so critical and our region is such a fantastic region or district to illustrate why local government aid is essential and that we need to get back to it because the needs of Sabika and the needs of Wadena and the needs of Pillager and the needs of Lakeshore are all very different and what we want to do is to empower those local entities to make the best decisions for what their needs are so that their citizens are best served. Mr. Poston. I absolutely agree. There's a lot of differences in the communities within the district. They have different needs and I can tell you that there's a lot of good things or good ideas out there that should be put in place and would greatly enhance our communities, greatly enhance our district but these municipalities, these townships need some support to get these things done. Some good things are happening. I'm a board member for the National Joint Powers Alliance and we spread some of the wealth of that organization, if you will, out to municipalities and out to schools and you see the good things that happen when they get some of the funding that they need. They have the ideas. They know how to make things better. We just need to support them so they can get it done. Thank you. Our next question will come from Heidi Houlton and it will be directed towards Mr. Poston. There's a lot of bipartisan interest in Minnesota and around the U.S. to reform the criminal justice system. What reforms do you think we should try? A lot of areas have had success with drug courts. What do you think of that? Well, you're right and I think there probably is a case for drug courts. We are getting to the point where that takes up so much of the process, so much time of all of the local county courts, state courts, that there probably needs to be a process to streamline that a little bit and that's why some states have done that and they have also done it to look for other ways to correct drug addiction problems, drug problems that have created other crimes. And in some cases it seems to be working very well and it's something that I don't know an awful lot about but I think there's probably a need to look into it and I would be very interested in being involved and seeing what other states have done, what works and what hasn't. And whatever has been working steals some of it for right here in Minnesota. Thank you, Ms. Litz. Well, when it comes to our criminal justice system it's a very complex system and while drug courts may sound like they're a great approach to start with, what concerns me probably even more is are we taking a comprehensive approach to looking at the complexity of what happens in homes, in lives where drug abuses is going on. As John Welle said, there are so many other crimes that result and that are partnered with the drug use and our approach has to be multi-layered because that's how we're really going to bring about that comprehensive change. Drug courts may be one part of that approach. Something that I want to celebrate though about what we do in a state and in this region, we have the Brainard Lakes Area Early Childhood Coalition and they do an amazing job of outreach to our prison systems to making sure that prisoners who are in those systems are learning how to be effective parents, have the opportunities to help their children to develop literacy skills and even moving forward, we're looking at how to develop groups that once they're on the outside, it's called an inside-out program, how do we support their ongoing success as a father, a mother to be able to be that effective parent with their children. So that's one of the other bigger issues that comes along when we have people in the criminal justice system, particularly with drug use, how do we help them to come back and have that reformed, that healthy, that whole life with their families. Thank you, Mr. Poston. I've seen first-handed drug addiction and alcohol addiction miracles happen with people. I volunteer at Central Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge and it's a Christian faith-based rehabilitation program and I've just seen time and time again someone go into that program and not go into jail and come out of that program 12 to 13 months later and become a successful, important, vibrant part of our society. I've seen huge changes in the students in the past five years that have gone through that program and come out and become very productively back into our society. Thank you, Ms. Litz. Again, I think John and I are very much in agreement that when we look at our criminal justice system, there is a place for prisons. There is a place for our justice system to to charge people with the crimes and ask them to pay and to pay restitution for what they have done. More importantly, I believe in the sanctity of those lives as being able to contribute to our communities and to our society and I believe fundamentally that's what all of us want, that human dignity, that ability to give back. So less about making sure that people are put away and removed and more about how are we making sure that they can be viable and effective productive citizens back in our communities. Thank you. The next question is from Zach Kaiser. It will be directed towards Ms. Litz. Heidi, I covered this a little bit in her question already, but I was wondering how should police procedures specifically be reformed, especially in the context of the deaths of Black men like Jamar Clark and Fondo Castile, Black Miss Ottens? Hmm. Wow. A very complex, multifaceted question. One of the things I've done in my past life is I've taught for a master's program, I taught ethics. And when we talk about this issue, ethics are certainly at play. And so is morality. And what we all would know and agree is you can't legislate morality, that there are things that you simply cannot force people to do and to believe. And people act in ways that sometimes are deeply rooted in beliefs, in fear and in ignorance and sometimes in hatred. And that's very difficult to legislate against. Once that we are facing crimes, of course, we have to think about how do we prosecute that. I think one of the bigger things we need to do is to continue to have conversations about what we're creating with our gun laws and what's the fear that we're creating about between law enforcement and all citizens. Because I don't believe this is just about Black lives, but I absolutely believe Black lives matter. And we must, as a nation, address this issue. For far too long, we have not valued this and we have tried to even cover over the importance of this issue when we say all lives matter. But Black lives matter. And we do need to address this issue and think about how it affects us not just on a national scale, but right here in Minnesota. And we've seen some examples of that in a very recent past and need to consider how do we continue to open up the conversation. Again, working with the MLAX band, we would have listening sessions. And sometimes those are the most powerful times of being able to actually hear one another. Not listening to respond and waiting so that we can talk, but really listening so that we can truly hear one another and find answers together. Thank you, Mr. Poston. I agree with Meg. It's not really about Black lives matters, although they do. And all lives matter. I think there's a education component here that we have to help our police officers, help our law enforcement better deal with some of these issues that are out there in the world today. I know our police forces in North Central Minnesota are starting to get some training as far as it pertains to immigrants coming into the area and getting some training as far as some of these protests and some of these things that we've never seen in this neck of the woods, so to speak. So educating and supporting our law enforcement is very important. Thank you, Ms. Litz. I had the opportunity to live in a number of different communities in the state. It's been a great honor. In some of those communities, there's deeply seated fear and prejudice, often rooted in ignorance. I've lived in communities where the Confederate flag is worn and flown and displayed regularly. People not understanding how offensive it is, not only to Black lives, but to all lives, to those of us who cringe at the sight of the hatred that that displays. Education really is important and we have to continue to do that. I'm proud of our school board chair at my school who is a sergeant on one of the police forces and who's taught for the police program here at CLC. I know that our police are being trained not only to handle the weapons and also to interrogate, but to be kind and to handle people with compassion. I've seen that firsthand and I believe that that is what we need to be able to do. Mr. Poston. Compassion training is very, very important. Education is very important for our law enforcement and for all of our civic leaders, all of our mayors, all of our council people, everybody that's involved with the public needs this change, this training. Times are changing and we've got to learn to adapt and we've got to have that dialogue to make things better. Thank you. The next question comes from Dennis Wyman and it will be directed to our Mr. Poston. What do you see as the biggest education issues facing rural Minnesota schools and what would you do to help even out the funding disparity between metro schools and rural schools? Well I think the biggest difference in rural school schools and metro schools is we need to somehow equalize the funding between the metro schools and and out state. I don't have an answer for that but I know it's something that we're going to have to work through and we're going to have to get done. Metro schools seem to have a step up on rural Minnesota schools and we have to fix that. I firmly believe that our state should be in charge of schools not the federal government. I think we should withdraw from Common Core. I don't think that is serving us well. I think we need to listen more to our administrators and to our principals and ultimately I believe that our parents are responsible for their child's education. I think public schools are important. I think private schools, charter schools are important and I think homeschooling are important. All of those issues need to be addressed and we can do a better job than we currently do. Thank you. Ms. Litz? Well I find it interesting that we're asking a question about comparing funding of rural schools to those of the metro area. I think there are some fabulous things that are going on and John already talked about NJPA, National Joint Powers Alliance and I had the great privilege of working for NJPA in the Education Solutions Division for two years getting to work with all the schools in this region. There are some amazing innovations that are happening and that we can really celebrate and the cool part about it is that they are really tailored towards those different regions and so while we can talk about things like steam and stem programs they can be unique to the different areas. I know for example in parts of our area there's no way that you would be able to do just a stem program if you didn't have the arts involved as well because arts are integral to those communities and we need to make sure we're looking at how do we open up funding so again much like local government aid we're giving that power back to the different regions and to the districts to be able to make those decisions. I am a proponent of having standards that all students are held towards and that we are supported in and that also includes the training and the support and the resources for our teachers so that they are better able to do the amazing job that they are doing with our children. There's some areas for testing to be changed and we've been a nation leader in that area in terms of our waiver that we had under the No Child Left Behind Act and now with ESSA continuing to lead the nation and how do we do this better really focusing in on growth for our kids. So how do we continue to fund it? Funding's tricky because we can't talk about equity because the same number of dollars out here are not necessarily what are going to help support our students when we have greater need. Sometimes the cost of educating a child in greater Minnesota in our region is going to be more than what it costs in a metro area and that's where I think we need to look at access and equity not necessarily equal dollar amounts. Thank you Mr. Paulston. Meg and I sound like an NJPA commercial but we're both very proud of our affiliation with the National Joint Powers Alliance. I will just say that when I see what they do for our schools and I see what it means to the children whatever the program it is you get a sense for how meaningful it is. The NJPA does a lot in our five county area. They do a lot in the state of Minnesota and there are other organizations that do as well but that's a small part of what's needed. The state is going to have to pick up and support the schools more in the future than we certainly are today and we have in the past. Thank you Ms. Litz. So we have some great programs out here that we can continue to support and one of those areas that's been most challenging for rural Minnesota more so than Metro is access to those post-secondary institutions to be able to do some innovative programs and provide our high school students and even our middle school students with opportunities to be part of fantastic programs that we have in this region like the Bridges program from CLC like Minsep giving dual credit to students in high school taking college classes. Those are fantastic innovations and we need to continue to build on those. Special education funding is a huge one for the entire state. We cannot continue to have unfunded mandates that come down to us from the federal level or from the state level and I'm passionate about that because we can't support effective programs if we don't have effective funding. Thank you. This will be our last question. It will be from Heidi Holton and it will be directed towards Ms. Litz. So one of you is going to become the representative of District 9A and you're going to go to St. Paul and you're going to represent not just the people who voted for you you're going to represent the entire district down there and those people that live there have different viewpoints. If we take the Dakota pipeline issue as an example there are people that care very deeply about sacred land clean water and alternative energy. On the other hand we live in rural areas and people need jobs. How do you handle things like that? Just to interrupt you we'll have this as your last question to answer without rebuttals just because of our time. Fantastic. Heidi I love this question because it really gets at the heart of what is true. While I am passionate about serving the people of our district and making sure everyone's stories are heard and represented for the betterment of the lives and livelihoods of the people of District 9A I am going to be a legislature legislator in a legislature that supports all Minnesotans so we have to carefully listen to all of the needs and the considerations. It would be great for us to stand up here and try to make promises about how we will use tax funds and how we will use general fund monies to be able to support all programs particularly for our region. The reality is we have a finite amount of money and we have to make really effective decisions about how to utilize those. Sometimes they tend to be favoring those of us here in this region. There are going to be times that there are parts of bills that favor or that support activities around other parts of the state. That is exactly how good government is conducted and so we have to listen carefully and listen to the needs and the interests and talk very much collaboratively and I am committed to being in a very working bipartisan across the aisle so that we can make sure that all people are supported by our policies, by our funding and to make sure to come back and having shared the stories from our district with those in in St. Paul coming back and being able to share the stories about how the decisions that we made are really affecting all of Minnesota. Thank you very much Mr. Poston. I agree with Meg. Our job will be to represent not only District 9A but to represent the state of Minnesota. I think we have to go to St. Paul with what our constituents are telling us are important to them in the district but we have to look at the bigger picture of what's important in Minnesota. I also would work in a very bipartisan way across the aisle to get things done. I think that's the biggest problem today in government is that there's not enough bipartisan working together to make things happen to get things done to make Minnesota better. So I certainly would be reaching across the aisle. I certainly would be looking out for all of Minnesota. The pipeline issue is a real complex one. You're right. About half the people think it's a great idea because they think it's a more efficient, safer way to move oil and the other half are concerned environmentally about it. So it's a tough issue and it's one that before I voted on I would certainly spend a lot of time talking to the people in the district about their feelings because I know it's not just my feelings but it's my job to represent the people of the district. Thank you very much. That brings us to our closing statements. You each have two minutes for your closing statement and we'll start with you Mr. Poston. Okay thank you very much. Thank you sponsors for putting on this event tonight and thank you Meg. For about the last 10 months I've been campaigning out in district 9A and I've been walking in parades and I've been visiting fairs and I've been going to community events and I've been going to community forums and I've been knocking on lots and lots of doors and I've been meeting lots and lots of people and I have a lot of new friends from doing this. I've enjoyed every minute of the campaign. I have listened to the district's concerns and I feel that I'm ready to represent district 9A. I feel that my experience and my passion for our state and serving others makes me the right candidate for the position and again I would just humbly ask for your vote on November 8th and thank you for having me here this evening. Thank you Miss Litz. It has been an amazing campaign. It's a great opportunity to meet all the people in our region and to really hear their stories. I'm passionate about that and I'm passionate about making sure that those stories are taken to St. Paul so that we are truly represented at the legislature and really want to take back the house for rural Minnesota. That's one of my commitments and I know that I'm incredibly honored to be endorsed by the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the Minnesota Nurses Union, as well as Education Minnesota and that's exactly how I know that I will represent the people of this region and of the state is that I won't go alone. I will go representing these people and I will have the backing of many important groups and many stakeholders to whom I can turn when there are critical issues and bills to be decided upon. That's my commitment to the people of this region. If you talk to people who've worked with me in various schools and districts where I've lived and worked and raised my family, you will hear them say and this is what I tell people when they want my three-minute elevator speech, why should I vote for you? I'm one of the hardest working people that you will ever meet and I am passionate about people. I want to make sure that we do right by the people of this region and I will work hard and tirelessly for you. I'm not going to miss a vote and I'm going to show up and that's my commitment because I am passionate about making sure that government is of the people, by the people, and for the people. Thank you very much both of candidates this evening for sharing your views with our viewers. We appreciate it very much. If you missed any portion of the first or the second debate this evening you may see it again tomorrow on our website, Lakeland Public Television, lptv.org. It takes 24 hours to get it posted on our website and then you can see that. You may also go to the Brainard Dispatch tomorrow for a wrap up or you may go to their website brainardispatch.com or if you want to hear an audio portion of either of these debates this evening go to kaxe.org to hear that. I'd like to remind you also that tomorrow night we will be introducing candidates for the senate district 10 debate at seven o'clock tomorrow night and also at 10 o'clock watch your only channel with your local news, Lakeland Public Television. Thank you and good evening.