Franken serious about politics

CHRISTINE RUPP — Sentinel Staff Writer
FAIRMONT — Al Franken’s sense of humor is evident as he talks about everything from renewable energy to education reform, but it’s obvious comedy has taken a back seat to politics as he seeks the Democratic party’s nomination to run against Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.

While Franken is probably best known for his stint with “Saturday Night Live” and his best-selling books, including “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right,” he is serious when it comes to the issues and to opposing Coleman in November’s election.

He has spent time touring various parts of the state and recently visited rural southern Minnesota.

One of the biggest issues in rural Minnesota is the 2007 Farm Bill, which recently passed in both the U.S. House and Senate with enough votes to override President Bush’s veto. There was, however, a glitch as several pages of the bill focusing on international food aid and trade were missing due to a printing error.

While Franken said he didn’t know much at this time about the error, he did praise Congress for enacting the new bill.

“It’s going to happen, and that’s good,” he said.

Although not perfect, the bill is a big achievement, he added.

“You’re never going to get a perfect bill.”

Rural development has to be important to not just rural Minnesota, but to the country at large, he said.

A supporter of renewable energy, Franken praised the farm bill for its focus on developing not only current sources of energy, such as wind and ethanol, but also for seeking out new sources. And there needs to be an investment in both alternative energy and energy efficiency, he added.

On his Web site — www.alfranken.com — Franken writes, “Renewable energy is win-win-win-win-win, and we should back it not only with our words, but with our resources.”

Another area Franken is concerned about is education.

Franken said he has received the endorsement of Wendell “Wendy” Anderson, former Minnesota governor and U.S. senator, who felt that school funding and quality of education should not be based on the property wealth of an area.

Anderson was one of the driving forces behind the Minnesota Miracle of 1971, which reformed the state’s property tax system to equalize education funding and put more responsibility for that funding on the state.

The system has since reverted to more reliance on property taxes, and Franken says he sees rural communities shutting down after they lose school or kindergarten programs.

It’s important to make sure that kind of stuff does not happen, he said. Such efforts, Franken said, might include loan forgiveness for teachers who work in underserved communities.

At the federal level, Franken said he wants to see the government fully fund mandates.

“No Child Left Behind should be fully funded and radically changed, or we should get rid of it,” he said.

He also stressed the importance of early childhood education and parental support, referring specifically to the Dakota Healthy Families program in Dakota County.

The voluntary program identifies parents at risk and gives them the tools and support they need to raise their children through their toddler years.

The program pays for itself, Franken said, in the reduced number of child abuse cases.

He said he would want to institute a similar early childhood program at the federal level.

“This kind of investment would pay off and pay off very quickly.”

Finally, Franken focused on health care.

He said there are more specialists in the United States than there are primary care physicians, which is one of the reasons Americans pay twice as much for health care per person than other industrialized countries.

“We need to put money into preventative care to lower the costs of health care,” he said, suggesting that loan forgiveness be used to get more doctors into the general care field and to get those doctors to underserved areas of the country.

And when the troops come home from Iraq — which Franken hopes will be sooner rather than later — he wants them to come home to the best health care in the world.