Justice Alan Page Visits a St. Cloud Elementary School [PHOTOS]
ST. CLOUD -- A big name in Minnesota visited students at a St. Cloud elementary school on Tuesday.
Former Minnesota Vikings Defensive Lineman and Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice Alan Page stopped by Lincoln Elementary School to read to third, fourth, and fifth-grade students.
Page has written four books with his daughter who is a second-grade teacher in the Twin Cities and says a lifetime of success begins in the classroom.
Those youngsters are our future. They're gonna be the Alan Page's of tomorrow. They have to be prepared, they have to be encouraged and motivated, and understand that what they're doing in the classroom today really matters. If they prepare themselves well and seek excellence, they can really achieve whatever their hopes and dreams may be.
Later in the afternoon Page, along with Minnesota Humanities Center CEO Kevin Lindsey, and Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari, also made a stop at Promise Neighborhood of Central Minnesota.
While there, they held a community conversation to promote a bill that would amend the language in the state’s constitution. Kashkari says they have been traveling the state working to address education inequity in Minnesota.
All children in Minnesota deserve a quality public education, but not all students are getting it. We have proposed amending Minnesota's state constitution to create a civil right for every Minnesota child to get a quality public education. We think that that can lead to transformational change to elevate all of the students in Minnesota, and we want to highlight this as we travel the state.
They say action needs to be taken to close the education gap, particularly among students of color, indigenous students, and low-income students. The hope is to have the bill added to the next legislative session and voted on in 2022.
Page played for the Minnesota Vikings from 1967 until 1978, and the Chicago Bears from 1978 until 1981. He then went on to serve on the Minnesota Supreme Court from 1993 until his retirement in 2015.