Minnesota Senate vote to reopen schools lays out partisan divide

The Minnesota Senate has approved a renewed Republican attempt to rescind Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s emergency authority to close schools amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The GOP-controlled Senate passed the bill 40-27 on Thursday.

It came one day after Walz announced a plan to speed up the return of students to school for in-person classes.

The vote was largely symbolic. The Democratic-controlled House rejected a similar proposal last week. It’s rebuffed all previous Republican attempts to revoke the governor’s emergency powers.

But it was a sign of the continuing deep partisan divisions over how the state should respond to the pandemic.