MARSHALL — Education and public safety were a couple of key issues gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen spoke about at the Lyon County Republican dinner on Friday. But Jensen also got into a little more detail about his positions on some of those topics during an interview with the Independent earlier in the day.

“I think public safety is huge, I think the economy is huge,” Jensen said of key issues this election. “Clearly we need to let miners mine, and we need to let farmers farm. In our school systems we need to be absolutely aware of how important it is to let teachers teach.”

When it came to education in Minnesota, Jensen said. “We need to fund kids, and not broken institutions.”

“I think it’s time now to make sure that, if parents are frustrated with the opportunities for their kids based on their zip code, let’s make sure that they’re not constrained. Let’s make sure that they indeed get a chance to succeed,” he said.

Jensen said he had also heard some concerns around the state about school curriculum. There was an important distinction between “foundational education” and indoctrination, he said.

“I think parents want to know what the curriculum is, I think they want their kids to get a foundational education, so their kids can read, write, do arithmetic and know basic American history that’s not being rewritten,” he said. Jensen said he’s heard concerns about critical race theory, as well as “hypersexualization” of children in elementary and middle-school grades.

Jensen said he believed in transparency for parents who wanted to know more about their children’s school curriculum.

Jensen also spoke about his position on abortion rights in Minnesota. Abortion rights are not an issue on the ballot in Minnesota, and not an issue that the Minnesota governor would have an affect on, he said.

“The (Minnesota) Supreme Court has already interpreted the constitution to provide for a constitutionally-protected right to access to abortion,” Jensen said.