The Mankato Free Press praised Sen. Franken's work to ensure that schools provide access to critical mental health treatment for kids who need and deserve these services.

We applaud Connecticut, Franken and Sheran for wanting to focus on mental health as a major focus for change. Both are valiantly trying to raise awareness of the inadequacy of the system even after Wellstone's parity law continues to languish at the federal level - a fact Connecticut cites as a problem and one which still gets short shrift in Wellstone's home state.

Experts have pleaded for years that we need to cut down drastically the number of people who go undiagnosed or untreated. "Part of lowering those barriers (to access) is making mental health services more widely available," said Carolyn Drazinic, president-elect of Connecticut Psychiatric Society. Franken did caution that "I in no way want to stigmatize mental illness because the vast, vast, vast majority of people with mental illness are no more violent than the general population."

To read the whole editorial by the Mankato Free Press click here. To read more about Sen. Franken's Mental Health in Schools Act click here.