Week in Review and Week in Preview. A lot of territory got covered last week in terms of the discussion of education issues. The Senate Education Committee talked everything from a relaxation of home school regulations to the pay freeze (along with mandate relief).

The House Education Reform Committee took testimony on Tuesday from the Minnesota Board of Teaching and Dr. Misty Sato from the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. On Thursday, after listening to the report Getting Prepared: A 2010 Report on Recent High School Graduates Who Took Developmental/Remedial Courses presented by representatives of MNSCU. One of the least known, but perhaps most contentious issues, facing education today is the number of high school graduates who are needing remedial course work to put themselves in a position to succeed at the post-secondary level.

Link to Report: http://www.mnscu.edu/media/publications/pdf/gettingprepared10.pdf

After listening to this report, the House Education Reform Committee tackled HFs 92 (Downey) and 115 (Barrett), proposals that would repeal the January 15 negotiating deadline and related $25 per pupil unit penalty. I testified, along with Chisago Lakes Superintendent Mike McLaughlin, in favor of HF 115.

The gist of my testimony was rather straightforward, but I tossed in an angle that was pointed out by the memorandum that accompanied the bill that I believe is grossly under-appreciated in this debate. Unlike what I would term pure labor negotiations, teacher/school board negotiations are a bit distorted. Only in a rare (extremely rare) instance can a school district allow a strike and replace all of the striking employees. That is because teachers are licensed employees and it would be extremely difficult for a school district to be in a situation where available replacement employees could be readily located to fill the slots vacated during a strike. I'm not arguing for lowering teacher licensure standards, but only pointing out that collective bargaining issues get a bit stickier in industries where licensing creates a barrier for employment. The January 15 deadline distorts the system to an even greater extent by putting an artificial deadline in place and should be removed.

The House Education Finance Committee continued to receive testimony from a variety of education organizations pertaining to their legislative priorities. Included in those organizations were the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF), the Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA), the Center for School Change, Charter School Partners, and the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools.

On Thursday, the House Education Finance Committee approved Representative Garofalo's HF 63 relating to alternative licensure before turning to Representative Connie Doepke's (R-Wayzata) HF 88, a bill that would repeal the maintenance-of-effort requirement for guidance counselors, school social workers, school nurses, and other support personnel partially funded through the $3 per pupil unit set-aside in the safe schools levy. Faribault business manager Colleen Mertesdorf testfied on behalf of the Minnesota Association of School Business Officials. There was no final vote on the bill as time expired and the bill was laid over until next Tuesday. I will be testifying in support of Representative Doepke's bill at that time. The issue is not with the $3 per pupil unit set-aside. I doubt there is a district in the state that doesn't spend well in excess of that amount of revenue on the employees that fall under the auspices of the maintenance-of-eff0rt provision in the law.

The problem is the maintenance-of-effort greatly reduces the flexibility that school districts have in dealing with tight budgets. Further, because the maintenance-of-effort requires that expenditures remain at least at the level of the previous year's expenditures in the employee classifications protected by the provision. In other words, if an experienced counselor or social worker retired, hiring a less expensive alternative is not allowed; the same amount of service costing less is not permitted. Another problem arises when districts choose to move counseling and other support services from an individual district model to purchasing the services from a cooperative. A district doing that would be cited as not meeting the requirements of current law even though the amount of revenue dedicated to these support services would be the same. Lastly, the maintenance-of-effort provision may actually serve as a disincentive for districts to hire counselors, psychologists, nurses and social workers, especially on a short-term basis, as the maintenance-of-effort provision prevents districts from laying off these employees once hired.

I will also be presenting SEE's 2011 legislative platform at Tuesday's meeting of the House Education Finance Committee. I'm looking forward to putting forward our recommendations and have a chance to discuss our constitutional concerns and how these concerns don't necessitate litigation against the state. Constitutions in their creation are the result of discussion and their on-going application is also the result of discussion. It is my hope that the points in our platform will elicit the type and level of discussion that can make certain that Minnesota's education system is providing access to high quality educational opportunities to students throughout the state.

This Week's Playlist. It really hit me this week as I watched debate on the House and Senate floors and in committees that there has been a ton of change. Insert your own "Well, duh Brad!" comment here. A lot of new legislators. A ton of new staff. A few new procedures. It all makes for an interesting stew. It's taking some getting used to, but this week's playlist is all about change, as each title has the word "change" or some permutation of it, in the title. If this doesn't help get you with the new program, I don't know what will.

Track #1: "Change of the Guard" by Steely Dan

Track #2: "Changes" by David Bowie

Track #3: "Things Have Changed" by Bob Dylan

Track #4: "I'd Love to Change the World" by Ten Years After

Track #5: "You've Changed" by Billie Holliday

Track #6: "Changes" by Bernard Purdie (instrumental version of the Buddy Miles' hit).

Track #7: "Time Changes Everything" by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys

Track #8: "Same Changes" by Sam Phillips

Track #9: "Changed Your Mind" by Chris Isaak

Track #10: "Change Partners" by Ella Fitzgerald (not the Steven Stills song)

Track #11: "Change of Heart" by Change (takes me back to the old Classic Motor Company)

Track #12: "It's Been a Change" by Solomon Burke

Track #13: "You Can't Change That" by Raydio (I once met Ray Parker Jr. Impressed?)

Track #14: "You're Gonna Change" by Hank Williams, Sr. (not Jr. or III)

Track #15: "Seasons Change" by Corrine Bailey Rae (to prove I have music from post-2000)

Track #16: "Change of Heart" by Eric Carmen (different song from Change's)

Track #17: "Wind of Change" by Peter Frampton

Track #18: "A Change" by Aretha Franklin

Track #19: "Everything Must Change" by Quincy Jones

Track #20: "A Change is Gonna Come" by The Band (the old Sam Cooke song re-done)

It's a nice mix to listen to while driving around and, corny as it sounds, some of the lyrics of these songs indirectly hit at a lot of the change we are facing. Anyway, next mix coming up next Friday!

Week Four is in the Books. Things are picking up a bit at the Legislature and the first showdown is looming. The House of Representatives passed HF 130 late yesterday afternoon by a vote of 68-63. HF 130 is the bill that formalizes the one-time reductions made at the end of last session to balance the state budget. The debate on the bill didn't go as long as many anticipated. There were no floor amendments offered and the debate was very concise.

HF 130 now moves to the Senate, where its companion--SF 60--is currently on the Senate floor. HF 130 will be substituted on Monday and it's my guess that the bill will pass at that time. It will then proceed to the Governor where it will be greeted by a veto.

There appears to be a couple of different reasons for a likely (make that near certain) veto. While I assume the Governor objects to a number of elements (DFLers in the Legislature argue that property taxes will rise and critical services, both state and local, will suffer) in the SF 60/HF 130, another angle on this is that the Governor has stated he wants the budget shortfall issue solved in one set of measures passed within a tight window of time. The House and Senate seem to be subscribing to a phased approach that would send various budget-balancing measures to the Governor one at a time and over a much wider time frame.

It's important to remember that process can often have as many political angles as policy and if this is at all frustrating to voters of either party, it's important to remember that this doesn't reach the level of inane discussion of that surrounded the decision of what shape the table should have been at the Paris Peace Talks as the Vietnam War wound down. The dance will continue and I am optimistic that an agreement (perhaps not a happy agreement) will be reached by the end of the session or in a special session. The issues the state is facing are major and there may be some paradigmatic changes in how government services are paid for and delivered as a result of our budget crisis. So, a healthy dose of patience is in order.

Not a Heavily Scheduled Wednesday, but Things Got Done. Two education-related meetings at the Legislature today. The House Education Finance Committee took testimony from two charter school-related organizations: Charter School Partners (represented by Brian Sweeney) and the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools (represented by Gene Piccolo). Also testifying was Joe Nathan from the Center for School Change.

Not a whole lot to report. The quality bug seems to have infected the charter and choice movement to the same extent as with other parts of the education system. As I wrote the other day, one of my major concerns with the education reform movement over the years, especially as it relates to choice, is that "choice" and "difference" seem to be as much the goal as achievement itself.

Many of you have heard me use this example before, but for those who haven't, when William Bennett spearheaded "A Nation at Risk" in the early-1980s, he made it clear that the movement was all about high standards for everyone and pushed--albeit a bit on the acerbic side--for higher levels of achievement and more rigor in curricular offerings. I was working on education issues at the legislature during this period and the Legislative Commission on Public Education commissioned a study of parents and community leaders on their feelings regarding their schools. The findings were, in brief, although some folks had concerns about achievement levels, everyone pretty much "liked" their local schools and thought that the problem with public education lie elsewhere in the system (the old "I hate Congress, but love my member of Congress" argument). Here we sit almost 30 years later and the shoe is on the other foot to some extent. When parents of charter school students are informed that their particular charter isn't doing that well, many of those parents say "We like our charter school." A lot of this reinforces the "soft" nature of measuring satisfaction in public education and how quantitative measurement is only part of the gig when trying to determine the how consumers view the quality of the experience at the school their children attend.

It is refreshing to see the charter movement taking the next step and being very diligent about measuring achievement levels in their schools and taking aggressive steps to improve achievement at those charter schools they view as under-performing.

The only other things to report from the hearing is that Joe Nathan hailed the report from the Center for American Progress that I kind of gave the backhand to in the blog last week and Gene Piccolo spoke out for increased equalization of the referendum. Say what (you say)? Yes, because equalization aid follows students to charter schools from school districts that qualify for equalization, the erosion of equalization aid due to the failure by the Legislature to adjust the referendum equalizing factors upward to account for property value growth means less money for charter schools. Always nice to have another ally, even when it's when that is unexpected.

The Senate Education Committee heard two bills. The first, Senator David Hann's SF 55, extended the deadline from June 30, 2011, to June 30, 2012, for a charter school authorizer prior to August 1, 2009, to apply to the Commissioner of Education to continue as an authorizer. The committee then turned to SF 69, Senator Gen Olson's bill that relieves some of the mandates that face home schools and school districts that deal with home schools. SF 69 was amended and re-referred to the Senate Finance Committee with a recommendation to pass as amended.

Came Across This Interesting Little Item. The standards debate is taking place throughout the entire country and this little animated video from Rhode Island linked by The Washington Post shows that the tussle over a high-stakes test proposed for students in that state. A lot of the same points have been made here over various testing efforts, but never quite as cleverly as in this video.

Link: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/standardized-tests/how-a-single-test-can-change-a.html

It's videos like this that are just one more reason to sign up for Twitter. Since I've signed on with the service, I'm getting a lot of great notifications from the sources that I follow. It's not an intrusive service (like Facebook) as you "follow" whomever you want and you never have to post a thing. There are a number of great education-related sites that send out articles (particularly Education Week). I'm not a great proponent of a lot of the new social media, but count me as sold on Twitter.

Not a Heavily Scheduled Wednesday, but Things Got Done. Two education-related meetings at the Legislature today. The House Education Finance Committee took testimony from two charter school-related organizations: Charter School Partners (represented by Brian Sweeney) and the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools (represented by Gene Piccolo). Also testifying was Joe Nathan from the Center for School Change.

Not a whole lot to report. The quality bug seems to have infected the charter and choice movement to the same extent as with other parts of the education system. As I wrote the other day, one of my major concerns with the education reform movement over the years, especially as it relates to choice, is that "choice" and "difference" seem to be as much the goal as achievement itself.

Many of you have heard me use this example before, but for those who haven't, when William Bennett spearheaded "A Nation at Risk" in the early-1980s, he made it clear that the movement was all about high standards for everyone and pushed--albeit a bit on the acerbic side--for higher levels of achievement and more rigor in curricular offerings. I was working on education issues at the legislature during this period and the Legislative Commission on Public Education commissioned a study of parents and community leaders on their feelings regarding their schools. The findings were, in brief, although some folks had concerns about achievement levels, everyone pretty much "liked" their local schools and thought that the problem with public education lie elsewhere in the system (the old "I hate Congress, but love my member of Congress" argument). Here we sit almost 30 years later and the shoe is on the other foot to some extent. When parents of charter school students are informed that their particular charter isn't doing that well, many of those parents say "We like our charter school." A lot of this reinforces the "soft" nature of measuring satisfaction in public education and how quantitative measurement is only part of the gig when trying to determine the how consumers view the quality of the experience at the school their children attend.

It is refreshing to see the charter movement taking the next step and being very diligent about measuring achievement levels in their schools and taking aggressive steps to improve achievement at those charter schools they view as under-performing.

The only other things to report from the hearing is that Joe Nathan hailed the report from the Center for American Progress that I kind of gave the backhand to in the blog last week and Gene Piccolo spoke out for increased equalization of the referendum. Say what (you say)? Yes, because equalization aid follows students to charter schools from school districts that qualify for equalization, the erosion of equalization aid due to the failure by the Legislature to adjust the referendum equalizing factors upward to account for property value growth means less money for charter schools. Always nice to have another ally, even when it's unexpected.

The Senate Education Committee heard two bills. The first, Senator David Hann's SF 55, extended the deadline from June 30, 2011, to June 30, 2012, for a charter school authorizer prior to August 1, 2009, to apply to the Commissioner of Education to continue as an authorizer. The committee then turned to SF 69, Senator Gen Olson's bill that relieves some of the mandates that face home schools and school districts that deal with home schools. SF 69 was amended and re-referred to the Senate Finance Committee with a recommendation to pass as amended.

Came Across This Interesting Little Item. The standards debate is taking place throughout the entire country and this little cartoon

Another Wall-to-Wall Tuesday. Tuesday is clearly education day at the Capitol, with each of the K-12-related committees scheduled to meet and meet they did today. The House Education Policy Committee kicked off the proceedings with more testimony related to teacher training and assessment. The centerpiece of today's discussion was the Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) Program and Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium (TPAC).

TPA is a partnership between the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT). 20 states have joined the TPAC, with six of these states--including Minnesota--being accelerated states. Initial development of the Teacher Performance Assessment was led by national teacher education leaders Linda Darling-Hammond and Ray Pecheone, both of Stanford University.

The presentation on TPAC was given by Minnesota Board of Teaching Executive Director Karen Balmer and University of Minnesota Education Professor Dr. Misty Sato. It was a very informative hearing that again shows how Minnesota is trying to enhance teacher effectiveness.

The early afternoon brought us to the House Education Finance Committee and testimony from the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF) and the Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA) describing their goals for the 2011 session. MELF has been extremely active in the promotion of pre-kindergarten education and their primary goal in the years ahead is to make certain that the progress Minnesota has made in raising program quality and improving access to quality pre-school programs is not lost during these tight budget times.

MSBA's testimony outlined their primary goals which largely center on mandate relief, but their conversation also touched on Minnesota's constitution and the need to make certain that Minnesota remain committed to making certain that an adequate and equitable funding system. This segment of the exchange between chief MSBA lobbyist Grace Kelliher and legislators really set up my testimony, which is scheduled for next Tuesday, February 1. I'm really looking forward to picking up this discussion where the legislators left off.

Like the main event at a boxing match, the main event of the education discussion for the day was held last in the Senate Education Committee, where the discussion centered on mandate reform in general and SF 56 (Thompson-R-Lakeville) in specific. SF 56 has four very focused sections dealing with cost containment for schools. The four initiatives contained in the bill are: (1) repeal of the January 15 negotiating deadline, (2) repeal of the reserved revenue in the safe schools levy for school counselors, school nurses, school social workers, and school psychologists and the maintenance-of-effort provision in that section of the law that prevents school districts from lowering expenditures on these positions, (3) repeal of the 2% staff development reserve and the distribution of this reserve on a 50% to sites, 25% for district exemplary programs, and 25% for district-wide staff development efforts, and (4) the grand-daddy of all the provisions in the bill, the statewide school personnel salary freeze.

Testimony on the bill was both straightforward and predictable. Management likes the bill, labor not so much. Included in those speaking on behalf of the bill were two administrators with ties to SEE: St. Michael-Albertville Superintendent Marcia Ziegler and St. Francis Director of Human Resources Jay Reker. Speaking against the bill were representatives from Education Minnesota, the Minnesota School Counselors Association, and SEIU.

The bill passed on a straight party-line vote and now heads to the full Senate Finance Committee. Because there is only one education committee in the Senate, there is no need to move a bill--either policy- or funding-related--from one education committee to another (which will have to be done in the House).

It appears that the Republican majorities in the Legislature are going to try and move a number of major mandate-reduction and budget-cutting measures onto the Governor before he releases his budget on February 15. Doing so will likely result in vetoes, as Governor Dayton is on record as wanting to deal with the entire solution to the $6.2 billion budget shortfall in one broad stroke instead of a larger number of more discrete measures. In other words, we'll likely to see some gridlock, although it appears it will be polite gridlock as no one, at least up to this point, has not not used their inside voice.

Lighter day tomorrow, but I'll be reporting on it nonetheless.

MinnCAN joins the scene. Another organization joined the Minnesota education reform debate yesterday, as MinnCAN held a kick-off press conference in the Capitol rotunda on Monday morning. The primary focus of MinnCAN appears to be assurance of teacher quality through aggressive evaluation of teacher performance, but I am certain they will engage in a number of elements surrounding Minnesota's education system.

Teacher quality is undoubtedly important and it's the issue that is creating the greatest amount of buzz in the education debate. The early debate at the Legislature this session has centered on alternative teacher preparation along with the assessment of current classroom teachers. How MinnCAN throws itself into this debate will be interesting, but if the attendance and energy at Monday's launch event is any indication, this group is not going to be shy.

I really have to compliment MinnCAN on their mission statement: "We will not rest until every Minnesota student has access to a great public school." The words may be a bit different, but they appear to share our (SEE's) statewide vision of an adequately and equitably funded system of public education. I certainly look forward to working with MinnCAN on issues that will help every student in Minnesota get the public education that they are constitutionally entitled to receive.

MinnCAN home: http://www.minncan.org/

MinnPost Story: http://www.minnpost.com/dailyglean/2011/01/24/25149/new_advocacy_group_declares_crisis_in_minnesota_education

StarTribune Story: http://www.startribune.com/local/114486594.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU

Here's an Interesting Approach to Funding Equity. Our good friend Kathy Saltzman sent me this link last Friday. It's from the Connecticut think tank ConnCAN's website. ConnCAN is the education reform think tank upon which MinnCAN has sprung forth.

The link outlines a funding reform urged by ConnCAN. Under the plan, per student education revenue would be calculated relative to the property wealth of the school district in which the student resides.

I haven't seen the actual proposal, but from reading the description, it would seem to work similarly to Minnesota's compensatory formula in that students in districts that have high levels of poverty will receive more money than students in districts with higher income levels. Either that, or per pupil revenue would be calculated for each district similarly to the way general education formula prior to the elimination of the general education levy as part of Governor Jesse "The (Don't Touch My) Body" Ventura's Big Plan that was passed in 2001.

In either case, ConnCAN clearly wants revenue to follow students to their school--traditional or charter--similarly to how it does in Minnesota.

ConnCAN link: http://www.conncan.org/aboutus/news/conncan-advocates-linking-schools-funding-wealth-students-system

Alternative Licensure Bill Passed Out of Committee. The Senate Education Committee approved SF 40 (Olson), the companion bill to HF 63 (Garofalo), and re-referred it to the Senate Finance Committee on Monday. SF 40/HF 63 is the more aggressive of the two alternative teacher preparation bills being discussed by the Legislature this session (the other bill being Representative Mariani's HF 3, which was an outgrowth of the discussion last session).

Senator Chuck Wiger (DFL-North St. Paul) offered an amendment which was subsequently divided into two amendments. The first segment of the amendment proposed requiring any prospective teacher prepared in an alternative program would have to complete a 90-day practice teaching stint before being licensed. The second portion proposed the full implementation of the Teacher Performance Assessment program (currently being piloted). Both halves of the amendment failed.

HF 63 will be up in the House Education Finance Committee this week, putting alternative teacher preparation on the fast track for legislative approval with final floor votes coming sometime in February. While Governor Dayton has expressed an interest in alternative teacher preparation, it remains to be seen whether the approach taken by SF 40/HF 63 will meet with his approval. While this issue is generally observed as "low-hanging fruit," in that all sides in the political debate seem to recognize the value of an alternative teacher preparation program, there still may be a need for a step ladder to reach the branch where the fruit is hanging. At least we know this isn't the apple at the top of the tree.

Thoughts on the Weekend. Below is a link from the left-leaning Minnesota Progressive Project on the subject of school choice. The article from their page is a reaction to United States' Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's appearance last Friday at a luncheon sponsored by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. As I read the article, I was struck by the same thought I had twenty-some years ago when open enrollment between public school districts was established in Minnesota.

Granted, the situation is a lot different in 2011 than it was in 1987. Back then, area learning centers and contract alternative programs were just getting their feet under them as part of the statewide education delivery system. Now, those alternative delivery systems are a well-established part of enrollment options in Minnesota and open-enrollment is accepted, although not always joyfully, by school districts. Further, Minnesota passed the nation's first charter school law in 1991 and charter schools now number in the neighborhood of 150 with almost 30,000 students attending charter schools.

The problem is, despite this massive increase in choice initiatives, our achievement gap is as large as ever and the opportunity gap is growing as well. All of this begs the question, "Is school choice a means to an end or an end in itself?" I don't have an answer, although I do find it ironic that many parents stay in charter schools with absolutely miserable performance levels.

Much of this will be sorted out in the years ahead and it would be unfair to characterize Duncan's address as dealing solely with parent choice. But if we are indeed serious about closing the achievement gap, we are going to have to ask, and answer, the tough questions.

Minnesota Progressive Project Article: http://www.mnprogressiveproject.com/diary/8251/chartering-a-course-for-privatized-public-education

Star Tribune Editorial on Teacher Pay Freeze. The Sunday StarTribune featured an editorial in support of the teacher pay freeze contained in SF 56 (Thompson-R-Lakeville). The editorial lays out all the pertinent arguments; teacher pay has been rising even during the recession, increased teacher pay when funding formulas don't increase causes program cuts and/or higher class-sizes, and, last but not least, the state is looking at a $6.2 billion revenue shortfall.

Alternative teacher preparation and student assessment may be the primary education issues in the spotlight right now, but rest assured, but the proposed pay freeze (along with other bargaining issues, particularly the January 15 negotiating deadline) will likely be crowding out discussion of a lot of other issues as the session progresses.

StarTribune Editorial: http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/114395879.html?elr=KArksc8P:Pc:Ug8P:Pc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

Secretary Duncan Visits Minnesota. Minnesota hosted United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at a luncheon arranged by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. It's always an honor when a dignitary of Duncan's renown visits the state and it sounds as though his address, while not presenting a rosy picture of the state of education in Minnesota, did outline some areas of improvement for Minnesota and some idea as to where Duncan would like to take the nation's education system in his role as the top education official in the country.

I was unable to attend the event as I was in Mankato at the Winter Conference of the Minnesota Association for Pupil Transportation, but it sounds as though Duncan's address was interesting (and well attended). Not being there, I can't comment on the exact tenor of Duncan's address, but reports are that he was critical of Minnesota's complacency and that he urged the business community to provide stability for the education system and to work to provide greater input into the shaping of education policy.

In a related item, when reporters as Congressman John Kline (MN-CD2), the Chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, whether or not the House would re-authorize Race to the Top--the Obama Administration's education initiative spearheaded by Secretary Duncan--his answer was a straightforward "no." Kline has gone on record as wanting to increase the federal share of special education funding and there's only so much money to go around, especially in an era when local, state, and the federal government are all trying to put their financial books in better order.

Below are two links from MinnPost regarding Secretary Duncan's visit to Minnesota.

Duncan Visit: http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2011/01/21/25116/education_secretary_arne_duncan_proves_a_tough_grader_in_assessing_minnesotas_education_programs

Beth Hawkins Piece on Kline and Duncan: http://www.minnpost.com/learningcurve/2011/01/21/25092/ideological_opponents_kline_and_duncan_now_the_nations_most_powerful_figures_on_education_policy

Thursday Bill Intros. The pace of bill introductions is much slower than it has traditionally been. Part of that may be due to the huge number of new legislators and part of it may be due to the fact that legislators--both new and veteran--may be holding back on introductions, especially those pertaining to the expenditure of state dollars, given the huge shortfall.

Here are the major education-related bill introductions from Thursday, January 20.

HF 133 (Fritz--Trial Placement for Students at Minnesota State Academies): https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/getbill.php?number=HF133&session=ls87&version=list&session_number=0&session_year=2011

HF 163 (Drazkowski--Permanent Repeal of 2% Staff Development Set-Aside and 50%/25%/25% Staff Development Distribution): https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_detail.php?b=House&f=HF163&ssn=0&y=2011

SF 68 (Kruse--Repeal of January 15 Negotiating Deadline and Penalty/Companion to HF 59): https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_detail.php?b=Senate&f=SF0068&ssn=0&y=2011

SF 69 (Olson--Revision of Home Schooling Requirements): https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_detail.php?b=Senate&f=SF0069&ssn=0&y=2011

Speaking of January 20th Introductions. The most prominent introduction I experienced on January 20th was that of my new grand-daughter Siri Marie Eitreim. Siri checked in a 7 pounds, 15 ounces, and is now home in Elk River!

Playlist of the Week. I'm doing a lot of driving around these days (which I thoroughly enjoy), but I get tired of listening to the radio at times (sorry MPR, Paul Hutner's dire weather predictions almost make me drive off the road) so I do a weekly CD burned from my 40+ gigs of music on my computer. Please allow me to indulge myself by sharing with you this week's 70 minutes of road music.

Track #1: Love and Happiness--Al Green

Track #2: Come Together--Ike and Tina Turner (Sorry, John Lennon!)

Track #3: Call Me the Breeze--J.J. Cale (covered later by Lynyrd Skynyrd)

Track #4: I'll Go Crazy--James Brown

Track #5: Prisoner of Love--Billy Eckstine

Track #6: Last Night--The Mar-keys

Track #7: Lookin' for a Love--Bobby Womack (covered later by The J. Geils Band)

Track #8: Who'll Stop the Rain--Creedence Clearwater Revival

Track #9: Don't Dream It's Over--Crowded House

Track #10: Rockin' Daddy--Howlin' Wolf

Track #11: Tempted--Squeeze (this one always finds its way onto my mixes)

Track #12: Wheels--The String-a-longs (early 1960s instrumental)

Track #13: Cherokee Boogie--BR-549

Track #14: Ain't Gwine to Whistle Dixie--Taj Mahal (great live version)

Track #15: Sowing the Seeds of Love--Tears for Fears

Track #16: And Your Bird Can Sing--The Beatles (Here's John Lennon!)

Track #17: The Innocent Bystander--Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks

Track #18: Lost Her in the Sun--John Stewart

Track #19: Spirit in the Dark--Aretha Franklin

Track #20: Head Above Water--Hall & Oates

Track #21: Rock and Roll Girl--The Beat (Oh, the early 1980s Power Pop!)

Track #22: Pretend I Never Happened--Willie Nelson

Suggestions, reviews, and recommendations are always accepted. I have an FM-soul with AM-ears.

Daily Recap. The two House education-related committees met today. This morning's House Education Reform Committee featured testimony from Minnesota Business Partnership Executive Director Charlie Weaver and Bush Foundation President Peter Hutchinson and Vice-President Susan Heegaard. In the vein of most of the hearing time in the House Education Reform Committee to this point in the session, the committee meeting was dedicated to the issue of teacher quality and how teacher quality is the primary determinant in student achievement.

In my view, the Bush Foundation framework for improving teacher quality is the best effort going. By linking school districts and higher education institutions directly in the customized training of teachers for the specific needs of a particular school district, both aspects of classroom teaching, the practice and the preparation, will be reformed.

I would have to check the tape for accuracy, but I thought I heard Charlie Weaver say something to the effect that if a teacher is effective, class size (and I think Charlie said even class-sizes of "50 to 100") doesn't matter. Love ya Charlie, but I think we'll have to agree to disagree about how well any teacher could do in an extremely large class.

The House Education Finance Committee held early in the afternoon featured testimony from the Association of Metropolitan School Districts and Minnesota's Future Initiative. Representative Garofalo has been taking testimony from education lobbying groups regarding their session priorities. We'll be up next week so I'll be spending the weekend honing my testimony.

Alliance for Student Achievement Meeting. The Alliance for Student Achievement met today and we were visited by Dr. Brenda Cassellius, the Commissioner-designee for the Minnesota Department of Education. Dr. Cassellius is very impressive, showing both energy and expertise.

Dr. Cassellius is scheduled to appear at the SEE February meeting and I'm certain that our membership will be very impressed by her ability and interest in making MDE run effectively and meet the needs of local school districts in these challenging times.

Congrats and Thanks AMSD. I want to commend the Association of Metropolitan School Districts on their 2011 Annual Conference. It was both timely and excellent. The theme of the conference was "Building a Bridge to the Next Generation of Public Education."

There were four presenters. I missed the last two due to a dental appointment, but the half of the conference I witnessed was very informative. The conference kicked off with "Minnesota and the New Normal;" the presentation put together by State Economist Tom Stinson and State Demographer Tom Gillaspy. I love these guys, but given the gravity of their presentation, I doubt they will change the name of their act to "Tom and Tom's Traveling Fun Show."

These two have been providing top-notch information to decision-makers over the past two decades and the content in their latest program is no different. The program is a stark description of the challenges facing both Minnesota and the United States as Baby Boomers retire and the needs of a growing retirement population clash with the needs of education and other programs utilized heavily by working families.

We are trying to set up these two for a presentation at our May meeting (they are in such high demand that they are not available until then). I am certain that their program will remain salient even after the curtain falls on the legislative session.

The other presenter I heard was Dr. Susan Leddick of PKR, Incorporated. Dr. Leddick works with a variety of education leaders in states throughout the nation. Her energetic presentation provided a ton of insight on the challenges facing communities--and sets of communities--as they attempt to change their school systems to meet the needs of today's students. My only quibble with her presentation (and it certainly isn't with anything Dr. Leddick said) is that it reminded me how long I have been in this business and how many times I have heard many of the reforms being discussed in other states as part of the education reform discussion in Minnesota. The consistent problem with reform is that it requires both the need for reform, the various proposed reforms, and the atmosphere that allows reform to all converge. We may be in the situation where significant reform is possible, with each of these elements fitting together more seamlessly than they have in the recent past.

Dr. Leddick played the video below as part of her presentation. It is from a speech given by Dr. Ken Robinson, the British education reformer, and is both entertaining and informative.

Robinson Link: http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/rsa-animate-changing-education-paradigms

The other two presenters were Dr. Bruce Fuchs, Executive Director or CESA 6, a Wisconsin company involved in the education reform debate, and Dr. Bruce Connolly, the Senior Innovation Lab Coordinator for the Stupski Foundation.

Links to each presenter are below:

CESA 6: http://www.cesa6.k12.wi.us/

Stupski Foundation: http://www.stupski.org/

Senate Education Committee Hearing. The Senate Education Committee met today and heard presentations by Teach for America and the Center for the American Experiment. As in the case of the House of Representatives, it appears that the Senate is intent on accomplishing something on the alternative teacher licensure issue with some measure of dispatch. While it has yet to hear individual bills relating to the subject, an alternative licensure bill has been introduced in the Senate--SF 40 (Olson), companion to HF 63 (Garofalo)--and will likely receive attention soon.

SF 56. I mentioned SF 56 (Thompson) in yesterday's blog and described it as a mandate relief bill. That's hardly do it justice. Senator Thompson's bill does provide significant mandate relief in the form of repeal of the January 15 negotiations deadline, the maintenance-of-effort provision and set-aside for mental health personnel in the safe schools levy, and the 2% staff development set-aside along with the 50%/25%/25% distribution of staff development funds.

The big fish I neglected to point out in the bill is a proposed salary freeze for all teachers in Minnesota for any contract not settled by the day following enactment of the bill and would run through June 30, 2013.

Here's the MinnPost article on the bill: http://www.minnpost.com/learningcurve/2011/01/19/24999/gop_fires_warning_shots_against_teachers_unions_--_but_where_might_they_land

If you support such a freeze, contact Senator Dave Thompson along with your local State Senator. Senator Thompson's contact information can be found at this link: http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/members/member_bio.php?mem_id=1180&ls=

Another Way of Looking at the Education Funding Debate. An article on the Center for American Progress' website came to me via Twitter today. It looked interesting so I investigated it more closely. It is interesting, but as is the case with a lot of analysis of education funding, it is also a bit misleading and overlooks a lot of differences that exist between school districts throughout the country.

The article (and interactive map) gauge "educational efficiency," which roughly translated means how does the amount of money a district receive correspond to its level of achievement on statewide standards. It reminded me quite a bit of the study former Minnesota Education Commissioner Dr. Cheri Yecke undertook for the Center for the American Experiment.

I could write for awhile on this, but by the time I was done, this blog would make War and Peace look like a comic book in a comparison of length, so I will make my comments concise. Efficiency is not a bad thing. It's always nice when a goal is reached as efficiently as possible. However, the goal of the education system is to educate students and to do that as efficiently as possible. Efficiency is not the primary goal of the education system. It is one of many secondary goals. Important--very important--but not at the center of the discussion.

I suppose one can argue that meeting the statewide standards is sufficient, but as anyone familiar with the education process can tell you, we certainly want to provide an education for all children that goes beyond simply preparing students to take tests.

Most SEE districts fare well in this comparison and the reasons are fairly straightforward. SEE districts don't receive a lot of money and their students score well compared to other districts on statewide tests.

Here are the links for the article and the interactive map:

Article: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/01/educational_productivity/report.html

Interactive Map and Table (just zero in on your district and click): http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/01/educational_productivity/

Triple Header Tuesday. All three of the Legislature's K-12-related committees met today. The day began with the meeting of the House Education Reform Committee and a return to HFs 3 (Mariani) and 63 (Garofalo), both of which relate to alternative teacher licensure. The committee first finished with Representative Mariani's HF 3. An amendment offered by Representative Kory Kath (DFL-Owatonna) to add teacher performance assessment language to the bill that would govern assessments for all teachers (not just those who obtain an alternative license) was added to the bill. The amendment requiring all teachers obtaining an alternative license to have a 90-day classroom stint under the supervision of a licensed classroom teacher was not offered.

The committee then turned to HF 63. As stated yesterday, this bill appears to be more aggressive in its intent by requiring (instead of allowing) the Board of Teaching to approve qualified alternative preparation programs that offer teacher candidates a two-year limited term license in anticipation of acquiring a five-year standard license. Two amendments were offered, one having the same language as the Kath amendment to HF 3 and the other requiring that all alternative teacher preparation programs be formally linked to a college or university teacher preparation program. Both amendments failed on party-line roll call votes of 9 in favor and 12 opposed.

Both bills were re-referred to House Education Finance Committee, where they will be heard in the near future. Alternative teacher preparation/licensure appears to be an issue where the chance of bipartisan accord is possible. This session is going to see its share of gridlock and an honest effort is being made on this issue to find some common ground to show both the public and legislators that compromises can be reached. We'll know more in the days ahead.

The House Education Finance Committee met in its usual Tuesday midday slot and took testimony from four groups: The Minnesota Chamber, The Minnesota Association of School Business Officials, The Minnesota Association of School Administrators, and Education Minnesota. Each of the groups outlined its primary legislative goals for the session ahead, with most of the testimony outlining mandate relief that may be possible. In addition, the Minnesota Chamber again re-iterated its support for alternative teacher preparation and concentration on closing the achievement gap.

The day of hearings ended with the Senate Education Committee's hearing on teacher preparation in Minnesota with testimony from the Minnesota Board of Teaching and the Licensure Division of the Minnesota Department of Education.

GOP Legislators Announce First Phase of Proposed Budget Balancing. Leadership from the House and Senate Republican caucuses today announced a package of proposed budget cuts to deal with a portion of $6.2 billion budget shortfall. The package basically consists of a formalization of the one-time cuts enacted by the Legislature and approved by the Governor during the waning days of the 2010 Legislative Session.

Link to the press release: http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/members/member_pr_display.php?ls=&id=3611

Governor Dayton immediately issued a statement outlining his reluctance to deal with the budget shortfall on a piecemeal basis, hoping to address the problem in its entirety with a series of bills enacted later in the session. The Governor will release his budget on February 15 and it appears that the GOP-controlled Legislature wants to pass its first set of cuts prior to the release of the budget.

If this is gridlock (or "solutions passing in the night"), at least it's polite gridlock at this point.

Bill Introductions for Tuesday, January 18.

Below are the major education bills introduced today.

SF 56 (Thompson--Mandate Relief): https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_detail.php?b=Senate&f=SF0056&ssn=0&y=2011

HF 115 (Barrett--Repeal January 15 Bargaining Deadline): https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_results.php?body=House&search=basic&session=0872011&location=House&bill=115&bill_type=bill&rev_number=&submit_bill=GO&keyword_type=all&keyword=&keyword_field_text=1&titleword=

HF 121 (Morrow--Teacher Performance Assessment--Includes language of Kath Amendment ot HF 3): https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_results.php?body=House&search=basic&session=0872011&location=House&bill=121&bill_type=bill&rev_number=&submit_bill=GO&keyword_type=all&keyword=&keyword_field_text=1&titleword=

Profile of New Commissioner, Dr. Brenda Cassellius in Monday's StarTribune. Here is a link to a story in Monday's StarTribune providing some background and insight into recently-appointed Minnesota Education Commissioner Dr. Brenda Cassellius.

Link: http://www.startribune.com/local/113856329.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU

Happy MLK Day. Always a day to commemorate the quest for equal opportunity and how much remains to be done to make equal opportunity for all a reality in Minnesota and the nation (and the world for that matter). It's a day in which the SEE mission statement of "All public school children must have equal access to a high quality education regardless of where they live in Minnesota" should make our entire organization proud and realize that we need to be at the center of the action that leads toward the development of an education funding formula that is both adequate and equitable.

Alternative Teacher Licensure Discussion Re-starts Tomorrow. Tomorrow morning's House Education Reform Committee chaired by Representative Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton). Discussion will likely return to HF 3, Representative Mariani's (DFL-St. Paul) bill that was laid over last Thursday. This bill is almost identical to the bill proposed by Representative Mariani last session that was pulled from the omnibus education policy bill before it was sent to the House floor. As you recall, the entire education policy bill died after the conference committee report died on the Senate floor.

There are a couple of proposed amendments to HF 3 that will likely be discussed in conjunction with the bill, most notably, the amendment that would require that any prospective teacher trained in an alternative licensure program would be under the direction of a classroom teacher for 90 days before they could receive a license. It is my impression that this amendment is strongly opposed by most of the alternative licensure proponents.

Upon completion of the discussion of HF 3, the spotlight will then shift to HF 63, Representative Garofalo's (R-Farmington) bill. The big difference between the HF 3 and HF 63 appears to be between permissive "may" language aimed at the Board of Teaching in HF 3 to "must" language requiring the Board of Teaching to develop an alternative licensure system under HF 63.

Stay tuned for my report tomorrow.

From The New York Times. Below is a link to an article from The New York Times entitled "Florida Has Classes Without Teachers" by Laura Herrera. It is interesting to note that Florida is using the computer labs described in the article to meet the requirements of its constitutionally-mandated class-size ratios. Regardless of the reason for increased use of virtual learning, it's fairly clear that the movement is picking up steam and this is just another sign post on that journey.

The New York Times Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/education/18classrooms.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimes

Just a Thought About the Arizona Shootings. I don't wade into current events (outside of the education debate in St. Paul) often on this blog, but the shootings in Arizona last weekend have me thinking, "Is it possible for this country to have a national tragedy anymore?" The toxic nature of the debate in the wake of the shootings seemed to bury concern about the victims and instead leapt to a rash of theoretical antecedent causes.

I looked up Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' five stages of grief the other night. They are: (1) denial, (2) anger, (3) bargaining, (4) depression, and (5) acceptance. Obviously, dealing with a tragedy on a macro-level has a much different dynamic than on a personal basis, making Kubler-Ross' somewhat inapplicable for comparison purposes, but I've only seen two stages in dealing with the Arizona shootings: (1) charges and (2) counter-charges with an occasional mention of the fallen.

There certainly are a number of important issues that will be discussed in the coming months, including the state of our mental health system and how our involuntary commitment policies are working (or not working) and greater security for public officials, but in the meantime, I would hope that we would recognize the absolute horror of this event for what it is--a tragedy--and turn our thoughts toward those who were killed or wounded.

I've now put the soap box back under the sink.

If You Absolutely Cannot Get Enough of Me. I've got an active Twitter account and I'm tweeting so much it's like I'm a traveling bird store. To follow me, just head to the Twitter main page and search for my handle--50Poundhead (a self-imposed nickname emanating from by Size 7 5/8 noggin)--and simply follow me. If you don't have an account, you will have to get one to follow.

I will use the account to provide quick updates and easily and quickly link interesting articles that I come across in my daily work.

Discussion of Alternative Teacher Licensure Begins. The House Education Reform Committee heard HF 3 (Mariani) at its hearing this morning. After the House listened to Cecilia Retelle from the Minnesota Chamber present the Chamber's WANTED: Prepared Workforce. NEEDED: Education Reforms (which was presented in the Senate on Tuesday), the committee spent the balance of its time discussing HF 3.

As hearings go, it was very productive. The witnesses included Daniel Sellars, Executive Director of the Minnesota Office of Teach for America; Shannon Blankenship, Executive Director of the Hiawatha Leadership Academy (a Minneapolis Charter School); and Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels. All spoke in strong support of the bill, which they see as necessary to closing the achievement gap that exists in Minneapolis schools.

No final action was taken on the bill. It will be laid over until next Tuesday, when the committee will take testimony on HF 63 (Garofalo).

Sorry I Couldn't Make It Over to the MSBA Convention Today. The day at the Capitol ran long and I was unable to make it over to the Minneapolis Convention Center to join many of you at the MSBA Convention. I will be there on Friday morning and hope to see you there.

Bill Introductions.

Here are some interesting bill introductions relating to education issues that were introduced today (Thursday, January 13):

HF 86 (Mariani--Increase Compulsory Attendance Age): https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_results.php?body=House&search=basic&session=0872011&location=House&bill=86&bill_type=bill&rev_number=&submit_bill=GO&keyword_type=all&keyword=&keyword_field_text=1&titleword=

HF 87 (Mariani--Pre-Service Performance Assessment for Teachers): https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_results.php?body=House&search=basic&session=0872011&location=House&bill=87&bill_type=bill&rev_number=&submit_bill=GO&keyword_type=all&keyword=&keyword_field_text=1&titleword=

HF 88 (Doepke--Eliminate Set-Aside in Safe Schools Levy for Counselors, Social Workers, and School Nurses): https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_results.php?body=House&search=basic&session=0872011&location=House&bill=88&bill_type=bill&rev_number=&submit_bill=GO&keyword_type=all&keyword=&keyword_field_text=1&titleword=

HF 92 (Downey--Elimination of January 15 Negotiating Deadline): https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_results.php?body=House&search=basic&session=0872011&location=House&bill=92&bill_type=bill&rev_number=&submit_bill=GO&keyword_type=all&keyword=&keyword_field_text=1&titleword=

And in the Senate. . . .

SF 40 (Olson--Alternative Licensure, Companion to Representative Garofalo's HF 63): https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_results.php?body=Senate&search=basic&session=0872011&location=Senate&bill=40&bill_type=bill&rev_number=&submit_bill=GO&keyword_type=all&keyword=&keyword_field_text=1&titleword=

A Final Note. As promised, the Minnesota Chamber's WANTED: Prepared Workforce. NEEDED: Education Reforms is now on-line and can be found at this link: http://www.mnchamber.com/priorities/EdCompReformFINAL2.pdf

Legislature Goes to School. There were no committee meetings at the Legislature today, as members of the House and Senate headed over to the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota for the annual "One Minnesota: Our State. Our Future" conference that has been held during the first month of the legislative session for the past five years.

From the agenda, it appears that the primary focus of the conference was an appraisal of the challenges facing the Legislature this biennium and creative ways of thinking about these challenges. One could venture that the presenters urged legislators to think "outside the box," with many legislators responding "we still have a box?"

I'm sure it was a valuable experience that will help provide some measure of guidance in the challenging days ahead:

One Minnesota Agenda: http://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/minnesota/2011/index.asp

Is There Something We Don't Know? I don't know if Governor Dayton misspoke when he made a comment about the "next round of grants" from the United States Department of Education relating to the funding of the reforms promoted by the Race to the Top program enacted as part of last year's stimulus package.

Whether or not there is another round of grants, which I suppose could be part of the re-authorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), isn't going to stop discussion of a number of the elements of last year's proposed reform package that was not passed by the Legislature. Both HF 3 (Mariani) and HF 63 (Garofalo) are on the schedule of the House Education Reform Committee tomorrow (Thursday, January 13), marking the official starting point for this dicussion for the 2011 session.

In a related matter, Education Minnesota President Tom Dooher held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon at which he stated that Education Minnesota would support a "responsible" alternative teacher licensure program. I don't have my thesaurus handy, so I can't honestly say how many different permutations there are of the word "responsible," but my guess is we are going to find out what "responsible" doesn't mean to Education Minnesota as this issue is discussed.

Here are the MinnPost links from Wednesday's edition on these two items:

Dayton Story: http://www.minnpost.com/learningcurve/2011/01/12/24780/dear_gov_dayton_about_that_second_round_of_education_grants__

Education Minnesota Story: http://www.minnpost.com/politicalagenda/2011/01/11/24785/education_minnesotas_legislative_priorities_face_a_shaky_future

Another Little Nugget of Good News. . .Not! Another story that hit the papers the other day is Minnesota's latest ranking in Education Week's annual Quality Counts report. Minnesota's composite grade for 2011 on Education Week's set of indicators is a C and their national ranking has dropped to 36th nationally. There is some good news in the sub-group scores, with Minnesota ranking 8th nationally in the "Chance for Success" category and 9th nationally in the "K-12 Achievement" category. The only other area in which Minnesota scores in the upper half of the United States is in the area of funding, where it ranks 23rd.

Education Week Quality Counts 2011: Uncertain Forecast, Education Adjusts to a New Economic Reality link: http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2011/01/13/index.html?Intc=EW-QC11-EWH

Education Committee Update. The various legislative education panels are meeting today--Tuesday, January 11--and there's been interesting discussion in all of them.

The House Education Reform Committee's meeting this morning was dedicated to teacher licensure, with presentations from both the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota Board of Teaching. The discussion didn't touch so much on the issue of alternative licensure as that will be discussed later this week (see bill introductions for two House bills related to alternative licensure).

The House Education Funding Committee meeting featured veteran House staff members Greg Crowe of the House Ways and Means Committee and Tim Strom from House Research providing a detailed description of Minnesota's education funding system.

The first meeting of the Senate Education Committee chaired by Senator Gen Olson was dedicated to a presentation by Cecilia Retelle, staff at the Minnesota Chamber, on the Chamber's recently-issued report "Wanted: Prepared Workforce; Needed: Education Reform." The report is not available on the internet yet, but Ms. Retelle informed me that it will be available soon. When that happens, I will post a link to the report.

Bill Introductions. Monday's floor sessions featured the first bill introductions of the year. A mere 20 bills were introduced in the Senate (I'm sure the rate will increase) with 66 bills introduced in the House.

Only 2 of the Senate's 20 bill introductions deal with education, SFs 19 and 20, both introduced by Senator Chuck Wiger and both mandating an increase in the compulsory attendance age to 18.

The House bill introductions include several bills that aim to reduce mandates on local units of government, including a number of that affect education. HF 7, introduced by Representative Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa), repeals a number of mandates related to K-12 education, including the January 15th bargaining deadline, the 2% staff development set-aside, the 50%/25%/25% distribution formula for staff development revenue, and restricted use of Learning and Development (Class-size reduction) Revenue.

HF 7: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_results.php?body=House&search=basic&session=0872011&location=House&bill=7&bill_type=bill&rev_number=&submit_bill=GO&keyword_type=all&keyword=&keyword_field_text=1&titleword=

Represenatitive Kim Norton (DFL-Rochester) has introduced HF 41, which repeals the maintenance of effort requirements for school guidance counselors and social workers as it relates to expenditure of revenue reserved for these purposes within the safe schools levy.

HF 41: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_results.php?body=House&search=basic&session=0872011&location=House&bill=41&bill_type=bill&rev_number=&submit_bill=GO&keyword_type=all&keyword=&keyword_field_text=1&titleword=

There are two bills relating to alternative teacher licensure included in the Monday's House bill introductions. The first--HF 3--is authored by Representative Carlos Mariani (DFL-St. Paul), is almost identical to legislation introduced by Representative Mariani last session when he was Chair of the House Education Policy Committee.

The second bill is HF 63, introduced by Representatives Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington) and Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton). It takes a different tack than the Mariani bill and I will provide in-depth analysis of the bills once I digest how they differ. It is important to note that Representatives Erickson and Garofalo are the respective Chairs of the House Education Reform and House Education Finance Committees.

HF 3: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_results.php?body=House&search=basic&session=0872011&location=House&bill=3&bill_type=bill&rev_number=&submit_bill=GO&keyword_type=all&keyword=&keyword_field_text=1&titleword=

HF 63: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/revisor/pages/search_status/status_results.php?body=House&search=basic&session=0872011&location=House&bill=63&bill_type=bill&rev_number=&submit_bill=GO&keyword_type=all&keyword=&keyword_field_text=1&titleword=

Don't hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have regarding these early, yet important, days of the 2011 Legislative Session. I always look forward to hearing from you.

Congratulations Dr. Cassellius. Congratulations to Dr. Brenda Cassellius, Superintendent of the East Metro Integration District, as the new Minnesota Commissioner or Education. I have not had the pleasure of working with Dr. Cassellius (pictured at right), but several SEE districts have had that opportunity as members of the East Metro Integration District. I am hearing nothing but great things from the field about Dr. Cassellius and I think we are all looking forward to working with her in her new role.

We Are Underway. The 2011 Legislative Session is underway. Legislators were sworn in on Tuesday and now the hard work of solving Minnesota's budget problems begins. There was a very light schedule of committee activity this week, but both the House Education Finance and House Education Reform Committees had their initial meetings. There will be a considerable amount of action in both panels, as a variety of funding and policy challenges will need to be addressed this session.

In an interesting note, House Education Finance Chair Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington) has developed a motto for his committee. The motto reads, "Kids First. No Excuses. No Exceptions."

Here are the home pages for each of the education committees:

House Education Finance: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/committee.asp?comm=87005

House Education Reform: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/committee.asp?comm=87006

Senate Education (Both Finance and Reform): http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/committees/committee_bio.php?cmte_id=1005&ls=

One important note is that the Early Childhood Committee in the House has been eliminated in the committee restructuring process. Those accounts will be incorporated into both the Education and Health and Human Services committee structures. The destination of those accounts won't be known until the Legislature tackles the 2012-2013 biennial budget that will be released later this month.

In conversations with legislative leadership and Education Committee Chairs, the most important information that school districts can supply legislators is the number of mandates that they view as unnecessary to the delivery of quality education services and how much these mandates are costing school districts. There will be a concerted effort to reduce mandates in the upcoming session and it is important that legislators know how much relief will be provided through the relaxation of these burdens.