Busy Thursday.  There was a full slate of education-related hearings today and they all featured a lot of testimony.  The House Education Innovation Policy Committee featured testimony from education organizations that will have issues before the committee in 2015.  Education policy actually touches a wider range of interests than education finance so it was a pretty long line of testifiers.  In fact, a lot of folks will be coming back next week because they couldn't get through the entire list.

The Senate Education Finance Committee spent its time allotment discussing three bills dealing with school facilities.  SFs 75 and 76 (both authored by Senator Kevin Dahle) contain major provisions from the School Facilities Funding Working Group that is strongly supported by SEE.  SF 75 increases the equalization factor for the capital projects levy, which is currently all local levy with no state participation to help low property wealth districts.  SF 76 proposes to enact the deferred maintenance portion of the aforementioned recommendations.  The bill would expand eligibility for the alternative facilities program to all school districts in Minnesota.  Currently, only 25 districts are eligible to use this program and, as currently designed, there is no limit to what these districts can levy to pay for these repairs.  The bill would combine several facilities levies and greatly increase the total amount that the districts not eligible for alternative facilities could access to pay for deferred maintenance purposes.

There was a lot of testimony in favor of the bill, including Dr. James Behle, the St. Michael-Albertville superintendent and our SEE Legislative Chair.  I also provided testimony.  In my testimony, I stressed the need for the committee to also look at other recommendations contained in the report of the School Facilities Finance Working Group, particularly increased debt service equalization (which hasn't been appreciably increased since its inception in 1991) and equalization of the lease levy.  Other groups testifying including the Minnesota Rural Education Association, the Minnesota Association of School Business Officials, the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, and the Minnesota Educational Facilities Management Professionals.  I'd say we all "got on base," but it was Worthington School Board member Linden Olson who hit the ball way out of the park.  He hit every note forcefully and addressed the complications that many rural districts face because of the roller coaster pattern of agricultural land valuation.  Agricultural land values are very high right now and because agricultural land is included in the tax base that debt service is levied against, it is very difficult for many rural districts to pass bond issues without virtually pauperizing farmers in the district.  Agricultural property is exempted from the tax base used to raise operating referendum revenue.  The role of agricultural property in school levies will be discussed during the 2015 session and it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

The House Education Finance Committee finished its testimony on early childhood education funding and policy before turning to discussion of career/technical programs.  Several groups from SEE-member districts testified about their programs.  Forest Lake agriculture teacher Mike Miron--who is a true superstar--testified about the Forest Lake agricultural education program.  Anoka-Hennepin Associate Jeff McGonigal gave the committee a synopsis of their district career and technical programs.  Given all the rhetoric surrounding the "skills gap" nationally and in Minnesota, a long overdue discussion of career and technical education programs will undoubtedly take place this session.  We have a number of SEE districts with a strong interest in this particular issue and I hope to get as many of them as possible in front of the appropriate legislative committees this session.

Bill Introductions.

Senate

SF 267 (Coenen) -- Allows Montevideo school district to start school before Labor Day -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF0267&session=ls89&version=latest&session_number=0&session_year=2015

SF 271 (Chamberlain) -- Modifies and renews reading tax credit that is set to expire -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF271&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 278 (Chamberlain) -- Modifies childhood literacy programs -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF278&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

House

HF 306 (Quam) -- Amends definition of public employee to include replacement employees who work more than 60 days as a replacement teacher or faculty member -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF306&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 317 (P. Anderson) -- Increases funding for Head Start -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF317&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 318 (Loon) -- Provides funding for Parent-Child Home Program -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF318&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 319 (Persell) -- Provides grant to Headwaters Science Center -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF319&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

Early Childhood Day at the Capitol.  Both the Senate and House Education Finance Committees dealt with the issue of early childhood education today.  While the hearing on the House side of the street was informational in nature with a variety of education organizations providing their perspectives on the issue, the Senate hearing focused on several bills, most notably SF 6 (Hoffman), a bill that would create a universal program for 4-year-olds by weighting them at the same level as a regular K-12 student.  The fiscal note for the bill came in a $416 million for the biennium, which knocked a lot of people over (including me) at first blush due to the cost.  The cost estimate is clearly higher than most people expected given that the implementation of all-day kindergarten didn't cost nearly that much, but after some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations, it's readily apparent why the cost is what it is.  First, it's important to note that the $416 million number is for the full biennium.  When all-day kindergarten was funded, it was for only one year of the biennium (that cost is built into the base going forward so it no longer shows up as an individual funding initiative).  Second, kindergarten students had a "weight" which was over a half of the weight of a first-grader.  4-year-olds currently do not have a "weight," meaning the student count goes from 0.0 to 1.0 instead of approximately 0.5 to 1.0 as it did when all-day kindergarten was funded.  If universal pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds was fully funded, it would soak up most of the revenue that will likely be in the Governor's and Legislature's E-12 target and there are more priorities than just early childhood education floating around among decision-makers right now.

In my testimony before the Senate Committee in support of SF 6, I pointed out that there will be some complications in terms of transportation and instructional space that will have to be considered in conjunction with the expansion of early childhood programs.

Here is an MPR story on the Senate hearing:  http://blogs.mprnews.org/capitol-view/2015/01/senate-dfl-preschool-plan-has-hefty-price/

Road Work.  I've been on the road the past couple of nights.  Tuesday night I attended the Byron School Board meeting and gave a presentation to the board about SEE.  Tonight, I attended the Legislative Forum for the St. Croix River Education District, giving a short presentation about the SEE platform and facilitating a discussion between the audience and Representatives Bob Barrett and newly-elected Jason Rarick.  The session is hectic, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy getting out and meeting with members on their home turf.  Feel free to call me if you'd like to have me out to your district.  If I'm free, I'll be there.

School Finance 101 Blog.  Dr. Bruce Baker from Rutgers writes a blog about school funding and testing policy that is just about the best thing on the web when it comes to cutting through the excess verbiage and undue posturing that often accompanies discussions of education funding and policy.  Here is his latest entry (published today) on why money matters.  I haven't given it in an in-depth read, but at first blush, it just about says it all.  Here is a link to Dr. Baker's blog.  I strongly recommend subscribing to it and having his latest entries delivered directly to your e-mail inbox.

School Finance 101:  https://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/

Tuesday Hearings.  There was a full slate of education-related hearings today at the Capitol.  The day began with dueling hearings with the House Education Innovation Policy meeting at 8:15 and the Senate Education Finance Committee beginning its hearing at 8:30.  The House Education Innovation Committee heard from the Minnesota Department of Education on a variety of topics, most notably special education, World's Best Workforce, and the regional centers of excellence.

The Senate Education Finance Committee spent its meeting on the subject of technology.  Four bills relating to technology (all authored by Senator Chuck Wiger, the committee chair) were discussed.  While all of the bills are interesting (and needed), the one that elicited the most interest was SF 18, the bill that would create an equalized discretionary levy to help districts acquire technology.  There is a similar provision in the School Facilities Finance Working Group report that will be discussed Thursday by the committee.  That report has a number of provisions that could stand alone if the entire set of recommendations is not adopted.  This is clearly one of them.  SF 45 would increase capital expenditure revenue and create a reserve within the that fund for technology and this route may be another way to help school districts pay for their increasing technology needs.  SF 20 proposes to take any future increases in the school endowment fund and place the revenue growth into a fund that would pay for school technology.  The revenue would be distributed equally to all schools (including charters) on a per pupil basis.  Senator Wiger's SF 78 would appropriate revenue to pay for telecommunications access equity revenue.

The House Education Finance Committee met in the early afternoon and spent its committee time talking about the School Endowment Fund and its management.  The School Endowment Fund is comprised of the revenue generated from the leasing of state-owned lands.  The genesis of the program comes from the two sections in each township that were set aside for educational purposes as part of the Northwest Ordinance.  Most of these sections were used for actual school buildings (and you still see some of them standing as you drive through Minnesota) and as those buildings were closed, the land was sold.  The proceeds from those sales were placed in the Permanent School Fund (now known as the School Endowment Fund) and the interest from this revenue has been distributed to school districts.  A lot of this land is in areas where there is an abundance of natural resources (particularly lumber and minerals) and the state is now more aggressively marketing these lands in hope of leasing it to companies that will generate more revenue than it currently being earned through the existing leases.  It was a very informative presentation from a variety of perspectives.

Tuesday Bill Introductions.

Senate

SF 163 (Hoffman) -- Increases general education formula basic allowance by $300 per pupil -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF0163&session=ls89&version=latest&session_number=0&session_year=2015

SF 164 (Johnson) -- Establishes additional accountability measures for charter schools serving at-risk students -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF164&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 167 (Dibble) -- Allows Minneapolis school board to remove a member by a majority vote -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF167&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 195 (Hoffman) -- Provides a grant to the Minnesota Council on Economic Education -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF195&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 213 (Bonoff) -- Appropriates money for the parent-child home program -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF213&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 217 (Weber) -- Exempts Hendricks school district from the general reciprocity agreement between states for educating students from another state -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF217&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 221 (Thompson) -- Modifying certain provisions of the Safe and Supportive Schools Act -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF221&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

House

HF 217 (Selcer) -- Allows 9th and 10th grade students to enroll in concurrent enrollment world language courses -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF217&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 224 (Gruenhagen) -- Allows school boards to elect to levy debt service against referendum market value tax base -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF224&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 225 (Winkler) -- Reserves future increases in school endowment fund apportionments for early learning programs -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF225&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 226 (Halverson) -- Increases funding for school readiness -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF226&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 245 (Urdahl) -- Allows a tax credit for K-12 teachers who complete a master's degree in a content area directly related to their licensure field -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF245&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 246 (Urdahl) -- Reaffirms the importance of teacher mentorship -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF246&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 247 (Urdahl) -- Provides for interstate reciprocity agreements for teacher licensure -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF247&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 250 (Newton) -- Adds school personnel notice and reporting requirements -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF250&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 251 (Newton) -- Clarifies that children under age seven who voluntarily enroll in school are subject to compulsory attendance law -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF251&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 252 (Newton) -- Increases school readiness aid -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF252&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 263 (Peterson) -- Makes a sales tax exemption on school tickets and admissions permanent -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?f=HF263&b=house&y=2015&ssn=0

MLK Day.  The Legislature was off today in honor of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but things will be picking up again tomorrow.  I saw the movie "Selma" over the long weekend and I cannot recommend it highly enough.  It's a truly moving piece of work.  For those of us in the Baby Boom Generation, it was a reminder of those times--authentic newsreel footage and all--and a realization of how far, in some respects, the nation has come.  There is still much to be done in terms of race relations and a lot of that work relates to education policy and making sure that all Americans have access to high quality educational opportunities.  Although SEE doesn't work directly with any districts that are solely urban and only a few members have high concentrations of poverty and/or racial diversity, our mission is to make sure that all students have access to a solid education regardless of where they live in Minnesota.  Seeing "Selma" today was a reminder of the importance of making certain those opportunities are there.

Facilities Update.  Below is an article from the StarTribune outlining the efforts to improve funding for school facilities that will be made during the coming session.  Senator Dahle's bills--SFs 75 and 76--will be heard in the Senate Education Finance Committee on Thursday morning.  There will be several folks from SEE testifying in favor of Senator Dahle's efforts.  The only thing from the recommendations of the Facilities Funding Working Group is the increased debt service equalization, but I am confident that will be discussed before the session is through.

Link:  http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/288965531.html

MinnPost Article.  Beth Hawkins over at MinnPost does a really good job covering education policy and here is a link to her outlook for the 2015 session that was published in Monday's edition of the online newspaper.  If you don't already get your daily MinnPost e-news in your e-mail, I'd encourage you to sign up.

Link:  http://www.minnpost.com/learning-curve/2015/01/funding-choices-teacher-licensing-hot-education-issues-capitol

Federal Update.  Here's an article from EdWeek regarding the renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.  One of Minnesota's advantages in the renewal process is Representative John Kline hails from Minnesota and is very aware of the problems being faced by schools throughout the state. One of Representative Kline's goals has been to provide more Federal revenue for special education and that is something that would be welcomed by Minnesota's school districts and charter schools.

Ed Week Link:  http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/16/battle-lines-drawn-on-annual-testing-in.html

Weekly Wrap-Up.  It was a quick week with the pace of the session already picking up speed.  The House Education Finance Committee met on all three of its possible meeting dates (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) with the time divided between non-partisan staff providing background and data for the committee members and testimony from education groups who will be appearing before the committee during the 2015 legislative session.  I had the opportunity to testify on Wednesday on behalf of SEE and gave a brief synopsis (we were limited to five minutes) of our 2015 platform.  The thing I always stress in this type of testimony is that much of SEE's primary mission lie in the intersection between education funding and property tax policy and how those two issue areas are closely interrelated.

The Senate spent its Thursday Education Finance/Policy Committee time going over the World's Best Workforce legislation that was passed in 2013 and is being implemented this year.  The testimony was generally supportive of the concept contained in the legislation, but most testifiers also pointed out that the program has required a significant investment of staff time to collate the various reports included in the World's Best Workforce requirements.  Senator Wiger, chair of the Senate Education Finance/Policy Committee has expressed his interest in the World's Best Workforce at several junctures thus far this session and it will be interesting to see how discussion of the topic differs between the House and the Senate and whether it plays a major role in deliberations between the two bodies as the session comes to a close.  Generally, I think most legislators and policy makers see the value of the legislation as it can serve as a common reporting platform that can give the public a better idea of how a school district is performing across a broad range of measures.  At the same time, there are provisions (particularly the penalties for not meeting certain achievement goals) that trouble both school districts and legislators.  Stay tuned.

Interesting Poligraph Story.  Minnesota Public Radio devoted part of this week's Poligraph segment to K-12 education by checking out Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk's statement regarding Minnesota's ranking of 49th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the ratio of school counselors per student.  As the story points out, Bakk is pretty much on the mark in his assertion.

Here is a link to the story (Pay no mind to the Kaler headline.  That's the second story in the segment.):  http://blogs.mprnews.org/capitol-view/2015/01/poligraph-kalers-doc-shortage-claim-accurate/

Thursday's Hearings.  The day started with the House Education Innovation Policy Committee holding its hearing, which featured testimony from several groups along that will have issues before the committee in 2015.  The Senate Education Finance/Policy Committee's hearing dealt with the World's Best Workforce initiative that was passed in 2013 and was implemented last year.  Several school districts along with the Minnesota School Boards Association and the Association of Metropolitan School Districts testified with their impressions on the bill.  There is no doubt that the law has required school districts to perform a number of tasks that they would not have performed in the absence of the legislation and much of the work is redundant (or at least the merging of previously performed studies and gathered measurements into one document), but I believe there is a consensus that if provided support and clarification, districts will glean some value from the work involved.  The House Education Finance Committee met in the afternoon and its meeting picked up where it left off on Wednesday with testimony from various educational organizations outlining their priorities for the 2015 legislative session.

Star Tribune on Teacher Evaluation Bill.  Here's a link to an article in the StarTribune on Senator Terry Bonoff (DFL-Minnetonka) and her introduction of a bill that would eliminate seniority as the basis for unrequested leave-of-absence decisions.  This is also known as the elimination of "last in/first out" in layoff decisions.  The bill referenced in the article was introduced on Thursday and will be among those listed in the link of today's bill introductions below.  Here is a link to the article:  http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/288759781.html

Bernadeia Johnson Interview.  To say most everyone was shocked when Dr. Bernadeia Johnson resigned as superintendent of the Minneapolis School District last month would be an understatement.  Dr. Johnson gives us a synopsis of went into her decision in this interview published today in MinnPost.  Here is a link to the interview:  http://www.minnpost.com/learning-curve/2015/01/bernadeia-johnson-reflects-her-mps-legacy-her-family-and-her-future

As Promised.  Bill Introductions for Thursday, January 15.  

Senate

SF 88 -- Skoe -- Requires Commissioner to reauthorize existing four-day school week plans -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF88&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 97 -- Bonoff -- Modifies requirements for placing teachers on unrequested leave of absence (bill referenced in news story above) -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF97&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 105 -- Bonoff -- Grants school construction funds to the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shing Native American school --  https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?version=latest&session=ls89&session_number=0&session_year=2015&number=sf0105

SF 115 -- Wiger -- Allows schools to start the school year before Labor Day -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF115&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 126 -- Housley -- Makes Forest Lake ISD #831 eligible for the Alternative Facilities Program -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF126&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 133 -- Dahle -- Provides teacher development and evaluation revenue to educational cooperatives and education districts -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF133&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 145 -- Schmit -- Directs the commissioner of education to provide guidance to school districts regarding certain technology initiatives -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF145&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 155 -- Wiger -- Increases school readiness aid -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF155&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 157 -- Saxhaug -- Provides full funding for K-12 pupil transportation -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF157&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

House

SF 194 -- Slocum -- Establishes additional accountability measures for charter schools serving at-risk populations -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF0194&session=ls89&version=list&session_number=0&session_year=2015

SF 197 -- Miller -- Authorizes school boards to implement flexible learning-year programs -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF197&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

Quick House Floor Session Today.  The House held a quick floor session today to process the Federal tax conformity bill so it can be passed as quickly as possible (perhaps as early as next week), but they did introduce several bills.  There was only one education-related bill introduced and that was newly-elected Representative Eric Lucero's (R-Dayton) HF 175, which would expand the definition of the metropolitan area to include Benton, Chisago, Sherburne, and Wright counties.  This would provide a revenue boost to 17 school districts, 15 of which are SEE member districts.  The bill has been referred to the House Education Finance Committee where it will be heard.  I have talked with several other legislators who will be introducing different approaches to help SEE districts and Representative Lucero's bill is a good start for the discussion.

 HF 175 (Lucero) -- Expands definition of metropolitan area for purposes of calculating equity revenue -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF0175&version=latest&session=89&session_number=0&session_year=2015

Article on New York City Teacher Reform Advocate.  Here's a link to an article from New York magazine on Campbell Brown, the former CNN anchor who has become a leading advocate for reform of the teacher tenure system in New York City.  According to the article, the lawsuit filed in New York City that is similar to the Vergara lawsuit making its way through the California courts is on the verge of being dismissed, but tenure changes will likely be discussed in New York City and elsewhere (including Minnesota) in the near future.  The article is focused as much on Brown as it is on the teacher tenure issue (and it gets a little snarky at certain junctures), but it gives a decent overview of efforts to change tenure.

Link:  http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/campbell-brown-school-reform.html?om_rid=AABW$u&om_mid=_BUts9yB8$r584V

I have also included a link from National Public Radio published in July that talks about litigation related to the teacher tenure issue.  You will note in the last paragraph that Minnesota is mentioned as a possible site for a Vergara-style lawsuit.

Link:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/07/28/336050469/teacher-tenure-challenge-spreads-from-california-to-new-york

First House Hearings.  The House of Representatives' education-related committees kicked off their respective sessions today with the House Education Innovation Policy Committee meeting at 8:15 AM and the House Education Finance Committee meeting at 12:45 PM.  Both committees spent a good part of their time discussing the backgrounds of individual members and goals they have for the 2015 legislative session.  The House Education Innovation Policy Committee is chaired by Representative Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton), who is no stranger to the position, having chaired the committee in the past.  The House Education Finance Committee will be chaired by Representative Jenifer Loon (R-Eden Prairie), who is entering her fourth term.  She has served on education-related committees in the past and was chief author of the House File that eliminated the mandatory distribution formula for staff development revenue that tied the hands of school districts throughout the state.

The Education Innovation Policy spent some time discussing a document prepared by House Counsel Lisa Larson, outlining the history of standards and assessment in Minnesota, with special attention paid to the era of the 1990s and beyond, when Goals 2000 followed by No Child Left Behind were implemented at the Federal level.  I currently don't have a link to the document, but I will post a link to it as soon as it is available.  It was a very interesting presentation.

Quality Counts Issue from Education Week.  Education Week has released its annual Quality Counts issue, which features a variety of rankings of education funding and performance measures.  This year's issue zeroes in on early learning and the grades handed out by the Education Week staff are fairly critical.  The grades range from B+ (District of Columbia) to F (Idaho and Utah).  The national grade is a D+, the same grade given to Minnesota.  Only three states (Hawaii, Mississippi, and Louisiana) along with the District of Columbia score a B- or above.  24 states earn between a C+ and a C- with the remaining states netting D+'s or D's.  Not a pretty picture by any stretch of the imagination.

Minnesota is slightly above the national average--47.6% to 47.3%--in the percentage of 4-year-olds enrolled in pre-school programs.  Minnesota also fares well in the growth of pre-school enrollment.  Where Minnesota falls down is in the gap between poor and non-poor children (still too wide) and the rate at which the gap is closing (it's not in Minnesota for the 2012 program year upon which the grades were calculated).  Given the presence of the scholarship program established in 2013, the enactment of voluntary all-day, every day kindergarten, and the increases in school readiness funding in 2014, Minnesota's grade should improve.

In the overall grading category, Minnesota received a B-, which is a composite of a B+ grade for Chance at Success, a C in School Finance, and a C+ in Student Achievement.  The Chance at Success category grade is largely a function of Minnesota's comparatively strong economic performance with unemployment below the national average and a median income above the national average.  Minnesota's School Finance grade of C was a little surprising to me, but like its grade for early learning, the resources put into the system in 2013 may boost that grade going forward, especially in terms of narrowing the gap between high and low revenue districts.  That doesn't mean all the problems will go away because of progress made in 2013, as we still have not recovered the ground lost to inflation over the past two decades.  We'll be talking about a lot of these issues during the session ahead and regardless of the grade ladled out by Education Week, the Quality Counts measurements provide a good frame of reference for how Minnesota's finance and achievement records are stacking up compared to the rest of the country and where we can improve.

Here is a link to the Minnesota 2015 report:  http://www.edweek.org/ew/qc/2015/state-highlights/2015/01/08/minnesota-education-ranking.html

Another Breezy Day.  Not so much outside, but inside the Capitol, both bodies breezed through their floor sessions, simply introducing bills and not much else.  There were some notable bill introductions.  Senator Kevin Dahle (DFL-Northfield) introduced SFs 75 and 76, which contain all of the recommendations of the Facilities Finance Working Group recommendations except for the increase in debt service equalization.  Here are today's bill introductions:

Senate

SF 75 (Dahle) -- Equalizes capital projects levy -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?version=latest&session=ls89&session_number=0&session_year=2015&number=sf0075

SF 76 (Dahle) -- Makes all districts eligible for alternative facilities and simplifies the system of deferred maintenance and health and safety programs -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF76&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

SF 78 (Wiger) -- Appropriates money for equity in telecommunications access -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF78&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

House

HF 72 (S. Anderson) -- Expands education tax credit and tax deduction to include certain prekindergarten expenditures -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF72&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 87 (Dettmer) -- Expands alternative facilities program to include Forest Lake ISD #831 -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF87&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 94 (Quam) -- Modifies teacher qualifications in terms of MTLE scores -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF94&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 99 (Scott) -- Establishes notice requirements for student surveys -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF99&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 100 (Norton) -- Allows school districts to start before Labor Day -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF100&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 102 (Garofalo) -- Modifies provisions of the Safe and Supportive Schools Act by exempting districts with a written plan in place under Minnesota Statutes 2012, 121A.0695, that protects all students in the school district -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF102&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 118 (Quam) -- Establishes Student Religious Liberties Act -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF118&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 150 (Mullery) -- Creates 21st century skills development pilot project -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF150&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

HF 151 (Mullery) -- Appropriates money for Success for All program -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF151&version=0&session=ls89&session_year=2015&session_number=0

Weekly Wrap-Up.  The first week of the 2015 legislative session is in the books.  With everyone getting acclimated to the new House majority (with all of the changes in office assignments and influx of new staff) and the massive Capitol renovation, things understandably moved a little more slowly than usual.  The committee schedule was very light with only one education-related committee--the Senate Education Finance/Education Policy Committee--holding a hearing.  That meeting featured testimony from about 30 education-related policy organizations with each one outlining its priorities for the 2015 legislative session.  On behalf of SEE, I distributed our platform and voiced our support for the comprehensive facilities funding reform recommendations that were developed by the Facilities Funding Working Group convened by the Minnesota Department of Education in 2013.  I also talked about how a vast majority of SEE districts find themselves on the lower end of the per pupil revenue rankings and even with the progress on equalization and local option revenue in 2013 and 2014, more needs to be done to narrow the gap between districts in terms of per pupil revenue.  Of course, SEE will always promote money on the general education basic formula and continued attention to property tax fairness in the development of education funding policy.

Things will start percolating next week, as the House Education Finance and House Education Innovation Policy committees will hold their first set of hearings.  A lot of attention will be devoted to background information with an intellectual and policy road map of how we got to where we currently are in terms of both education funding and education policy.  Non-partisan staff always does a bang-up job during these hearings and if you get the opportunity to watch these hearings from your home or office, they can be very informative.

The big news in education was the introduction of HF 2 (Loon-R-Eden Prairie).  This bill is a comprehensive review and reform of Minnesota's teacher licensing requirements.  Including in this massive reform are change to the Minnesota Teacher Licensing Examination, more flexibility in allowing community experts to teach in career and technical teaching courses, and the elimination of "last in/first out" as the basis for determining the issuance of unrequested leave-of-absence notices to teachers.  It's a smorgasbord of reform and I imagine it will cause some indigestion for various parties, but it is certainly a solid place to start the discussion.

The Senate introduced a couple of bills of interest.  SF 2 (Stumpf-DFL-Thief River Falls) keys off of similar policy in Tennessee, where President Obama visited late last week, touting free (or greatly reduced cost) education at the community and technical college level.  This could conceivably both lower the cost of higher education and help employers find prospective workers with the requisite skills--both hard and soft--to fill job openings.  It is always important to point out that for all the talking about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Manufacturing) jobs, the fact that nearly half of those jobs do not require a 4-year Baccalaureate Degree is rarely ever mentioned.  The other bill introduced that will generate a lot of is SF 6 (Hoffman-DFL-Champlin)/HF 46 (E. Murphy-DFL-St. Paul).  This is the universal pre-K legislation that would assign a pupil weight to 4-year-olds in an attempt to make quality pre-K programming available for families throughout the state.  The debate between this approach and the those who advocate increasing scholarships for low-income families will certainly be one of the more closely watched during the 2015 session.

The first political kerfuffle of the session surrounds the transportation funding issue.  It appears that Governor Dayton will be proposing measures that will increase revenue for road and bridge projects, while the House of Representatives will not.  Governor Dayton wasted no time in showing his skepticism about the House's plan.  Here's a link to a MinnPost article on this particular item:  http://www.minnpost.com/political-agenda/2015/01/dayton-gets-feisty-calls-republican-transportation-plan-pure-fantasy

Here's another MinnPost article providing a perspective on the first week of the legislative session.  Link:  http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2015/01/what-parties-first-bills-tell-us-about-2015-legislative-session

I'll close with this story from Poligraph at Minnesota Public Radio.  There's always going to be a debate on the level of spending for education (and just about everything else in the state budget) in Minnesota and how that compares to other states.  Governor Dayton staked out his ground in his inaugural address pointing out how Minnesota's national ranking on per pupil spending has dropped over the past few decades.  Of course, those who believe the state's investment in education--both E-12 and higher education--leapt in with their contentions to that argument.  Here is the story that does shed some needed light on the debate:  http://blogs.mprnews.org/capitol-view/2015/01/poligraph-is-education-spending-going-up-or-down/

First Hearing.  The Senate Education Finance/Education Policy Committee held its first meeting of the 2015 session on Thursday morning.  The slash between the committees in the first sentence requires some explanation.  The Senate combined the separate finance-related and policy-related committees into one body with a slightly higher membership than each previous committee had.  This should make the development of policy and tying of policy to finance a more streamlined process, which is generally a good thing.  The challenge will be to make certain there is enough time to cover both the policy and finance questions that will come before the committee.  I'm guessing there will be a lot of long meetings at some juncture during the session.

Today's hearing featured brief testimony from approximately 30 education interests (mostly the usual suspects), including me representing SEE.  The instruction from the Chair Wiger was to summarize each organization's priorities within two minutes.  Some folks (not many) completed their testimony within the two-minute framework.  Some others made it in under three minutes.  And some others didn't pay much attention to the chair's directive.  The testimony was all relevant and points toward an interesting legislative session.  There were some common themes that emerged from the testifiers: (1) a healthy increase on the general education basic formula, (2) consideration of the the recommendations of the Facilities Finance Working Group, (3) on-going revenue for teacher evaluation, (4) revenue for universal early childhood education, and (5) no new mandates.

It will be interesting to see how the session unfolds in the Senate and today's hearing is evidence that a wide range of viewpoints will be heard.

Initial Set of Introductions in the House and Senate.  The House won the first day tally, beating the Senate by a score of 60-55 on the total number of bills introduced, but the Senate edged the House 7-5 in the number of E-12-related bills.  Here are the introductions from the first day with a link to the bills.

Senate

SF 6 (Hoffman) -- Providing funding for universal all-da preschool for four-year-old students --  https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?version=latest&session=ls89&session_number=0&session_year=2015&number=sf0006

SF 17 (Wiger) -- Appropriating additional revenue for telecommunications access -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?version=latest&session=ls89&session_number=0&session_year=2015&number=sf0017

SF 18 (Wiger) -- Establishing special technology revenue category for school districts, charter schools, intermediate districts, and other cooperative units -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?version=latest&session=ls89&session_number=0&session_year=2015&number=sf0018

SF 19 (Wiger) -- Increasing the compulsory attendance age to 18 -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?version=latest&session=ls89&session_number=0&session_year=2015&number=sf0019

SF 20 (Wiger) -- Reserving future increases in the school endowment fund apportionments for school technology -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?version=latest&session=ls89&session_number=0&session_year=2015&number=sf0020

SF 21 (Wiger) -- Reserving future increases in the school endowment fund apportionments for early childhood education -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?version=latest&session=ls89&session_number=0&session_year=2015&number=sf0021

SF 30 (Petersen) -- Changes in teacher licensure and unrequested leave of absence procedure (elimination of last in/first out) -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?version=latest&session=ls89&session_number=0&session_year=2015&number=sf0030

The Senate also has a couple of other interesting bills that have some relation to E-12 education but won't be starting in the Education Finance/Education Policy Committee.  The first is SF 2, a bill authored by Senator LeRoy Stumpf (DFL-Thief River Falls) that would provide free tuition for students attending technical or community college run by MnSCU.  The other bill is SF 5, a bill authored by Senator Terry Bonoff (DFL-Minnetonka), that seeks to help employers match their needs with the training provided to prospective employees.  Below are the links:

SF 2 (Stumpf) -- Providing tuition assistance for Minnesota high school graduates to attend MnSCU colleges -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?version=latest&session=ls89&session_number=0&session_year=2015&number=sf0002

SF 5 (Bonoff) -- Requiring a the commissioner of labor and industry to identify competency standards for dual training and creating a dual training competency grant program -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?version=latest&session=ls89&session_number=0&session_year=2015&number=sf0005

House

HF 2 (Loon) -- Clarifying conditions for teacher licensure, amending alternative teacher licensure, elimination of last in/first out -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF0002&version=latest&session=89&session_number=0&session_year=2015

HF 15 (Mariani) -- Increasing the compulsory attendance age to 18 -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF0015&version=latest&session=89&session_number=0&session_year=2015.  Companion to SF 19.

HF 34 (Anzelc) -- Appropriating money to renovate a building in the Deer River ISD #317 -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF0034&version=latest&session=89&session_number=0&session_year=2015

HF 40 (Persell) -- Providing full funding for K-12 pupil transportation -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF0040&version=latest&session=89&session_number=0&session_year=2015 

HF 46 (E. Murphy) -- Providing funding for universal all-da preschool for four-year-old students -- https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF0046&version=latest&session=89&session_number=0&session_year=2015.  Companion to SF 6.

Quiet Day at the Legislature.  New staff is still finding its way into place.  A lot of old staff is moving around.  The Capitol looks like a giant maze (and a few of us lobbyists are real rats so I suppose it fits).  All in all, it makes for a slow first week of the 2015 legislative session.

The Legislature spent the day at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs participating in the "One Minnesota" program that was put together to look at issues that may be of particular interest during the 2015 legislative session.  Below is a link to the conference.  I will be curious to see if there will be video available for viewing at any time seeing that the conference was closed to the public.

Link:  http://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/minnesota/2015/

Things will pick up a bit tomorrow as the first bills of the session will be introduced in both the House and Senate.  The Senate Education Committee will be holding a hearing where it will hear from a variety of stakeholders (including SEE) on their organizational priorities for the session.  I will report on both of these items tomorrow.

Education in China.  China has certainly been a white-hot subject of conversation over the past decade and part of the interest in China stems from their education system.  Yang Zhao, a professor at the University of Oregon, has written an account of the Chinese education system entitled Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon?  Why China has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World.

American educational historian and policy analyst Diane Ravitch reviewed the book in the November 20, 2014, issue of the New York Review of Books and uses the opportunity to criticize the Chinese system and the reforms undertaken in the United States that somewhat mimic the test-heavy Chinese system.  I haven't read Zhao's book, but I found Ravitch's review interesting and it made me more likely to read the book at some juncture.  I'll let you decide for yourself after reading the review,

Link:  http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/nov/20/myth-chinese-super-schools/

I also found this article from last Sunday's New York Times Magazine about a test preparation camp in China.  Very interesting.

Link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/magazine/inside-a-chinese-test-prep-factory.html?ref=magazine&_r=0

And We're Off.  Not much to report from the first day of the legislative session.  The members of the House of Representatives were sworn in and the new Republican majority officially took over.  Representative Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) was elected Speaker of the House in a pro forma vote, garnering all the votes from his Republican caucus (something that Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner can't say).  Daudt is one of the younger speakers in recent memory at age 41.  He has solid conservative credentials, but has pledged to work with representatives of all viewpoints in order to have the session run smoothly and end on time.  That may be easier said than done, as the House majority will certainly seek to make its mark and I'm relatively certain that their highest priorities don't mesh particularly well with those of the DFL Senate and Governor Dayton.  Still, it's an appropriate time for optimism.  There is a projected surplus, and while I wrote yesterday that this basically covers inflation and little else, there may be room for some needed reforms across state government.

As for the suggestion that the Legislature adjourn for the remainder of the biennium after the 2015 session, skipping the 2016 session altogether, I find it difficult to believe it will happen.  It might not be a bad idea, given that the Capitol is undergoing a comprehensive renovation that will pretty much close down the entire building next year.  But having watched the Legislature as long as I have, there will likely be things that won't get done this year and that would likely necessitate some type of session in 2016.

Here are a couple of stories on today's opening sessions from the local media:

StarTribune: http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/287618461.html

Pioneer Press:  http://www.twincities.com/politics/ci_27265902/new-hands-at-wheel-minnesota-legislature-returns-duty

MPR:  http://blogs.mprnews.org/capitol-view/2015/01/on-first-day-some-lawmakers-push-one-year-session/

US Congress Also Sworn in Today.  The 114th Congress was sworn in as well today, with the Republicans now in control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.  It appears the Keystone XL Pipeline is the first thing on the docket and it is expected to:  (1) gain fairly quick approval in Congress, and (2) get vetoed by the President unless the EPA's permitting process is honored in the final bill.  It should make for an interesting two years.

What will be interesting from an education policy perspective is the renewal of Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and changes that will likely be made to the No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top during that process.  Minnesota 2nd District Congressman John Kline (R-Burnsville) has been pushing a number of changes, but most of those changes wouldn't have made it to the President's desk when the Senate was controlled by the Democrats.  Tennessee Republican Senator Lamar Alexander will now the chairing the corresponding committee in the Senate and he shares many of the same concerns as Kline.  As with a lot of policy discussions that will take place over the next two years, it will be interesting to see if Congress and the President can reach an accord on the education issue.  Congressman Kline has often talked about the Federal Government needing to make good on its promise to fund its share of special education costs and that is one area where an agreement between all parties would be welcome.

Here's an article from MinnPost on Kline's goals for the 114th Congress.

Link:  http://www.minnpost.com/learning-curve/2015/01/kline-and-senate-ally-launching-new-push-nclb-overhaul-and-less-federal-overs

On Your Mark.  Get Set.  It's not "Go" quite yet, but it will be in approximately 15 hours when the 2015-2016 biennium of the Minnesota Legislature begins.  I stopped by the Capitol today and it was pretty quiet, with only a handful of legislators in the State Office Building (and most of them in the process of unpacking boxes and assembling their offices), but that will all change tomorrow.

It's difficult to know what to expect at this point.  The majority in the Minnesota House has flipped back to the Republicans, but most everyone is saying the right things at this point (of course, the session hasn't started yet) and if everyone is to be taken at their word, the confrontation that took place between the legislature and the Governor in 2011 and resulted in a shutdown will be avoided.  It's important to remember "government math," and in this case, the DFL has two legs of the stool and the Republicans one.  That doesn't mean that the House Republicans will simply cave and let the DFL have its way, but it also means that they aren't going to run the table.  This could be a year when a number of reform initiatives may take root.  There's a lot to do across the board in the re-inventing government sense and it wouldn't surprise me if a number of proposals in that vein discussed thoroughly during the upcoming session.

The big news is the budget and while $1 billion sounds like a lot, it basically calculates to funding inflation over the biennium given that the biennial budget is projected to come in slightly over $40 billion given the expected growth in various parts of the budget.  That doesn't mean that some of this growth won't be pared back and that the savings moved into other programs.  Again, that story is yet to be written, but given the Governor's statement that he would like to put additional revenue into E-12 education to make Minnesota a "State of Educational Excellence" there is indeed a possibility of dollars being directed away from some expenditure categories to education-related programs.

A Lot Being Written About the Teaching Profession.  The state of the teaching profession has come under increasing scrutiny over the past few years with the Vergara lawsuit in California and teacher evaluation programs being implemented in a number of states (including Minnesota).  But legal and legislative action aren't the only indicators of interest in the topic.

Here is a link to a review of three books about the teaching profession that was published in the December 4, 2014, issue of the New York Review of Books.  There's a ton of interesting nuggets in the review.  I've got a copy of Dana Goldstein's "The Teacher Wars: A History of America's Most Embattled Profession," but I doubt I'll get a chance to read it until the session is over.

NYRB Link:  http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/dec/04/why-american-teaching-so-bad/?insrc=whc

In a similar vein, I caught this story on National Public Radio's Marketplace show tonight about a new teacher training program in Baltimore, Maryland.  While the program concentrates on prospective urban educators, the concept of "resident teachers" has been around in some form for awhile, but it has never been implemented on a wide scale at least to my knowledge.  Anyway, here's the story.

Marketplace Link:  http://www.marketplace.org/topics/education/training-urban-teachers-who-stay

Great Report.  The Center for Rural Policy and Development based in St. Peter has done a wealth of wonderful research over the past couple of decades and their recent report on the state of rural Minnesota is certainly no exception to that pattern of excellence.  Dr. Gregory Thorson has worked extremely hard over the years spelling out the plight of smaller rural districts and he has assembled a number of effective critiques on how the per pupil funding formula doesn't work for small rural districts, even with the additions of sparsity and small school funding.

Here is a link to the education portion of the Center for Rural Policy and Development's State of Rural Minnesota report that was just released:

Link:  http://www.ruralmn.org/publications/education/

Here is the homepage for the organization:  http://www.ruralmn.org/

Good Article from the Mankato Free Press.  With all the talk about the need for improved mental health and student support services in schools, there is still a shortage of trained personnel to fill the positions that are needed.  This well-written article by Jessica Bies of the Mankato Free Press points out the challenges facing school districts as they try to provide these needed services.

Link:  http://www.mankatofreepress.com/news/local_news/article_9cf94404-5c76-5f6c-b9fe-5f2daab8379a.html

Happy Day After Labor Day!  Which means Happy First Day of School!  It's always an exciting and hectic day and I'm sure transportation coordinators throughout the state are sleeping well tonight with a vast majority of any bugs out of the system and kids moved to and from school successfully.

The big news today is that approximately 60,000 students will be attending funded all-day/every day kindergarten today.  It was hailed within a news story broadcast on Channel 5 news at 6 PM.  Here is a link to that story:  http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3548698.shtml?cat=127

Here's a synopsis of new initiatives in place this fall for school districts throughout the state:  http://kstp.com/article/stories/S3548117.shtml?cat=12196

Another interesting story described changes in the Bloomington School District relating to school safety.  Bloomington has invested heavily in new student safety equipment and has implemented new procedures.  An expanded view of school safety is necessary in our increasingly complex world and kudos to Bloomington for beefing up their system.  The article didn't specify how Bloomington paid for the upgrades, but enhanced school safety needs to be part of the discussion when the funding recommendations of the Facilities Funding Task Force are before the Legislature in 2015 (which is expected).  I can't find the link to the story right now, but I will post it when I find it.

Career and Tech Education.  Here's a link to a story from the British news magazine The Economist.  It's a bit on the pricey side (approximately $150 for an annual subscription), but The Economist is one of the better news magazines out there.  It's quite corporate-friendly, but it provides a pretty straight from the hip assessment of the international political scene.

Anyway, here's a link from last week's issue on the need for career and technical education.

Link: http://www.economist.com/news/business/21613279-retooling-vocational-education-got-skills

Post-Primary Analysis.  The August 12 primary passed and there doesn't appear to be too many surprises in the results.  For the most part, endorsed candidates prevailed, with the major exception being the 1st Congressional District Republican primary, where Jim Hagedorn defeated endorsed candidate Aaron Miller.  The Hagedorn name is a familiar one in Southern Minnesota Republican circles, as Jim's father Tom served in both the Minnesota and United States House of Representatives with his ten years of combined service.  That name recognition, along with the endorsements from current and past legislators and Republican party officials in that part of the state undoubtedly made Hagedorn more formidable than your standard challenge to an endorsed candidate.  Hagedorn's margin of victory was 54% to 46%.

The marquee race in the primary was that for the Republican gubernatorial place at the top of the ticket and endorsed candidate Jeff Johnson won the "race to 30%" and prevailed rather comfortably against his three challengers.  The other main challengers--State Representative and former Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers, former State Representative and Minority Leader Marty Seifert, and Orono business owner Scott Honour all finished within three percentage points of each other, polling between 20.8 and 23.9 (Zellers 23.9%, Seifert 21.1%, and Honour 20.8%) of the vote.  Johnson's final unofficial percentage was 30.3%.

I don't think the value of the endorsement can be understated in this race.  Johnson remarked on Monday how important it was to have Republican volunteers and accurate lists of Republican voters available to him in order to target his supporters and get them to the polls.  The value of the endorsement has been debated mightily over the years, but I believe this shows that in a race where no one is going to have a huge financial advantage or some other complicating factor related to the endorsed candidate, the endorsement takes on a lot of value.

One puzzling thing to me regarding the primary is that there were actually more votes cast in the more of less uncontested DFL gubernatorial primary (slightly more than 191,000) than in the contested Republican primary (just more than 184,000).  It's always difficult to unpack primary results and the turnout this year in Minnesota was below 10% of eligible voters (proponents of an engaged populace may want to rethink moving the primary to August), but I found that surprising.

There were a number of hotly-contested legislative primaries.  Here are short re-caps of these races:

• The race with the highest profile featured 21-term State Representative Phyllis Kahn facing Minneapolis School Board member Mohamud Noor.  Kahn won the race, garnering 54% of the vote to Noor's 46%.  This was a race that was hot from the beginning as the endorsing convention surprisingly did not endorse a long-term incumbent.
• Waconia Mayor Jim Nash defeated Norwood-Young America business owner Bob Frey in the District 47A Republican primary by a margin of 59% to 41%.  There was no endorsement in this race (although Nash came close to getting the endorsement at the district convention).
• Dayton City Council member Eric Lucero defeated St. Michael City Council member Kevin Kasel 64% to 36% in the District 30B Republican primary.  Lucero was the endorsed candidate ousting sitting Representative David Fitzsimmons, largely based on Fitzsimmons' vote to legalize gay marriage, at the endorsing convention earlier this year.
• Incumbent State Representative Jennifer Loon of Eden Prairie won the District 48B Republican primary by a 61% to 39% count against challenger Sheila Kihne.  The gay marriage vote of 2013 also played a role in this race.  Like Representative Fitsimmons, Representative Loon voted to legalize gay marriage and was denied endorsement at the endorsing convention.  But unlike Fitzsimmons, Loon was able to prevent the endorsement of her opponent, which certainly helped her cause.

So, I guess the moral of the story (at least for this year) is:  the party endorsement matters.  It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Republican US Senate candidate Mike McFadden had not received his party's endorsement in June.  Self-funded candidates with access to ample resources--financial and otherwise--are the ones who can usually successfully combat the advantage of an endorsement, but we'll have to wait for another day to see if the power of the endorsement retains its strength.

The results of every race can be found at the Minnesota Secretary of State's website:  http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/ENR/home/19

Common Core Stuff.  Hard to know what to call the headline because the Common Core kerfuffle hasn't really hit Minnesota as hard as it has in other parts of the country.  That's not to say the debate has not shown up in Minnesota and I believe that discussion of the Common Core will find its way into the debate during the 2015 legislative session regardless of how the elections turn out.  Minnesota has only adopted a portion of the Common Core standards (Minnesota's math standards are considered to go beyond the Common Core) and perhaps that is why there hasn't been more discussion of the initiative in Minnesota, but there is a group--Minnesotans Against Common Core--that is holding meetings throughout the state outlining their concerns.

Minnesotans Against Common Core:  http://commoncoremn.com/

The group is holding sessions throughout the state and you may want to sit in on one just to get a feel of the debate from their angle.

Nationally, the discussion of the Common Core has taken on a much higher profile and is showing up as an issue in gubernatorial and legislative races.  The biggest drama is taking place in Louisiana, where a group of parents and the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education sued the state to keep the Common Core standards in place in Louisiana after Governor Bobby Jindal froze the testing contract related to the Common Core standards.  Jindal contended that the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education had overstepped its bounds in the matter.  A group of parents then sued Jindal for supposedly overstepping his bounds.  The parents were then joined by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which approved its participation on a 6-4 vote.  Should make for an interesting lawsuit because the issue is as much about who has the authority to "do what" or "stop what" within their constitutional powers.

Anyway, here are a couple of articles about the case:

Louisiana Story #1:  http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2014/07/pro-common_core_groups_file_su.html

Louisiana Story #2:  http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2014/07/bese_votes_to_join_common_core.html

The Ohio Legislature introduced legislation last week to pull Ohio out of the Common Core standards.  Here is a link to the news story on that move.

Ohio Story:  http://www.thenews-messenger.com/story/news/local/2014/07/28/ohio-house-leaders-move-repeal-common-core/13300155/

It's hard to know what to make of the debate.  I've lived through so many standards discussions over the years that I get fatigued just thinking about it.  Having survived the discussion over the establishment and implementation of the Profiles of Learning and their subsequent repeal, I don't know if I can survive another round.  Right now, the Common Core only governs mathematics and English Language Arts, but opponents believe the standards will go much further in the future and create a national curriculum.  Curricular content is always the third rail in these debates and while standards don't in and of themselves strictly govern content, it is still a touchy subject.

Here's an essay from the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard that sums up both the perceived pros and cons (with a fairly cynical--but not entirely inaccurate--assessment of education reform in general) of the Common Core initiative.

The Weekly Standard article:  http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/common-core-commotion_796394.html

Last, but not least, conservative commentator Glenn Beck put together a live event that was held on July 22 entitled "We Will Not Conform" that outlines his--and other commentators--opposition to the Common Core.  Unfortunately, I missed the event (and the replay), but here is a link to it.  I don't know if video or audio of the event will ever be available online.

Link:  http://wewillnotconform.com/

So that's all I've got to say on the subject.  While it hasn't hit the public imagination as aggressively in Minnesota as it has in other parts of the country, like I said earlier, I believe it will be discussed during the 2015 legislative session, so the standard I would set for everyone interested in the discussion of public education--both pro and con vis-a-vis the Common Core--is to study up on it.

Opening for a Principal.  Rockford Superintendent Paul Durand informed me last week that he is seeking applications for a high school principal.  Here is a link to the Rockford webpage if you are personally interested in the position or have a possible candidate for the district to consider:

Link:  http://district.rockford.k12.mn.us/modules/cms/announce.phtml?sessionid=f0b6f5e57907260f0198d9287490dfe9&t

Feudin' on the Reform Front.  In the wake of the ruling in the Vergara case in California and the filing of a similar case in New York City, the temperature surrounding the education reform debate--especially as it relates to teacher tenure in staffing decisions--is heating up a bit.  Well, actually more than a bit as evidenced by this article by Jonathan Chait in The Daily Intelligencer.  The latest kerfuffle and resulting Twitter war surrounds comments by Dr. Diane Ravitch regarding former CNN anchor Campbell Brown, who is now involved in efforts to revamp teacher tenure laws.

I'll just link the article and let everyone form their own opinion about Ravitch's comments and the charges and counter-charges that emerged after those comments.  Chait admits that he has a bias in the debate (his wife wrote the recently-issued report by the Center for American Progress outlining how difficult it can be to get rid of ineffective teachers) and, as a result, his comments border on snarky at some junctures.  That's not to say that his points aren't without merit (but again, Ravitch's points have merit as well).

New York Magazine Daily Intelligencer article:  http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/07/ravitch-campbell-brown-too-pretty-to-be-smart.html

Here is a link to the report cited in the article from the Center for American Progress:  http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/report/2010/03/10/7525/removing-chronically-ineffective-teachers/

Reichgott on Charter Schools.  Former State Senator Ember Reichgott, the chief author of Minnesota's charter school legislation passed in 1991 (the first charter school law in the nation) has been travelling the country for the past year-and-a-half talking about charter school laws throughout the country (and probably promoting her book "Zero Chance of Passage:  The Pioneering Charter School Story) and working to confront issues that are cropping up in the discussion surrounding charter schools.

Beth Hawkins published this article in today's MinnPost in which former Senator Reichgott Junge talks about some of the charges that charter school opponents raise in the discussion about charter school achievement and whether or not charter schools are a threat to traditional public schools.  In reading the article, I was glad to see that Reichgott Junge didn't invoke the "parents are more satisfied with their choice" line that drives me up a wall.  Maybe it's just me, but satisfaction alone should account for much of anything if enhancing achievement and fostering innovation are the goals of the program.  It's like someone going on a high-fat, high-sodium diet which would likely result in health issues going to the doctor and saying "Hey, I was really satisfied with that diet!"

Anyway, here is the link to the article:  http://www.minnpost.com/learning-curve/2014/07/ember-reichgott-junge-confronts-seven-myths-and-misconceptions-about-charter-

And here is a link to Reichgott Junge's book:  http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Chance-Passage-Pioneering-Charter/dp/1592984762

Another Interesting Study.  The one really great thing about the non-session pace of business is the fact that I get to dive into articles and studies that add new perspectives to my thinking.  Governing magazine published this article today about a Johns Hopkins University study released in June that certainly adds credence to the points of many who contend the discussion of achievement and the achievement gap go well beyond what happens in schools.  I mentioned Diane Ravitch earlier in this entry, but she, like many others, point out the difficulties experienced by many families throughout the country, especially poorer families in urban areas, and how those difficulties contribute to educational deficits.  The study zeroes in on the issue of affordable housing and how affordable housing helps provide families stability and this stability then shows up in higher test scores by students in these families.  For the most part, the findings are self-evident, but it is always helpful when data is provided that shows that the issues surrounding achievement are about more than simply schools and school structure.

Governing article:  http://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/gov-affordable-housing-equals-smarter-kids.html

Johns Hopkins link:  http://releases.jhu.edu/2014/06/09/affordable-housing-linked-to-childrens-intellectual-ability/

Next Set of Ripples from the Vergara Case.  When I first read a headline about the Vergara case, I thought "Who is suing Sofia Vergara?  I mean, Machete Kills was a lousy movie, but she wasn't that bad in it."    Imagine my surprise when I found out that the case was all about changing teacher tenure laws in California.

Seriously, for those of you who are not familiar with the case, a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge ruled early in June that California's teacher tenure laws are unconstitutional because they disproportionately affected poor and minority students in a negative way and prevented them from receiving a quality education.  Judge Rolf Treu did not mince words in his decision, stating that the tenure laws "impose a real and appreciable impact on students' right to a quality education.  The evidence is compelling.  Indeed, it shocks the conscience."

Reaction to the case has been palpable and has fallen upon predictable lines.  A number of the more strident organizations seeking broad reform of the nation's K-12 system.  Included among the voices embracing the decision, albeit slightly less aggressively, is United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (which has earned him the wrath of national teacher organizations).

A number of other education interests, particularly state and national teachers organizations are decrying the decision, but couching their language in terms that is sympathetic to the students and families who brought the case with the assistance of Students Matter, a California-based education advocacy organization founded by high tech entrepreneur David Welch.

Implementation of a new system has been stayed until all appeals are exhausted and the defendants in the case have every intention of appealing the case.  That delay has not stalled efforts on the part of a number of reformers to seize the momentum and a similar case was filed in New York last week.

One of the interesting aspects that has not been reported is that it was funding equity litigation in California (Serrano v. Priest, 1971) which was first filed in 1968 and subsequently unleashed a wave equity lawsuits nationally, including the lawsuit--Van Dusartz v. Hatfield--that brought about the Minnesota Miracle.  They say as "Maine goes, so goes the nation," but it appears that California is the stepping off point for broad-ranging litigation on education issues.  Given that repeal of "last in/first out" was passed by the Minnesota Legislature in 2012 (and vetoed by Governor Dayton), there may be interest in pursuing litigation in a similar vein as Vergara in Minnesota.

Here are a veritable plethora of links on the Vergara case and the recently-filed case in New York.

Los Angeles Times on Vergara:  http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-teacher-lawsuit-20140611-story.html#page=1

Arne Duncan Statement on Vergara:  http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/statement-us-secretary-education-arne-duncan-regarding-decision-vergara-v-califo

Students Matter Website (with timeline on court case):  http://studentsmatter.org/

AFT President Randi Weingarten statement on Vergara:  http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/statement-us-secretary-education-arne-duncan-regarding-decision-vergara-v-califo

AFT President Randi Weingarten on Arne Duncan's Vergara Statement: in Washington Post:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/06/12/afts-weingarten-smacks-arne-duncan-about-his-praise-for-vergara-decision/

MinnPost article on likelihood of "Vergara in Minnesota":  http://www.minnpost.com/learning-curve/2014/06/could-californias-teacher-tenure-lawsuit-come-minnesota

MinnPost interview with EM President Denise Sprecht:  http://www.minnpost.com/learning-curve/2014/06/minnesota-schools-teacher-tenure-really-problem

New York Times article on Similar lawsuit in New York City:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/04/nyregion/lawsuit-contests-new-yorks-teacher-tenure-laws.html?_r=0

New York City Parents Union:  Organization supporting the plaintiffs in New York City case::  http://www.nycparentsunion.org/

Interesting Thought Experiment.  Although I don't always agree with its perspective (especially on matters of business and finance), I truly value my subscription to The Economist.   In my more cynical moments, I've always believed that if we successfully taught critical thinking to students and gave everyone a subscription to The New York Times and The Economist, the rest of the news media would go out of business.  But that's not where we're at, so onward we go.

When I was paging through a recent issue of The Economist, I came across this article and thought it would make a great thought experiment.  It seems that Great Britain's education secretary Michael Gove is a bit outspoken and is speaking outside the realm of his office, causing some problems for British Prime Minister David Cameron.  It doesn't appear he's reached the level of mad-quotability of Martha Mitchell (anyone under 55 is probably going to have to hit Wikipedia for the tortured relevance of that reference), but that's not the angle of the article that piqued my interest.

If you head to the fourth paragraph and erase all the names, you'll find the discussion strikingly similar to the discussion we are having in the United States surrounding education reform initiatives.  Higher standards, school choice, and criticism of unions is all there reminiscent of the discussion currently taking place on this side of the Atlantic.

Even in his wildest moments, I doubt United States Education Secretary Arne Duncan would wander into as many verbal thickets as Gove seems to with regularity, but Duncan does sidle up close to some of the territory Gove has staked out in his attempt to reform British education.

Anyway, make your own judgments and if you have $150 lying around, I strongly recommend a subscription to The Economist.

Article on British education secretary Michael Gove in The Economist:  http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21604179-tory-education-secretary-stirs-strong-feelings-largely-his-credit-michael-gove

PS--Here's another link on the debate over British education reform policies that was published at The Economist's website shortly after the article linked above:  http://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2014/06/education-reform-1?zid=316&ah=2f6fb672faf113fdd3b11cd1b1bf8a77