Perpich School Under Scrutiny. The Office of the Legislative Auditor has released its report on the Perpich Center for Arts Education and the report points out some problems that have arisen at the school. Several of the issues deal with the decision by the Center to undertake a formal relationship with the Crosswinds Arts and Science School, a charter school that has been managed by the Perpich Center since the East Metro Integration District was disbanded. The Legislative Auditor's report was heard in both the House Education Innovation Policy Committee and the Senate E-12 Policy Committee. Here is a link to the report: Executive Summary Full Report
The House Education Finance Committee heard from a number of groups on programs that supply college credit to high school students, including Post-Secondary Enrollment Options, Concurrent Enrollment, and Advanced Placement. With the five-year reprieve from the Higher Learning Commission requirement that instructors of concurrent enrollment classes to have either a Master's Degree or eighteen credits in the curricular area they are teaching for college credit, the discussion surrounding these programs will certainly pick up steam. House Passes Health Insurance Premium Relief Bill. The full House passed SF 1--the bill that would provide relief to MN Sure clients who have experienced large premium increases--on a vote of 73-54 (straight party line) this afternoon. The bill will now go to a conference committee to iron out differences between the House and Senate bills. The challenge for the Legislature will be to construct a bill that will get the Governor's approval. This is a pressing matter, as the enrollment period for MN Sure ends on January 30 and everyone involved would like to have this issue resolved by then. The primary difference between the Governor and the Legislature appears to be over how the rebate will be delivered. The Governor would like insurance companies to simply drop the premium by 25% for those consumers that are affected by the increases while the Legislature wants the consumers to apply for the rebates and have their incomes verified before receiving the rebate. This will be the first test of whether the process can "get to yes" on major issues.
Committee Reports. The two education committees that met today--the House E-12 Finance Committee and the Senate E-12 Funding Division--heard reports from various stakeholders in Minnesota's education arena. The House Education Finance Committee listened to an overview of Minnesota's charter school network; what differentiates them from traditional public schools in terms of requirements and organization. The Senate E-12 Finance Committee held a joint committee meeting with the Senate Committee on Human Services Reform Finance and Policy. The meeting was dedicated to areas where the health and human services system and education systems work together. Much of this work comes in the area where childcare and early education intersect. The committees heard from several sites where the two systems are working together well to meet the needs of students and their families. Lifelong Learning. The Economist put together a great special report on lifelong learning in its latest issue. One of the challenges for workers in the modern workforce is to keep their skills sharp and relevant in an ever-changing economy. This set of articles has a lot of very good insight (we wouldn't expect less from The Economist?) With President-elect Trump talking about the need for career and technical education and state policymakers also looking to find ways to enhance applied learning opportunities, this material couldn't come at a more opportune time. I have linked the six articles that comprise the report below: Lifelong Learning Has Become and Economic Imperative
Back to Work. The three-day weekend is over and the Legislature reconvened today with a full set of hearings and floor sessions. The Education Innovation Committee met this morning and went over the recommendations of the Legislative Study Group on Educator Licensing. The report is not particularly long and it doesn't contain specific recommendations as to where a single licensing entity should be located (Board of Teaching or Minnesota Department of Education) or provide the exact outline of a tiered-licensure system, but it does give a framework from which the Legislature will be able to pursue and complete the task for streamlining Minnesota's educator licensing system and helping clarify what teaching candidates need to complete before being granted a full Minnesota teacher license. Here is a link to the report: 2016 Report of Legislative Study Group on Educator Licensing
The House Education Finance Committee devoted its hearing to the early education issue, with presentations from the Minnesota Department of Education and Ericca Maas from Parent Aware for School Readiness. There will be a lot of debate as the session continues over the proper direction for early childhood education and whether early childhood scholarships are better than (or perhaps mutually exclusive from) school-based programs paid for by increased pupil weighting. The Senate Education Policy Committee covered the report from the Career and Technical Educator Licensing Task Force. This report has some very specific recommendations that will likely dovetail with the larger teacher licensure questions that were raised by the Legislative Study Group on Educator Licensing. Foremost among these recommendations are:
Consideration of alternative requirements to be a career and technical education instructor short of a baccalaureate degree.
Allowing two-year accredited institutions to offer content-related teacher preparation programs for prospective career and technical educators.
Creation of incentives for eligible institutions to provide alternative paths to licensure.
There was another interesting hearing outside of the education committees that may well have an effect on the education community. The House Health and Human Services Policy Committee heard the report of the Governor's Task Force on Mental Health. Like many reports, this one is not heavy on focused recommendations, but it does provide a framework from which more effective and transparent mental health care can be available for Minnesota citizens. Schools will play a role in this system and that was made clear from the testimony and questions from legislators. Here is a link to that report: Governor's Task Force on Mental Health Report
Federal Watch. The confirmation hearing for Secretary-designee Betsy Devos began on Wednesday and it sounds like it was a free-wheeling affair. I will say this about the Secretary-designee. Whatever her positions, I have never seen a reaction to a proposed Secretary of Education like this one.
Triple-Header. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be triple-headers on the schedules of education lobbyists this session, with the House Education Innovation Policy Committee meeting at 8:15 AM, the House Education Finance Committee meeting at 1:00 PM, and the Senate Education Policy Committee meeting at 4:00. There are also floor sessions in both the House and Senate on Thursdays as well, so things are hopping all day long. The House Education Innovation Policy Committee received an outline of the committee's jurisdiction and the description of the duties of a variety of education-related boards and commissions this morning from new House education counsel Cristina Parra. Ms. Parra is replacing long-time House education counsel Lisa Larson who held the position for 30 years. The committee also heard from several education groups that did not testify during Tuesday's hearing. The House Education Finance Committee held a joint hearing with the House Education Innovation Policy Committee in one of the new Capitol hearing rooms in the early afternoon. If this room is any indication, the refurbished Capitol hearing rooms are fantastic. The agenda consisted entirely of Commissioner of Education Brenda Cassellius giving a status report on a number of initiatives that the Legislature passed last biennium. Senate Education Policy Chair Eric Pratt's committee took more testimony from education stakeholders. I provided SEE's testimony on Tuesday and there were a lot of common themes coming from most education groups: (1) teacher shortage, (2) other teacher licensure issues, and (3) greater flexibility for school districts. Given the schedule, I couldn't get over to the MSBA convention today. Hopefully, the weather won't stall my car and I can see a lot of SEE folks tomorrow morning. Recommendations of Legislative Study Group on Teacher Licensing. The report and recommendations are complete and the document will be presented next Tuesday in the House Education Innovation Policy Committee. I wish I could figure out how to post it here, but I should be able to get it out to everyone by the weekend.
A Double Header of Hearings. The House Education Funding Committee's hearing was once again dedicated to a tutorial conducted by Tim Strom and Emily Adriaens. I will post the Powerpoint used to describe Minnesota's education funding system once it is put on the committee's website. The Senate Education E-12 Funding Committee featured a presentation by Mark Haveman, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence on a 2015 report from the organization entitled How Much is Enough? The Implications of School District Labor Cost Trends for State Education Aid. The report is fairly straightforward, but it takes a few pages to get to the main point of the report, which is given the cost structure of Minnesota's education labor market there is an impending resource shortage if the cost structure isn't altered. The report provides some recommendations, mostly surrounding the need to move away from the unified step-and-lane salary schedules used in a vast majority of school districts and to make certain that categorical revenue is used efficiently to meet the intended needs of these formulas. Something the report doesn't say (but it may infer) is that the property tax may need to play a larger role in education funding. For that to happen, there will need to be more revenue dedicated to the referendum equalization program. This discussion puts me in the Way Back Machine with Mr. Peabody (come to think of it, I kind of look like Sherman) to the year 2001 when the Ventura Administration got rid of the general education levy and made the basic formula totally dependent on state aid. A lot of us warned policy makers of what might happen if the formula became too dependent on state aid and, sure enough, within a year, the state was short on revenue and there was no general education levy to fall back upon to provide additional resources to school districts. On top of that, districts that could pass referenda soon began to widen the revenue gap between themselves and districts that couldn't, which was largely a function of equalization factors not being adjusted upward to reflect the statewide growth in property tax wealth. With the upward adjustment of the first tier referendum equalizing factor in 2013 and the creation of local option revenue in 2014, the gap that had grown throughout the first decade of the 21st century narrowed dramatically. If we don't continue to pay attention and keep adjusting the equalization factors to reflect statewide property wealth growth, these gains in terms of equity may be sacrificed in the name of adequacy, and it will only be adequacy for some (those fortunate enough to pass referenda). Here is a link to the report: MCFE Report on Education Labor Costs
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Hearings Update. As reported yesterday, the two education policy-related committees--the House Education Innovation Policy Committee and the Senate Education Policy Committee--held their first hearings today. Both committees' time was dedicated to having the members of the committee introduce themselves, introducing staff members, going over the procedures that will be followed by the committee and testimony from a variety of education stakeholders (including SEE). The House E-12 Funding Committee also held its first hearing and the proceedings were similar with the sole difference being the committee did not hear from stakeholders, but instead got a tutorial on Minnesota's education funding system from longtime House Research analyst Tim Strom and new House fiscal analyst Emily Adriaens. Tomorrow's hearings will feature more of the same, with the only education-related committees on tap are the two finance divisions. The House will continue its tutorial with staff while the Senate will hear from Mark Haveman, Executive Director of the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence, on cost trends in public education.
Monday, January 09, 2017
First Hearing of the Year. The Senate E-12 Funding Committee had its first meeting of the year and it was also the first hearing for any education-related committee this session. The agenda featured testimony from Amelia Cruver from Minnesota Management and Budget and Dr. Tom Melcher from the Minnesota Department of Education. Their testimony dealt with the increases in the base budget for E-12 education in the coming biennium and where the increases are coming from. The two biggest drivers of increased funding in the budget is the third year phase-in of the Long Term Facilities Maintenance Revenue program and pupil growth. Dr. Melcher also discussed the Governor's proposal to increase debt service equalization by lowering the second-tier eligibility threshold. A number of SEE districts do very well with this proposed change and as I said in a blog entry last week, SEE is extremely appreciative of the Governor's decision to include this provision in his tax proposal. There will be three education-related hearings tomorrow. The House Education Innovation Policy Committee meets tomorrow morning at 8:15 AM. The House E-12 Funding Committee meets at 1:00 PM. The day wraps up with the Senate Education Policy Committee at 3:00 PM. The policy committees will be taking testimony from a variety of education organizations outlining their priorities for the 2017 legislative session. Bill Introductions--January 9, 2017
Good News in Governor's Tax Proposal. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor released their tax cut proposal today and the proposal includes an increase in debt service equalization. Obviously, having increased debt service equalization officially on the table for the 2017 session is a plus, but the second positive angle of this proposal is that it is in the Governor's tax bill and not in his education budget. The Governor's tax bill also includes the Agricultural Bond Credit that provides considerable relief for owners of agricultural property for the portion of their property tax bill that goes toward school building bond debt. The projected cost of the bill is $34 million annually for the Agricultural Bond Credit and $60 million over four years for the increase in debt service equalization. The increase in debt service equalization results from a reduction in the second tier eligibility threshold from 26.24% to 22.34% for FY 18 and 19.00% for FY 19 and beyond. Here is a link to the press release from the Governor's office on his entire tax cut proposal: Governor Mark Dayton and Lt. Governor Tina Smith Propose Tax Cuts for Over 450,000 Minnesotans
Bill Introductions. It wasn't a heavy day for bill introductions, but a number of prominent items were introduced. At the top of the introductions in both the House and Senate is the bill to provide assistance for participants in MNSure with their premium increases. This will be the hottest item on the early-session agenda and the discussion could portend how the rest of the session will go. Below are the House and Senate introductions pertaining to education issues with the chief author, a short description, and an embedded link to the bill's language in the title.
Senator Wiger's increased equalization bill is the same bill he introduced last session. It increases the 2nd tier from $760/PU to $1,000/PU and increases the referendum market value equalizing factor from $510,000/PU to $650,000/PU. It's good to see the equalization issue surfacing this soon in the session. Hopefully, we can build on this promising start.
Wednesday, January 04, 2017
Quiet Second Day. Legislators are getting their bearings and there was no real action at the Legislature today. I hope to post some pics of the newly-remodeled Capitol. I haven't had the chance to see much of anything above the tunnel level to this point, but I will say that the revamped basement level is absolutely magnificent. There is a new reception area that can be used for press conferences or presentations along with the remodeled Rathskaller (Cafeteria). It's all very impressive. With not much happening at the state level today, I thought I would post a couple of articles from national publications about what might be coming from the Trump administration as early as this spring. Here's an article from Education Week: Donald Trump and K-12: 5 Things to Watch in 2017
And here's an article from The American Prospect. Be forewarned, the American Prospect writes from a perspective that is solidly left-of-center, so the views here do not necessarily reflect those of the blog master. The War on Public Schools
Tuesday, January 03, 2017
And We're Off. The 2017 legislative session began today. The old first-day saying of "Everyone got sworn in and no one got sworn at" rang true today as the returning House majority and new Senate majority officially elected its leadership and approved the committee assignments. The only House leadership change is that of House Minority Leader, with Representative Melissa Hortmann taking over for Representative Paul Thissen. Speaker Kurt Daudt and House Majority Leader Joyce Peppin retained their leadership positions. The Senate's Republican majority will be led by Senator Paul Gazelka with Senator Tom Bakk flipping from Senate Majority Leader to Senate Minority Leader as the head of the DFL caucus. It will be a quiet week in terms of hearings, with a very light schedule. They have set up the education committees this year so that there is no overlap. There will be some long days, with the House Education Innovation Policy meeting at 8:30 AM on Tuesday and Thursday and the House Education Funding Committee meeting at 1:00 PM on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons. The Senate Education-related committees will be meeting at 3:00 PM on Monday through Thursday, with the Education Finance Division meeting on Monday and Wednesday during that time slot and the Education Policy Committee meeting on Tuesday and Thursday. Here are the home pages for the four education-related committees. The Senate web pages do not have the committee rosters updated at this point: House Education Finance
Senate Committee Chairs Named. Given the plethora of analysis in the wake of the election, I resisted putting in my own one-and-a-half cents, but needless to say things changed dramatically in Minnesota with the Republicans taking control of the State Senate. Just yesterday, the new Senate leadership headed up by Majority Leader-designate Paul Gazelka of Nisswa announced its committee structure and the chair-designates for each of those committees and subcommittees. The good news for SEE members is that all of the key players on education and tax policy are familiar with SEE's positions on tax fairness and education funding issues. That certainly doesn't ensure a complete adoption of SEE's platform (a lad can dream), but the learning curve will not be as steep on the finer points of the organization's mission Here is a story from Minnesota Public Radio outlining the Senate Republicans' new committee structure and the chair-designees. Republican Committee Chairs National Education Policy. Education did not receive a lot of attention during the Presidential campaign and with the election of Donald Trump, things are foggier than they would have been had Hillary Clinton won. A Clinton administration's policies toward education would have likely been an extension of what was established under President Obama, which for the most part are variations on the same theme first embarked upon during the administration of former President George H.W. Bush (Bush 41 for those of you keep score at home). The only inkling of where President-elect Trump's education policy will go comes in the area of charter schools and school choice. Early indications are that policy may tilt that way. To what extent is anyone's guess. All I know is Diane Ravitch is a bit worried, as reflected in this article from The New York Review of Books. When the Public Goes Private, as Trump Wants: What Happens?
Whether or not Ravitch's concerns are premature remains to be seen. Here is an article from The New York Times that provides some light on President-elect Trump's statements on education from the campaign trail, but there's a lot of open policy space left on issues that have yet to be touched upon. Where Donald Trump Stands on School Choice, Student Debt and the Common Core
Two Days in a Row! There were so many ideas rolling around in my head last night, I didn't get them all down in cyberspace, so here are a couple of additional items. Ted Kolderie Charter School Piece. Minnesota education reformer Ted Kolderie had a really insightful piece in the Sunday Minneapolis StarTribune. In the piece, Kolderie attempts to steer a middle-ground between the anti-charter school lobby and those who believe that charter schools are the answer to all of Minnesota's (and the nation's) educational woes. He also urges getting back to the original focus of charter schools, which was to launch innovative instructional practices in hopes of finding methods that can be exported to the school population at large. Kolderie also touches on the Innovation Zone program promoted by Education/Evolving and MASA and adopted by the Legislature several years ago. This legislation has allowed a select number of districts to be relieved of some state mandates and think outside the box on the delivery of instruction and assessment. The article also looks at the teacher-led school movement and how that might contribute to innovation as well. It's a very good piece and certainly worth the read. How to Improve Public Education? All of the Above.
Presidential Education Platforms. There hasn't been much discussion of education policy in the Presidential race, but ABC news published this short item two days ago outlining the differences that exist between the candidates. The major difference emanates from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's greatly expanded set of school choice options, especially for students in failing schools. While the details are murky (seeing that Federal contribution to public education hovers at less than 10% of total revenue nationally). Would the portability proposed by Trump only apply to Federal funds or would states be required to have state (and perhaps local) revenue follow students who choose an option other than their local school district? Here is a link to the article. Clinton's and Trump's Plans to Help Education Differ Sharply
Monday, September 12, 2016
Election Update. Election year means election coverage and MinnPost has put together a list of the 25 most-watched legislative races this go-round. Given the uncertain nature of this year's presidential race, there could be more than 25 seats that will be in play. We've seen this before in Minnesota when a non-traditional candidate (and I think it's safe to call Donald Trump a non-traditional candidate without having it seem like an insult) threw a wrench into standard voting patterns. We have eight weeks until election day and we will certainly see a plethora of activity between now and then. Here is the MinnPost article on their legislative races to watch. The 25 legislative races to watch in Minnesota in 2016
One really solid Twitter user to follow for election news is former Republican party communications director Michael Brodkorb. Michael does a really great job at finding below-the-radar items and he's balanced in the items he posts.
Litigation Update. SEE Past-President Scott Hansen asked me at our Executive Board meeting last week if I had been following the school adequacy lawsuit in Connecticut. I hadn't and I was happy that Scott clued me in. For those of you who weren't aware, Judge Thomas Moukawsher ruled last week that Connecticut was "defaulting on its duty" to provide a quality education to all of the state's students. If his comments would have stopped there, it would have been one thing, but Judge Moukawsher's ripped into Connecticut's funding system and a variety of other quality-assurance measures which he deemed totally inadequate, especially for students in racially- and economically-diverse school districts that are typically among the lowest funded school districts in the state. While differentials in available revenue was the impetus for the lawsuit, many observers believe that the comprehensive ruling has more to do with tepid reform efforts that purportedly aim to close academic achievement gaps. What is odd here is that Education Week gave Connecticut a B- grade for its overall system with a B+ in funding adequacy measures and a B in funding equity measures in its 2016 Quality Counts ranking. Like Connecticut, Minnesota was accorded a B- grade in the annual rankings, but its funding grades were a D for adequacy and a B+ for equity (Frankly, I don't think Education Week understands our equity issues in Minnesota very well, at least when it comes to property wealth differentials). So, would a legal challenge have a chance in Minnesota? Difficult to tell and I always remind people that litigation is an iffy proposition even with a glaring case of inadequate or inequitable funding. That said, I have been sitting in MDE's Assessment Advisory Committee that is charged with reviewing the state's plan to comply with the requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The task ahead of that Committee is daunting, but as I have listened and participated it has gotten me wondering about how we concentrate almost exclusively on the achievement gap (which is extremely important) while ignoring the opportunity gap (which is also important). At the last meeting, the inclusion of science in the battery of state-measured tests was included. Proponents believe that only when something is tested does it become important to students. My response then (and my opinion has only strengthened since) is that we only measure about 40% of the curriculum now and it's all important to students, especially for those non-college bound students. Adding another test for a hard academic subject while continuing to overlook the importance of career and technical education and other subject matter that falls under the "applied knowledge" category will only educationally pauperize a large number of students further. But to maintain costly career and technical education programs and higher technology requires an investment of revenue in these programs that has been sorely lacking over the last two decades. One barrier to successful litigation in Minnesota is that the Legislature and successive gubernatorial administrations have created an array of categorical programs that attempt to address demographic differences that exist in Minnesota and geographic challenges that a number of small rural districts face. To be successful, it appears any litigation would have to be an effort that would encompass all Minnesota districts contending that the basic revenue provided to all districts is well below what it needs to be in order to provide all children with quality educational opportunities. Given our D grade in funding adequacy and the clear need to provide a broader array of student learning opportunities, maybe litigation is in order.
School is Back! Alice Cooper sang "school's out for summer," but I always expected a follow-up like "school's back for fall, winter, and spring" but none was coming. He's still recording, so maybe it's in the works. For some folks, it's been more than a week, but most school years commenced yesterday. I imagine phones were ringing steadily in a lot of districts as parents were trying to get their kids to the right bus stop at the right time and schools were virtual beehive with kids trying to find their way to class on time. So welcome back everyone. I hope to be posting more as the legislative scene will be heating up now that we are past Labor Day. There's a lot going on and the SEE program year has started. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions or comments about what's happening on the campaign front and I'm always happy to come out to member districts to participate in legislative forums or meet with school boards and district administrations. Plug for Early Childhood. I'm certain Governor Dayton will be pursuing more money for his pre-kindergarten program during the 2017 session and this article from The New York Times from a couple weeks back may be cited as the Governor tries to make a case for greater investment in the project. The Good News about Educational Inequality (Oddly worded title). Charter School Scrutiny. There's been a considerable amount of national attention aimed at charter schools this summer. I'm not going to post a link to the profanity-laced story on John Oliver's HBO Last Week Tonight (this is a G-rated site after all) that aired last month, but I will post this story from The American Prospect. The Great Diverson
The article concentrates on the city of Boston, but what portions of the article are applicable to issues relating to charters nationally.
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Primary Dust Has Settled. We now have the formal match-ups in the legislative races after Tuesday's primaries eliminated challengers in a number of legislative districts. The highest profile primary saw Minneapolis neighborhood activist Ihlan Omar defeat 44-year legislative veteran Phyllis Kahn and former Minneapolis School Board member Mohamud Noor by slightly over 10 percentage points in the three-person race (41% for Omar and just under 30% for both Kahn and Noor). While this race garnered the most attention in statewide pre-primary discussions, just to the west of this district, another refugee--Fue Lee--defeated 10-term incumbent Joe Mullery by a 56%-44% margin. The biographies of both Omar and Lee are very inspiring and history buff that I am, I see these events in the same light as breakthroughs by other immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries. While both of these candidates face general election opposition, it is expected both will win in November and the perspectives they will bring to the Legislature will certainly be new and interesting. Two other incumbent legislators--these from SEE country--were also unseated in the primary, as Senator Sean Nienow and Representative Tom Hackbarth were defeated by Mark Koran and Cal Bahr respectively. Both Nienow and Hackbarth were denied the endorsement of their local Republican party activists, which made for an uphill battle in the primary. Nienow was defeated by a 64%-36% margin, while Hackbarth came out on the short end of a 57%-43% vote spread. There were several other primary battles in the heart of SEE country, as House Speaker Kurt Daudt staved off a challenge from Alan Duff, winning his race by a 72%-28% margin. In House District 15A, House Education Reform Committee Chair Sondra Erickson defeated challenger Tom Heinks by 74% to 26%. There was also a primary in the Senate District 15 to replace the retiring Senator Dave Brown, with GOP-endorsed Andrew Mathews defeating former Princeton School Board member (and SEE rep) Dan Whitcomb by a 64% to 36% margin. Here is a of story on the primary results: StarTribune
So now it is on to November. One of the interesting things about Minnesota this election season is that it appears three of our Congressional Races--the 2nd, 3rd, and 8th--will be receiving national attention. Get ready for lots of ads (and I am sure most of them will be of one candidate extolling the virtues of their opposition). I plan to be busy during the election season and hope to get out and visit with as many candidates as I can. Obviously, I will clear that with local SEE members before I do that and I welcome any invitation by SEE member districts as they stage legislative fora or schedule visits with candidates. My goal is to elevate discussion of our tax equity message and the need for funding adequacy during the campaign season. ESSA Panel Begins Its Work. MDE has convened the ESSA Accountability Advisory Committee with a seven-meeting schedule taking place between early August (first meeting was August 2) and November. The goal of the meetings is to develop a broad-based set of accountability measures that will fit with the requirements of the new federal law. I am serving on the committee and I will be polling many of you to garner ideas of what our organization would like to see included (or not included as the case may be) in Minnesota's network of accountability measures. Reading List Suggestions. Avid reader that I am (and it's so much fun not to be reading spreadsheets and bills so far this summer), I've been catching up on some interesting books over the summer. One thing I've been trying to do is make sense of the current political climate, so I've delved into some off-the-beaten-track tomes to try to get a better handle on things. Here are a few suggestions:
This is a book from the late-1990s that was updated to include the results from the 2000 Presidential Election, but it documents the movement of the white working class away from the Democratic Party. Teixeira leans left in his sensibilities, but what he outlines in this book eerily portends what we are seeing in 2016. Four stars! Here's a link to the book: America's Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters
This is a very interesting book that outlines the causes of the economic meltdown of the late-aughts and provides some insight about what might have been done to alleviate the effects of the collapse in housing prices instead of what was done. If you have econophobia, mathophobia, or are allergic to academic jargon, the book can be a bit of a slog, but it is interesting. As those of you in SEE districts recall, the collapse of the housing market was especially keen in your districts and this provides some insight as to why. I'll go 3 1/2 stars on this one. Link: House of Debt
Conservative Professor of Political Science at Hillsdale College D.G. Hart provides a very interesting history of the involvement of evangelicals of both the left and right in his From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin. Like Teixeira's book on the white working class, this book provides solid history. While Teixeira's book looks at elections since the 1970s, Hart's work goes back much further in American political and social history to map the effects that evangelicals have had on our political process. 4 stars all the way. Link: From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin
How About Reading Something More Fun? I am now living with a published author, as my wife Randi has had a short story published in the recently-released collection Cooked to Death. Color me proud! Without sounding biased, I just want to say this is a really great collection of works by local mystery writers. Having been to a reading and perusing some of the other stories on my own, this is a great set of little mysteries all revolving around the theme of food (and murder!). Like all great works, it's available at Amazon. Here's the review from the St. Paul Pioneer Press: Cooked to Death Review (Note that my wife's story is mentioned).
Busy Month of July. July has been hot in Minnesota, but there's been plenty of action on the education front since I last wrote in late June. The two working groups--one on teacher licensure the other on school discipline--have begun their work in earnest and will be moving along throughout the interim. The teacher licensure group met once in mid-June and once again in mid-July. At the July meeting, testimony was taken from the Board of Teaching, the Minnesota Department of Education, the Board of School Administrators, and Board of Architectural, Engineering, Land Surveying, Landscape Architecture, Geoscience, and Interior Design (AELSLAGID) (Now that's an acronym). The testimony was very straightforward by all of the groups as they each outlined their duties and where they fit in the scheme of educator licensing. The notable exception (playing the Sesame Street "which of these things is not like the other game") was the AELSLAGID. That group--headed up by Executive Director Doreen Frost--was brought in to describe how a single licensing board could work with a variety of different vocational groups. I believe this plays to the possibility of having one educator licensing board (or agency) that would subsume all of the duties currently spread between MDE, the Board of Teaching, and the Board of School Administrators. One group that has yet to be called upon in the licensure discussion is higher education and bringing them into the discussion will be crucial if this effort is to meet with success. Here is a link to the Legislative Study Group on Educator Licensure. It is the July 21, 2016, meeting:Legislative Study Group on Educator Licensure
The Student Discipline Working Group met in mid-July. After sorting out several housekeeping measures, the group heard reports on the Pupil Fair Dismissal Act and statistics relating to the number and types of students who have been removed from school setting under the purview of the act. Here is a link to the Student Discipline Working Group on the MDE web page: Student Discipline Working Group
Grant Possibilities. The guidelines for applying for a number of the grant programs that were approved in 2016 are making their way to the MDE open grants page. Here is the latest: Support Our Students Grant Program
The link for that grant is at the bottom of the open grants page. This grant program requires a local match (50% for the first four years and 75% for the last two) in an attempt to bring more school social workers, school psychologists, guidance counselors, school nurses, and chemical dependency counselor into school settings. The bill that created the grant program was authored by Senator Susan Kent and Representative Alice Hausman. The grants, as explained somewhat above, would run for six years. This is a competitive grant program and school districts and cooperative units are eligible to apply. The expansion of the pre-kindergarten program will not be run on a competitive grant basis, but will instead be awarded on the ranking of free or reduced price lunch percentage in a school district along with the availability of three- or four-star childcare programs in the district. Here is a list showing which districts and charter schools applied. Who gets funded and for how much will be announced on August 1, 2016. Status Report on Pre-Kindergarten Funding
Kansas Still in a Tizzy. Kansas has been the site of a lot of school funding litigation over the past two decades. In 2005, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the state's education funding system was unconstitutional and required an infusion of additional revenue distributed more fairly to meet constitutional muster. The court's dictate was met over the next two years, with over $750 million in new revenue being approved for public schools. But things began to fall apart--in large part due to the financial crisis--and a group filed to re-open the Montoy lawsuit (what got the ball rolling earlier in the decade) to remedy the reneging on the Supreme Court's decision of 2005. That motion was dismissed. In absence of a decision to re-open Montoy, a new lawsuit (Gannon v. the State of Kansas) was filed in late 2010. After four years in the courts, the Kansas Supreme Court once again ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and found the education funding system to be unconstitutional. As in the case of Montoy, the Kansas Legislature tried to remedy the situation, but as late as May, the Supreme Court has refused to sign off on the Legislature's work, leaving the system unconstitutional. I found this article from The New York Times to be interesting, as it pointed out a somewhat new angle in the underlying opposition to public education funding. NYT article on Kansas Education Funding
Special Session Rumblings. After a number of fits and starts, it appears that a special session to clean up unfinished business from the 2016 Legislative Session may take place in mid- to late-August. I think the one item everyone agrees on is the need to re-pass a tax bill. As you recall, that was vetoed in May due to a one-word mistake (albeit a very costly one-word mistake). What makes the tax bill extremely important to a number of SEE members is the Agricultural Bond Credit that would provide a direct-to-taxpayer credit to owners of agricultural property worth 40% of the property tax burden attributable to school debt service. That would be a big plus to both farmers and the districts with high concentrations of agricultural property. Summertime Means Road Time. Just a reminder that I'm always available to come out to board meetings and the like during the summer months. I'm especially interested in getting out to meet legislative candidates, so if you are having events including these candidates where my presence might be helpful (or at least tolerated), don't hesitate to contact me.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Regional Meetings Complete. Our round of regional meetings ended on Monday so we are now in full preparation mode for the 2016 election season and the 2017 legislative session. At this point in time, the chances of a special session are dwindling by the day and the Brexit vote last week has probably injected just enough uncertainty into the budget forecast to make legislators increasingly wary of moving forward. In the absence of a session, the opposing viewpoints will be played out writ large during the campaign season. One of the ironic things of the session is that the bill that was probably deemed least likely to pass this year--the omnibus supplemental budget bill--passed while the three bills that on the top of the pre-session priority list--the tax bill, the transportation bill, and the bonding bill--did not. It will be interesting to see how that is framed moving forward. The primary points brought up by regional meeting participants dealt with both funding and tax fairness. School districts throughout the state are in cut mode once again and the main reasons for that are the failure of the general education basic formula to keep pace with inflation over the past decade and the continuing cross-subsidy of state-mandated special education costs from school district general funds. Those will be two items we will be concentrating on in the year ahead along with our traditional commitment to tax fairness. We did have the opportunity to promote referendum and debt service equalization during the 2016 session along with the agricultural school bond credit that was part of the vetoed tax bill. All of those property tax-related items will also be part of our 2017 platform. Thanks to all who participated in the regional meetings. It's great to hear from the many voices that comprise the organization. Teacher Licensure Task Force Begins Its Work. The legislative task force that will take the recommendations contained in the Legislative Auditor's 2016 report on Minnesota's teacher licensure system. Today's meeting centered on the main recommendations in the report and provided a broad outline of how it will proceed. The task force members are as follows:
House
Representative Sondra Erickson, co-chair
Representative Jenifer Loon
Representative Drew Christensen
Representative Jim Davnie
Representative Carlos Mariani
Representative Barb Yarusso
Senate
Senator Chuck Wiger, co-chair
Senator Kevin Dahle
Senator Greg Clausen
Senator Gary Dahms
Senator Eric Pratt
Senator Karen Housley
One item that was mentioned today in Ms. Randall's testimony that hasn't gotten a lot of attention to this point is the incorporation of the duties of the Board of School Administrators into a single board that will also deal with teacher licensure. While that suggestion was contained in the Legislative Auditor's report, the focus on the teacher licensure part of the equation kept further discussion in the background.
Book Recommendation. One great thing about the legislative interim is there is less reading of bills and spreadsheets and more reading of books. Here is a title--The End of Power by Moises Naim--I came across and found particularly interesting and insightful. It outlines how institutions have eroded over the past few decades and how that changes the way the world works in terms of politics, education, and business.
As an added bonus, here is an interview with Moises Naim from the Agenda with Steve Palkin.
Congrats to Rockford! This MinnPost article is almost a month old and I should have gotten it up sooner, but MinnPost reporter Erin Hinrichs featured the STRIVE program at Rockford high school that has helped students get back on track academically and prepare for their next step.
Latest from the Front. Not a lot of progress toward the calling of a special session last week. The parties will be meeting again this week, but things seem to have come to loggerheads. The Governor and the Senate want a bigger bonding bill, but getting a bonding bill larger than the $800 million package passed by the House the last night of session may be difficult. Without a bonding bill, there will be no tax bill and everything goes onto the bottom line for next session. It's difficult to know the mindset of the Governor and legislative leadership at this juncture. Because the biennial budget has already been set, nothing had to happen this year and it is a little surprising that the only major piece of legislation to pass and be signed into law was the omnibus supplemental budget bill, which seemed to be rank below the tax bill, bonding bill, and transportation bill in terms of the priorities laid out prior to the legislative session. In a letter to legislative leadership in early June, the Governor outlined his concerns and listed items he wished to see (probably to be read as "required to be in bills in order for him to call the session"). Included on this list were bonding projects for the medical school at the University of Minnesota, reinstatement of the tax exemption for the Minnesota State High School League, requirement that private insurance companies cover services provided related to autism, and a variety of other items. One surprise on the list is the reinstatement of the $1.7 million appropriation given to the Minnesota Department of Education in 2013 to develop an online reporting system for special education-related paperwork. The Minnesota Department of Education directed this appropriation to the Odyssey Fund at MNIT instead of having it cancel back to the general fund after it remained unexpended after the 2013-2015 biennium. The Governor's budget requested additional revenue to augment the initial appropriation in developing the online reporting system. Not only did the Legislature not provide the additional funding this past session, they removed the $1.7 million from the Odyssey Fund and added it to the bottom line for the use in the omnibus supplemental appropriations bill. This was done in HF 2902, introduced by Representative Jenifer Loon and added to HF 3813, the omnibus education funding and policy bill. I have followed the online reporting system debate since its inception and I don't think it really addresses the special education paperwork problem, but I find it a bit surprising that the Governor has it on his to-do list as a requirement to be met before he will call a special session. One item I would like the Governor to consider adding to his list would be funding for the University of Minnesota's agricultural school to develop a Creeping Charlie that rabbits will eat. I have a plethora of both in my backyard and it would be nice if I could create a synergy there. I will continue to monitor developments surrounding the special session debate. If I were to put odds on it, I would guess it is less than 50/50 that a session will be called, but that could change tomorrow. Article on Teacher Preparation from The Economist. If you are looking for a valuable magazine subscription, let me suggest The Economist. A little pricey at slightly over $100 per year, but always a set of interesting articles. It is a British magazine, but it covers American politics and policy quite thoroughly and last week's issue contained this article relating to teacher preparation. It doesn't contain anything earth-shattering (most educators have heard a lot of these solutions before), but it was good to see them reported in one place in concise terms. Teaching the Teachers
Wednesday, June 08, 2016
Special Session Update. Don't worry. No special session yet, but negotiations appear to be taking place that would facilitate a session once a compromise has been reached. With that in mind, I guess an appropriate song would be The Youngbloods' "Get Together" from the late-1960s. Love beads optional.
School Finance 101 on International Spending/Achievement Comparisons. One thing I really enjoy when reading Dr. Bruce Baker's School Finance 101 blog is that he never pulls any punches. Baker writes passionately and today's entry on how the comparisons on spending and achievement are misleading when discussing the academic progress of schools in the United States. The entry is based on a study published by the Shanker Institute and there is a link in the entry to the entire text of the report. Here you go: School Finance 101 for June 8, 2016
I strongly recommend that you sign up to follow Dr. Baker's blog. Whether or not you agree with his findings, you can't help but respect his enthusiasm and everything he writes will make you think. Around the Web and Around the World. I came across this item from ozy.com about an educational experiment taking place in Poland that would allow for "open" textbooks. Interesting in that an era when discussion tends to push toward greater uniformity, the Poles are heading in a different direction. Link: Polish Educational Changes
Kudos to my Hometown! It's graduation time and I wanted to congratulate my hometown for raising $56,000 for scholarships awarded to a number of graduating seniors. It's also important to note that a local manufacturer--Gemini Corporation--funded two $100,000 (that's not a typo--it's $100,000) scholarships for seniors Bjorn Pearson and Matt Moskal as they enroll in engineering studies at the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota respectively. It's great to see a business step up in this and contribute in a very concrete manner to the education of promising students. Here is an article from the Cannon Falls Beacon about Gemini's connection with the Cannon Falls school district: Gemini Industries/Cannon Falls School District article
Tuesday, June 07, 2016
The Wait Turns into the Weight. The suspense is over and the Governor has vetoed the tax bill, ostensibly over one word (an "or" instead of an "and" that would have cost the state $101 million in receipts from charitable gambling), but I think everyone knows the drama goes deeper than that. The messy end to the Legislative Session left a few loose strings--particularly bonding and transportation funding--that the Governor believes need to be tied up. Some contend the Governor is using the veto to leverage some of his priorities to be included in a special session bonding and spending bill while others contend he is simply vetoing the bill because of the costly one-word error. Whatever the reason or reasoning--and this will be undoubtedly hashed to death by political analysts for the next few weeks (and perhaps months)--if there's no special session, the election season has become a much spicier stew. One very troublesome aspect of the veto for SEE is that the provision that would provide a considerable property tax break on agricultural property will not take effect. That provision would have provided a property tax credit attributable to 40% of the burden on agricultural property for school district bonded indebtedness and was a priority of the organization. Republicans will contend this is a petulant ploy by a Governor who wants to spend more money and Democrats will counter that the Republican House were primarily responsible for the clumsiness at the end of the regular session and the tax bill mishap could have been avoided and other bills could have been constructed more smoothly if there hadn't been a logjam of activity in the last 48 hours of the session. Kris Kristofferson sang "Who's to Bless and Who's to Blame" and the voters will decide that. In the meantime, the "wait" that pervaded the end of session now has turned into a "weight" for both sides as they try to generate arguments that will turn the balance to their side. I guess that's why I have chosen--in the spirit of keeping the music going on the blog--to feature one of the great songs from the 1960s by The Band. You've got it and here it is, The Weight, live from the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in 1969 (I wanted to go, but my mom needed the '62 Fairlaine that weekend).
Here is a story on the tax impasses from MinnPost: Tax Bill Veto Speaking of the Election. Filings have closed and the initial slates of Republican and DFL legislative candidates are complete. There will be a number of high-profile primary elections on August 9 that will decide the November match-ups. Here are the links from the Secretary of State's Office for the Senate and House candidates at this point in the process: Senate
House Education Wrap-Up. MinnPost has a new education reporter--Erin Hinrichs--and she does a really got job summing up the major education provisions in this year's omnibus supplemental budget bill. Find it here: MinnPost Education Story
Last, but not Least (and not the Last Time We'll Hear about this): There's no question Donald Trump--now the presumptive Republican nominee for President--has stirred up a lot of dust this year and has left a lot of prognosticators, veteran and otherwise, scratching their heads this year. Here is an interesting story from the recent issue of The New York Review of Books where a group of political analysts contend that early indications from the campaign showed Trump had staying power and that around January, his nomination had become, if not a fait accompli, expected. Here it is, complete with charts and graphs: Why Trump Was Inevitable
Executive Director of Schools for Equity in Education, a 58-member consortium of school districts in Minnesota who are dedicated to the principle that students should receive equitable access to a quality eduacation regardless of where they live in Minnesota.
