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At a key point near the end of his first term, Governor Pawlenty has been given surprisingly tough marks on his education initiatives from, of all places, the Republican led House, which has supported his reforms and spending cuts over the last three years.

This year, House members are up for reelection as well, and although polls indicate education is still the #1 issue for Minnesota voters, a growing number feel the state is on the wrong track. Maybe that’s why some of his reforms seem to be in trouble. However, as students are well aware, low mid-term marks are not an indication of the final grade.

In fact, Speaker Sviggum indicated the House will reconsider one of its low marks for sure when he gives all House members a chance to vote on giving Minneapolis and St. Paul students vouchers for private schools after the access grants bill was defeated in committee. Although this session is far from over, this is how the governor’s report card looks now.

More reform

The first signal that marks would be harder to come by happened on the Governor's marquis issue – requiring 70 percent be spent in the classroom. The bill made it out of committee by only one vote without a recommendation to pass on the floor, and it does not appear to have the votes to pass even with the 68-66 Republican advantage.

The 70 percent idea wasn't new, and it wasn't the Governor’s, but part of a national campaign that came to Minnesota as a 65 percent mandate last year. When Standard and Poors reported the average school already spends 69 percent, it became a 70 percent mandate in Minnesota alone.

According to the national organization leading the effort, its #1 political benefit is to split the education union by pitting administrators and teachers against each other. The measure also targets suburban, affluent women voters who do not support vouchers, but want public education fixed. A third reason for the campaign is to establish a debate on taxes and government spending, because education is the biggest budgetary item in every state.

That’s how the Governor positioned the issue when he held his press conference early in January and said the 70 percent mandate would “shift $112 million from the bureaucracy to the classroom”. Later, Senator LeRoy Stumpf called it a bogus issue meant to shift the election year debate. “He wants to make that the issue instead of real dollars,” Stumpf added.

Two of the Governor’s reforms that did pit administrators and teachers against each other had different outcomes. The first required negotiations be conducted outside the school year and lost in committee by one vote, after three Republicans broke ranks and voted against it, while one Democrat voted for it. The second bill, which was pushed by the Business Partnership, broadens current law and requires school districts to prove their budgets are structurally balanced after their salary settlements for two years, not the one year in current law. The bill remains on general orders for a floor debate later.

More rigor

The most significant changes brought forward by the Governor will be his plans for high school reform. A trip to China made him determined to give more students access to Mandarin Chinese language instruction, and that is just the beginning.

His own school district, South Saint Paul, uses Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses throughout their K-12 curriculum, and he wants the same opportunity for other students. He wants all eighth graders to have Algebra I and all members of the class of 2013 to have Algebra II before graduating. He wants all 2014 graduates to take chemistry to earn a diploma, because barely half our graduates take it now.

Commissioner Alice Seagren put it this way, “the more you expose all students to more rigor, the more successful they'll be.” Senator Steve Kelley, who is also running for the Governor’s job, agreed and told Seagren the requirements are even more necessary as “an antidote to No Child Left Behind”, which has narrowed the curriculum and held down top students while focusing on the math and reading proficiency of students at the bottom.

The House also looked at the school administrator’s initiative to extend the school year. According to Fergus Falls Superintendent Mark Bezek, as the world flattens, American students must be on equal footing with others around the world, with more time on task and less “summer regression”. Plus, it would give teachers more time to analyze data and use best practices, he said. But this proposal, too, got a rough reception from committee chair Representative Buesgens, who wanted to know how the time would be used differently to create better results.

More teachers

By requiring twice as many students to take Algebra and Chemistry, the Governor knows he’ll need more teachers, especially since 637 science teachers are teaching with variances granted by the Board of Teaching on a year by year basis. Some have not been trained as teachers, but come to the classroom as community experts with careers in other areas. For example, a northern Minnesota school district employs a local agronomist to teach half time.

School districts have less trouble filling math classrooms with its more flexible 7-12 license, but science is another story, with each area requiring a different license. Governor Pawlenty proposes a number of ways to increase the supply. First, he gives current science teachers the ability to add chemistry or another area in short supply by taking a Praxis II test. Second, he allows a general science teacher to get a chemistry endorsement through a portfolio process. Third, he creates Teach Minnesota to encourage recent college graduates in science, math, ELL, and special ed to become teachers in high-need and hard-to-staff schools.

Another initiative favored by the Governor would have created a fast track for mid-career professionals to become teachers if they taught for a year under the supervision of a mentor (paid for out of their own salary) and completed 200 hours of post-secondary training. The school district would recommend the professional for a license, rather than the higher ed institution. This, plus the scaled down hours of required instruction, led to strong opposition by MnSCU and Education Minnesota. It was defeated by a 70-62 floor vote.

Finally, a coalition of rural, charter and alternative schools are pushing for an interdisciplinary license for innovative secondary schools, where instruction is more individualized and based on projects, rather than courses. Former Commissioner Wedl testified that getting all students to higher achievement is something the system has not done before and will require different learning models than those in traditional high schools. The proof might be the 65,000 students in alternative high school programs in this state.

More early ed

After cutting $150 m in early childhood funding in the last three years, a Star Tribune editorial headline put it this way, “Finally, early ed goes on governor's agenda”. The Governor invests $10 m in grants to improve curriculum for childcare providers.

But his bill has been mired in controversy and tabled twice due to a formula change, which takes slots away from rural Minnesota and gives them to unserved children in the metro area, and because religious conservatives do not want an expansion of early education programs regardless of the economic or educational benefits.

Last year, only 2 percent of Minnesota’s 4-year-olds had access to state-supported preschool, and that earned a second Star Tribune editorial headline, “Poor marks for Minnesota on pre-K”. There is still some time left this session, and the poor marks can still be raised, but it has not been an easy year for the administration, and their education report card shows it.

http://www.mnrea.org/Voice4406.pdf