Home > News & Events > 2009 News > 2004-2008 News > 2006 News	Print View

Michael L. Boucher Jr., Commentary, Star Tribune

His 70 percent rule is just one example of how teachers are treated like the enemy.

The governor seems to think you are an idiot. There are only two constitutionally mandated state functions, transportation and education. Gov. Tim Pawlenty has the gall to say in public, on television no less, that we are moving in the right direction. But when traveling on any interstate in the metro, moving at all is a real challenge.

While the transportation problem is obvious to all Minnesotans and their mechanics, schools keep going despite all challenges. After four years of slash-and-burn policies against public schools, teachers and curriculum, no one can say we are headed in any direction but downhill.

As a response to war and recession, Pawlenty and his allies in Congress cut funds to schools. This had not been done by any of his predecessors, even during the Great Depression and two world wars. These cuts hit deeply in districts where these same officials were calling for higher standards and more accountability from teachers. Class sizes soared, and teachers filled the gap in resources with personal time and use of their stagnant wages to buy school supplies for students. This was a win-win for the governor. If schools fail for lack of resources, public schools can be dismantled. If they sally forth and continue to do the job, the cuts are justified and more blood can be squeezed from the stone.

Teachers are treated like the enemy. Pawlenty disparages teachers and our union every chance he gets. He hired an unqualified and political education commissioner, Cheri Pierson Yecke, who united people from all sides of the political spectrum demanding her removal; 4,500 Minnesotans signed a petition to get rid of her. She said those who opposed her had a "hate America agenda" and referred to teachers as a "cabal." After her removal, the governor called her a "talented leader."

Yecke and her politicos created a set of social studies standards so poorly constructed that a bipartisan committee had to cobble together a late-night compromise document while she was kept from the process. This current document is impossible to use: At 80 pages, hundreds of standards, and nearly 1,000 benchmarks, it is so voluminous that even if students went to school year-round, the standards could not be covered. They are without depth and substandard to states like Georgia, which used a more deliberative process. When it came to science, the governor's appointee wanted to include creationism in the standards, but they were hastily amended within an hour of an announcement on public radio.

Pawlenty's latest gimmick is the 70 percent rule. This is adapted from a national movement to get 65 percent of resources into classrooms and away from bureaucracy. Pawlenty's problem was that even the largest districts in the state are already there, so the governor decided to up the ante. However, in a state that has seen 40 degrees below zero, heat is not included in the 70 percent. In a state where rural school districts bus students for miles, transportation is not part of the calculation. If they were, most districts would spend more than 90 percent of all funds on direct student services. The governor tries to create the impression that schools are throwing away money. The facts do not bear that out.

No one who cares about education in Minnesota can vote for this governor with a clear conscience. A vote for Tim Pawlenty is a vote for decline, cynicism, low standards and a higher achievement gap due to burgeoning class sizes. It's a vote against Minnesota schools.

Michael L. Boucher Jr. is a social studies teacher and coordinator of the Open Small Learning Community in Minneapolis South High School.

http://www.startribune.com/562/story/784733.html