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Update for April 30-May 4, 2007 — From Mary Cecconi, Executive Director
If this is your first update from Parents United, welcome! Please let us know if you have questions or experience any problems with your mailings from us.
Important Events
Monday, May 21, 2007
Last Day of the 2007 Legislative Session
16 days left where the Legislature can do business. The Education Finance Conference Committee is still waiting for its joint target so that it can negotiate one final education bill to be sent to the Governor. This tends to be a very frustrating time for everyone. The Senators and House members all want to get their work done, and everyone is interested in what the final bill will include as well as how it will be paid for. All I can say is: stayed tuned! Once the target has been determined, the work will be swift and intense.
Keep those calls, emails and letters to the editor coming! Come visit when the Education Conference Committee begins meeting again!
We hear a great deal of interest in investing in our roads, bridges and transit system for the future of our state-and who can argue that? This becomes visceral the more you drive around the state and it is absolutely true.
But schools have been the canary in the coal mine. It is so easy to see what the lack of investment has meant for our transportation system, and I will argue that class size is the pothole of our educational system: it is something that is plain to see and it helps us understand what the lack of investment has meant for our state.
Parents United for Public Schools has joined with multiple organizations across the E-16 spectrum--from early childhood advocates to the Minnesota State University Student Association--to ask the question, "Minnesota--Do you want a public education system that allows every child the chance to succeed?"
We need to "connect the dots." Consider:
- By 2014, the No Child Left Behind law requires that all children be proficient.
- We are the first country that has these expectations written into law.
- The demographic shift over the last decade determines that our state's economic vitality will be totally reliant on the young citizens now in our E-16 system.
- The per pupil formula, which provides the lion's share of funding for our schools, has increased, on average, 1.5% for the last 16 years while the Consumer Price Index shows a 3.1% annual inflation rate.
- The special education cross subsidy will top out at $512 million this year. This is an unpaid bill from the state that local school districts must cover.
- If all the dollars for early childhood make it through the political process this year, we may be able to return to the early childhood funding that we had in 2003.
- Our post-secondary students have been reeling from double digit inflation tuition increases.
Growth and Justice, a progressive think tank, demonstrates how investment in the state leads to prosperity with their "Invest for Real Prosperity" initiative. In addition, their Invest in Minnesota campaign is taking on steam and if you are interested in joining on with thousands of others--adding your name to their petition--you'll find it here.
- From the Applied Research Center on Education: it is important to analyze whether race-based disparities in education are documented and addressed or simply ignored.
- The always interesting (38th) Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools (right sidebar)
- Autism Awareness: Link to one or more short and moving video clips about autism and raise money for Autism Speaks at the same time!
- And Merit Pay Systems Involve Tough Choices warns us about opting for simplistic solutions.
Questions? Email Mary Cecconi
Parents United for Public Schools
1667 Snelling Avenue N., St. Paul, MN 55108
651-999-7391
www.parentsunited.org
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