It's all about the money, part III

Regarding Governor Pawlenty's recent education reform announcements, which includes recommendations from The Teaching Commission:

1. To whom should the public schools in Minnesota be "accountable?" According to the Pioneer Press, "The proposals will be the basis for possible changes in the way Minnesota's teachers are trained, scrutinized and rewarded for years to come, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said." This is a profound statement. More and more, our schools are accountable to the government, meaning bureaucrats and lawmakers who are heavily influenced by lobbyists from Education Minnesota (teachers union) and education groups. Parents, who send their children to public schools, and taxpayers, who pay for the schools, are underrepresented in the mix. Even many of the so-called "parent groups" are directed by school districts and union interests, if you peel back even the first layer of their organizational onions.

"If it is believed that... elementary schools will be better managed by the governor and council, the commissioners of the literary fund or any other general authority of the government than by the parents within each ward, it is a belief against all experience. Try the principle one step further, and... commit to the governor and council the management of all our farms, our mills and merchants' stores... No, my friend, the way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent to."
—Thomas Jefferson

Everyone claims to be in favor of "local control," but the devil is in the details. As you evaluate these plans, ask how "local" is local control, really?

2. It's all about the money. The Pioneer Press reported: "Senate Education Chairman Steve Kelley, a Democrat, said although he had questions, he generally supported the plan as long as there was money to go with it."

Well, this is certainly a better reception than Sen. Kelley gave Cheri Yecke. No one likes unfunded mandates. But please ask the Minnesota House of Representatives candidate in your district (before Election Day), is there such a thing as "adequate funding" for schools? How much is enough?

Thank you, Lynne Cheney

Thank you, Lynne Cheney for speaking up against national academic standards. The Los Angeles Times reported last week:

The Education Department this summer destroyed more than 300,000 copies of a booklet designed for parents to help their children learn history after the office of Vice President Dick Cheney's wife complained that it mentioned the National Standards for History, which she has long opposed...Cheney's office reviewed drafts and provided materials but the second lady was not personally involved, an aide said.

The references to the National History Standards were added at the Education Department after Cheney's office signed off on an initial draft that did not mention them.

We wonder whether Mrs. Cheney, long an advocate of knowledge-based education (especially in the study of history) raised similar concerns before the Clinton-Ted Kennedy education act became such a keystone of President G.W. Bush's domestic agenda. Although national standards are often touted as "voluntary," standardized national tests such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are often heavily based upon them; and at the end of the day, what gets tested gets taught.

It's all about the money, part deux

Check out joannejacobs.com, "Not much to show for the money," for a further discussion about K-12 funding. The many comments are also very interesting.

Academics or attitudes, values, and beliefs?

Parents: do you know where your teachers are on "staff development day?"

Should schools teach academic knowledge or attitudes, values, and beliefs? Faculty and staff of the Anoka-Hennepin school district, Minesota's third largest in enrollment, will get a periodic respite from the Judeo-Christian/Free Markets/Love America agenda, thanks to a district funded "staff development" program.

Our friends at Parents in Touch Anoka-Hennepin informed us of the 2004-2005 school year's program lineup.

According to an e-mail from the district's Department of Diversity & Student Services, "We invite you to attend any of these day workshops to learn best instructional practices to help improve academic achievement of all students [translation: "to influence the attitudes, values, and beliefs of all students."]

The smoking gun:

From: Seul, Sue
Sent: Tuesday October 5, 2004 4:21 PM
Subject: Staff Development Opportunities

THIS MESSAGE IS BEING SENT TO ALL DISTRICT STAFF

Staff Development 2004-05
Department of Diversity & Student Services

The Department of Diversity & Student Services is excited to announce
up-coming staff development opportunities for faculty and staff of
Anoka-Hennepin School District.

More detailed information on registering and workshop content will be sent
out a few weeks before the presentations. We invite you to attend any of
these day workshops to learn best instructional practices to help improve
academic achievement of all students. Attendance will be limited to 50
participants.

October 20, 2004
Culturally Reflective Instruction in Social Studies Curriculum, presented
by James Loewen
Organized by: Haseena Hamzawala

November 17, 2004
Multiple Perspectives of History, presented by Winona LaDuke
Organized by: Barry Scanlan

December 16, 2004
Culturally Responsive Communication Strategies for "Success,"
presented by Tami Spry
Organized by: Barry Scanlan

February 8, 2005
Concrete Strategies: Culturally Reflective Instruction, presented by Les
Green (Follow-up of Oct. 20 Culturally Reflective Instruction Workshop)
Organized by: Haseena Hamzawala

March 16:
Responding to Socio-Economic Cultural Differences, presented by Marlys
Withers, Elizabeth Larkin & Haseena Hamzawala
Organized by: Haseena Hamzawala

They work harder

Scholar has added a new feature, the technical term for which is "blogroll," over on the left side of this blog. It's a list of links to our favorite blogs about education, ed reform, school choice, and the like.

One of them is joannejacobs.com. Joanne passed on a great story about Vietnamese students that does not include English Language Learner (ELL) or Title I funding:

An English teacher in San Jose once told me that all her best students were Vietnamese. This was a few years after the refugee influx. I said, "How can that be? They all speak English as a second language. How can they be the best in English?"

"They work harder," the teacher said.

Please check the blogroll regularly for some great education blogs.

It's all about the money

The presidential campaign is interesting, but education reform activists in Minnesota need to pay attention to the state House of Representatives races. The entire House is up for election, and all candidates will be caught between the irresistible force of More Money For Schools and the immovable object of No New Taxes.

Julie Quist at EdWatch got an earful of the irresistible force at the Minnesota Alliance for Student Achievement second annual Minnesota Education Summit last week. The Alliance's alphabet soup of member organizations should be listed under the dictionary definition of "education establishment:"

• Education Minnesota teachers' union


• Association of Metropolitan School District (AMSD)


• Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA)


• Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP)


• Schools for Equity in Education (SEE)


• Minnesota Association of School Business Officials (MASBO)


• Minnesota Elementary School Principals Association (MESPA)


• Minnesota Rural Education Association (MREA)


• Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA)


• Minnesota Parent, Teacher, Student Association (PTSA)

Every one of these organizations has a legislative subcommittee (Education Minnesota's offices are across the street from the Capitol, if that tells you anything), and many of them have their own local member organizations with their own activists. These groups will make their presence known during the campaign with candidate forums and report cards, letters to the editor and endorsements. They will follow up with a more or less coordinated campaign platform consisting of these planks, reported in Quist's update to EdWatch members:

1. Increase the gas tax.


2. Expand the sales tax to clothing.


3. Increase taxes on corporate incomes.


4. Increase property taxes.


5. Defeat the taxpayers bill of rights (TABOR).


6. Do not make the federal tax cuts permanent.


7. Initiate a massive new $1.5 billion state early childhood program.


8. Increase spending on higher education.


9. Increase spending on transportation.


10. Spend more money on after-school programs.


11. Have candidates sign a tax and spend pledge to counter the Taxpayers League "no new taxes" pledge.

I am detecting a theme here. It's all about the money. As my daughter would say, "no duh!"

I would like the Legislature to explore ideas for overhauling the state's K-12 financing formulas (i.e., throwing out 90% of them), repealing mandates in order to give school boards real discretion to run their own schools, and funding the schools with property taxes rather than sales and income taxes (i.e., repealing the Ventura "miracle").

You'd better get informed and involved in the House elections, because they will help shape the K-12 finance debate when the Legislature convenes on January 4. We already know that the Minnesota Alliance for Higher Taxes will be there in force -- along with their media arm, the Star Tribune.

Strangling the schools?

Just in time for back-to-school season, the Star Tribune published enough alarming headlines to rally the troops, worry parents, and get the phones ringing at the Capitol (if the Legislature was in session, that is):

• Strangling the schools
• A death spiral for Minneapolis schools?
• Some worry that schools are being set up for failure
• Minneapolis' pain will be felt all around state
• For state to succeed, so must the Cities
• Push to narrow achievement gap suffers under cuts
• Schools shouldn't have to compete for state's help
• Minneapolis schools: public funding isn't out of line (editorial)

Of course, our friend Michael Boucher was close by, providing dramatic photo ops of his Minneapolis South High School students sharing chairs (or standing) in his overcrowded social studies class. (Did they get course credit for "activism?")

But is it all about the money? Haves vs. have nots? Cities vs. suburbs?

While Education Minnesota and MoveOn.org were busy blaming this state of affairs on the Republicans at "house parties" yesterday, Cheri Pierson Yecke presented the results of her statewide study of No Child Left Behind in Minnesota. "While critics have complained that NCLB needs fine-tuning, we are not aware of anyone who has stepped up to the plate and conducted a comprehensive study that actually presents tangible ideas and viable options for addressing the issues that concern educators. Now we have such a study," said Annette Meeks, Director of Government Affairs and Public Programs at the Center of the American Experiment, where Yecke is Distinguished Senior Fellow for Education and Social Policy.

The report, Education Accountability in Minnesota: No Child Left Behind and Beyond, is available at the Center of the American Experiment web site. The politically-incorrect former Commissioner of Education spent her summer "vacation" touring the state, listening to educators talk not only about NCLB, but also about the "homegrown challenges" to accountability that they face. According Yecke's report, "Minnesota educators understand that they have a dual obligation to (1) help all children to succeed, and (2) present taxpayers with the evidence that their investment in public education is paying positive dividends in the form of increased academic achievement..."

The 58-page report identifies and discusses a "top ten list" of issues:

1. Measuring student growth: Transitioning to a value-added accountability model.


2. Fairness: Addressing student subgroup populations.


3. Ineffective teachers: What can be done?


4. Teacher assignments: Targeting the needs of students.


5. Mobility: Accountability for children educated elsewhere.


6. Special education: A multiplicity of issues.


7. Teacher Licensure: The need for flexibility.


8. "Too Much Testing:" Confusion between diagnostic testing and testing for accountability.


9. Funding: New strategies.


10. Conflicts of Interest: Community Fairness and Protecting Classroom Dollars.

I am no big fan of NCLB, but I am a fan of accountability and closing the achievement gap. This report deserves the attention of parents, teachers, administrators, legislators, and all public education stakeholders in Minnesota. Let's put aside the partisan rhetoric (tough in an election year I know) and concentrate on solving the challenges that face our schools.

Date: September 10, 2004
Subject: Those forged Killian Air National Guard documents

What a spectacle to witness the blogosphere's "swarming" of CBS News and Dan Rather over the forged documents attributed to the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian about George W. Bush. Imagine that: the Texas Air National Guard was using Microsoft Word in 1972, three years before Microsoft was founded, while the rest of us were struggling with typewriters!

The political hacks behind this should stick to forging letters from the Stillwater Area High School Class of 2004.

Date: September 8, 2004
Subject: "Ripping the guts" out of NCLB

One of the things I appreciate about Congressman Jim Ramstad (R-Minnesota 3rd District) is his unabashed hatred of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). In 2001, Ramstad joined in the Minnesota delegation's bipartisan (10-1) opposition to NCLB, which was strongly promoted by the newly-installed George W. Bush administration (which raised back-room arm-twisting to bone-breaking levels, according to Ramstad's graphic description). Since then, Ramstad has expressed his feelings about NCLB to me several times. I always wondered whether he was just telling me what I wanted to hear, but this week I read this in my local Sun Newspaper:

Ramstad, however, parts company with Bush on the No Child Left Behind Act, which he termed a grossly inappropriate intrusion by the federal government on local affairs.

"I call it the 'no un-funded mandate left behind' act," Ramstad said. "It's a costly intrusion that will do nothing to improve education."

Ramstad has co-sponsored a bill that would eliminate the sanctions against local schools who fail to meet federal standards. He said the measure would effectively "rip the guts" out of NCLB.

Accountability in education is a good thing, but the federal government is simply the wrong vehicle for its delivery. As Jefferson and Ronald Reagan would agree, schools should be accountable to the parents and taxpayers in each town, not to a bureaucracy Washington, D.C.

Date: September 7, 2004
Subject: Right-wingers just want to have fun

Those crazy Northern Alliance bloggers had some fun at the Great Minnesota Get-Together, with remote weekend broadcasts, along with AM 1280 The Patriot's Saturday regulars David Strom from the Taxpayers League and Dwight Rabuse. Republican notables Hugh Hewitt, Sen. Norm Coleman, and Cheri Yecke also dropped by. King Banaian, of the SCSU-Scholars blog, posted a photo of Dr. Yecke at the Fair wearing a "Politically Incorrect" t-shirt. Priceless.

Now that the cheese curds, Pronto Pups, and Tom Thumb Doughnuts have cleared from your system, have some more fun and tune into The Patriot this Saturday.