Date: July 28, 2004
Subject: As seen on TV (well, Google at least)

Today we received our first referrers to the new web site URL (http://edreformnews.info) from Google search results. For the unintiated, this means that someone searched Google, and a couple of the results linked to the new URL. So what? The majority of hits to Minnesota Education Reform News come from Google searches, so until the site appears more prominently in Google search results, Scholar will be pretty lonely, that's what. But after getting listed on MSN Search and Open Directory, and now Google, things are going in the right direction.

If you haven't seen the new and improved site, please do so. Vote in the poll. Tell a friend. Register and say hello. Thank you.

In other technical news, today I added an Atom feed (see the link at the bottom of this page), so you can follow this blog from the comfort of your Atom-compatible news aggregator. Fascinating, Captain. I actually had someone request this. If you would just as soon have an RSS feed, please say so by leaving a comment to this post.

Date: July 28, 2004
Subject: Relationships

Yesterday I took some time off from work to attend a going-away reception for Wayzata Schools Superintendent Paul Beilfuss, who has accepted a superintendent position in his native Illinois. I served on the Wayzata Legislative Action Committee (LAC) along with Dr. Beilfuss, school board members, teachers union reps, and parents. It was a nice opportunity to thank Dr. Beilfuss for his leadership of the LAC and the district, and for sharing his insights and knowledge about running a school district and working with the legislature.

This event reminded me during these lazy hazy days of summer that for parents and education activists, it's not enough to be an informed observer and vote on local excess levy referenda, although these are good first steps. If your involvement with your child's curriculum is limited to the annual curriculum nights or parent-teacher conferences, that's a good start, but it's still not enough. To make a real difference for your child's or children's education, you have to join the team, volunteer on district-level committees, and, yes, show up to the meetings. It's not just about voicing your opinion, it's about relationships.

I got involved in education reform issues when my oldest child entered kindergarten. Now I can attend an event like yesterday's, and be greeted by name by the superintendent of the school district, school district staff, current and former  school board members, the principal at my kids' school, two Minnesota state Representatives, and a Member of Congress. My point: I am nobody special, just a parent who decided that when the school district goes to the voters with an excess levy referendum, or when curriculum decisions are made, when new academic standards are written, when the Legislature debates K-12 funding, when a candidate I believe in is running for office, or when the Commissioner of Education faces an endorsement fight, as Tom Joad said, "I'll be there".

If you really want to make a difference, you need some face time with those who cast the votes and make the decisions, over a period of years. E-mail alone is too easy; just being a face in the crowd is not enough.

A chicken and a pig were walking down the road when they reached the local diner and saw the sign in the window: "Bacon and Egg Breakfast, 99 cents." The chicken said, "I'm hungry, let's go have breakfast!" The pig replied, "That's easy for you to say. For you it's a contribution. For me it's a commitment."

Are you making a commitment?

Date: June 26, 2004
Subject: As Seen On TV

The new web site URL is finally listed on at least one search engine, MSN. This is critical for any web site, but especially for a small web site such as ours. Hopefully Google will not be far behind. The new URL is also listed on Open Directory.

Until we are widely listed on Google, Yahoo, etc. please tell your friends about edreformnews.info. Thank you.

Date: July 21, 2004
Subject: Love is in the air

Norman Draper, education reporter for the Star Tribune, scored several choice, revealing quotes at the very beginning of new education commissioner Alice Seagren's tenure:

"Alice is my favorite Republican. I'm delighted that I have someone I think I can work with. That's the beauty of Alice Seagren: the governor gets the continuity of what Yecke was doing but in a wonderful package of a very, very fine human being that everybody loves."

--Rep. Mindy Greiling (DFL-Roseville), a member with Seagren on the House Education Finance and Education Policy committees

"It strikes me that Alice Seagren is a kinder, gentler Yecke."

--Sen. Geoff Michel (R-Edina), a member of the Senate Education Committee

If Rep. Jim Davnie (DFL-Minneapolis) and Sen. Steve Kelley (DFL-Hopkins, chair of the Senate Education Committee) board this love boat, it may be a sign that Pawlenty's ed reform agenda was sunk by an iceberg of bipartisan unity.

Uh, speaking of ice...

"The governor's choice of Representative Seagren for the position of education commissioner indicates a desire to secure a noncontroversial Senate confirmation."

--Faint praise from Sen. Michele Bachmann (R-Stillwater), a member of the Senate Education Committee

Asked at Tuesday's Seagren press conference whether the Seagren selection represents an attempt to reach out to anti-Cheri Pierson Yecke educators and DFLers, Gov. Tim Pawlenty responded: "Not particularly...What happened to Commissioner Yecke is a travesty. The bottom line is there is a cabal of education interest groups who are incredibly resistant to change. If you rock the boat, if you propose change, if you propose reform, you upset the status quo in order to try something new, they will try to squash you like a bug."

Dear readers, consider yourself warned.

Date: July 20, 2004
Subject: Education Commissioner Alice Seagren

Governor Pawlenty has appointed Rep. Alice Seagren as Minnesota's next education commissioner. Seagren is a six-term representative, chair of the House Education Finance Committee, and member of the House Education Policy Committee. Legislators will probably be relieved to have one of their own at the helm of the state Department of Education, after the often controversial and unconfirmed term of Cheri Pierson Yecke. But is this good news for education reform advocates? In the Legislature, Seagren had a cooperative relationship with DFL members, including Sen. Steve Kelley, chair of the Senate Education Committee. There will no doubt be statements of her support of Gov. Pawlenty's education reform agenda, but some activists in the social studies standards debate feel that the former member of the Bloomington school board gave up too much too soon to the Minnesota Council on the Social Studies ("Kelley standards") crowd. Seagren's distinguished service in the Legislature should buy the new commissioner a generous honeymoon with her former colleagues and Education Minnesota, and a swift and low-key confirmation.

Date: July 13, 2004
Subject: Wall of Separation

How will Minnesota schools treat the topic of the "wall of separation" between church and state? In a commentary published in the Star Tribune, Cheri Pierson Yecke presented historical evidence in support of calling this wall a "myth."

A rebuttal by Jan G. Linn, copastor of Spirit of Joy Church in Lakeville, was light on facts. After making some sweeping statements about Jefferson and Madison without supporting them with any historic proof, and peppering the commentary with digs at the former commissioner, Linn concludes:

It seems a bit ironic for me that Yecke came to Minnesota from my native Virginia, where she served with no less controversy than she did while in her position here. Perhaps her troubles are the fault of liberals in both states. Then, again, perhaps she and her supporters might remember the words Shakespeare's Cassius spoke to Brutus, "The fault... lies not in the stars, but in ourselves."

It's a weak argument indeed that can't stand on its own wobbly merits without a petty round of "attack the messenger." It's interesting how opponents of Yecke — and of conservatives in general — favor name-calling and clever rhetoric to a vigorous debate of facts and ideas.

Date: July 7, 2004
Subject: Where does all the Federal education money go?

In his column in the Washington Times, Cal Thomas makes the case for getting the federal government out of education by highlighting a new study from the Cato Institute. Says Thomas:

One of the justifications for this socialistic redistribution of education money is the egalitarian objective of assuring the poor get their fair share and supposedly improve their chances of escaping poverty. But the Cato study again proves the failure of this thinking. Statistics show no correlation between the amounts of education money spent and a decline in the poverty levels in individual states.

As the Cato study concludes, the federal government should drop out of education and return the money and power for instructing children to the state and individual communities. Education achievement was better when it was practiced in the little red schoolhouse and didn't come as it does today from the big White House and its Cabinet agencies. The billions wasted on education since Lyndon Johnson's Great Society has been a financial and educational disaster, not to mention a violation of the Constitution.

Control of education should be as local as possible. Presidents Jefferson, Eisenhower, and Reagan all made the case for local control of education. Voters would do well to pay attention to election-year promises from the candidates — liberal, conservative, and in-between — with this in mind.

Date: July 4, 2004
Subject: edreformnews.info

Almost immediately after the legislature adjourned, I began redesigning Minnesota Education Reform News. I claimed the domain name edreformnews.info, and begain converting the existing content to an automated content management system. What this means to you is more features, interactivity, and value, especially if you are a parent or education activist.

Our new motto, "In Scientia Libertas," Latin for "In Knowledge, Liberty," reflects our values of knowledge-based education, the preservation of our God-given inalienable rights, and the demystification of K-12 education for its parent consumers.

The new site is officially live. Check it out at http://edreformnews.info.

Date: June 8, 2004
Subject: Ronald Reagan on education

"Schools in America we created at the local level and administered at the local level for many years the greatest public school system in the world. Now through something called federal aid to education, we have something called federal interference, and education has been the loser. Quality has declined as federal intervention has increased. Nothing has created more bitterness, for example, than forced busing to achieve racial balance. It was born of a hope that we could increase understanding and reduce prejudice and antagonism. And I'm sure we all approved of that goal. But busing has failed to achieve the goal. Instead, it has increased the bitterness and animosity it was supposed to reduce. California's Superintendent of Public Instruction, Wilson Riles (himself a Black), says, "The concept that Black children can't learn unless they are sitting with white children is utter and complete nonsense." Well, I agree. The money now being wasted on this social experiment could be better spent to provide the kind of school facilities every child deserves. Forced busing should be ended by legislation if possible by constitutional amendment if necessary. And, control of education should be returned to local school districts." (March 31, 1976)

"In 1983 we seek four major education goals: a quality education initiative to encourage a substantial upgrading of math and science instruction through block grants to the States; establishment of education savings accounts that will give middle- and lower-income families an incentive to save for their children's college education and, at the same time, encourage a real increase in savings for economic growth; passage of tuition tax credits for parents who want to send their children to private or religiously affiliated schools; a constitutional amendment to permit voluntary school prayer. God should never have been expelled from America's classrooms in the first place." (State of the Union, 1983)

"Families stand at the center of our society. And every family has a personal stake in promoting excellence in education. Excellence does not begin in Washington. A 600-percent increase in Federal spending on education between 1960 and 1980 was accompanied by a steady decline in Scholastic Aptitude Test scores. Excellence must begin in our homes and neighborhood schools, where it's the responsibility of every parent and teacher and the right of every child." (State of the Union, 1984)

"America's schools don't need new spending programs; they need tougher standards, more homework, merit pay for teachers, discipline, and parents back in charge." (CPAC Convention, March 2, 1984)

"Confident in our future, and secure in our values, Americans are striving forward to embrace the future...We see it in the renaissance in education, the rising SAT scores for three years—last year's increase the greatest since 1963. It wasn't government and Washington lobbies that turned education around, it was the American people who, in reaching for excellence, knew to reach back to basics. We must continue the advance by supporting discipline in our schools; vouchers that give parents freedom of choice; and we must give back to our children their lost right to acknowledge God in their classrooms." (State of the Union, 1986)

"As a nation we do, of course, spend heavily on education—more than we spend on defense—yet across our country, governors like New Jersey's Tom Kean are giving classroom demonstrations that how we spend is as important as how much we spend. Opening up the teaching profession to all qualified candidates, merit pay, so that good teachers get A's as well as apples, and stronger curriculum, as Secretary Bennett has proposed for high schools. These imaginative reforms are making common sense the most popular new kid in America's schools.

"How can we help? Well, we can talk about and push for these reforms. But the most important thing we can do is to reaffirm that control of our schools belongs to the states, local communities and, most of all, to the parents and teachers." (State of the Union, 1987)

"Let us apply our ingenuity and remarkable spirit to revolutionize education in America so that everyone among us will have the mental tools to build a better life. And while we do so, let's remember that the most profound education begins in the home." (1992 Republican National Convention)

—Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

Date: June 8, 2004
Subject: Ronald Reagan on U.S. history education

"An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over thirty-five or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn't get these things from your family, you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed, you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-sixties.

"But now, we're about to enter the nineties, and some things have changed. Younger parents aren't sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children. And as for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style. Our spirit is back, but we haven't reinstitutionalized it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection.

"So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important: Why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those thirty seconds over Tokyo meant...If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual. And let me offer lesson number one about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be a very American thing to do."

—Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), Farewell Speech to the Nation, January 11, 1989