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On behalf of the members of the House E-12 Education committee, I want to thank you for providing us advice during this past legislative session and for your advocacy for an equitable, quality education experience in our state's public schools.

I am contacting you because you are an important stakeholder in our children's futures, as a parent, educator, and/or community leader.

Our E-12 education bill this year was an important step toward stabilizing school funding, providing much-needed resources for special education, Early Childhood and Family Education, Adult Basic Education, gifted and talented programs, all day-every day kindergarten, and the basic formula. There remain however, many challenges facing our students and our schools.

I'm writing to ask you to begin a dialogue with us in the Legislature about the education issues you care most about.  Your initial contact this session could grow into much more: I would like to tread new ground by creating a continued, dynamic conversation about what you want from your state's education policymakers.

Between now and the start of next session, members of the E-12 Education Committees will be exploring two key issues: how we measure the success of schools and whether programs like No Child Left Behind are meeting the needs of students of color.  Interim "work groups" of legislators will take a look at aspects of these issues including Minnesota's School Report Cards, how we measure alternative schools, and whether integration revenue is serving its intended purpose.

I invite you to participate by attending and testifying at hearings or e-mailing or calling with your thoughts and advice.  If you believe there are other pressing issues for us to explore, please share these with us.  In that spirit, I have included a few questions for you below to tell us how best to carry this conversation forward.  Return your responses to me at Rep.Carlos.Mariani@house.mn.

I look forward to working with you in the coming months and years to create powerful education policies that benefit all of Minnesota's young people.  Please feel free to share this message with colleagues, as more voices will help better shape our efforts.

Respectfully,

Rep Carlos Mariani
Chair, MN House of Representatives E-12 Education Policy Committee

Questions:
1.  Members of the House and Senate Education Committees will spend the summer and fall looking at how Minnesota measures school success, and how the state holds schools accountable.  Two current measures are state standardized tests and School Report Cards.  Do you think these measures need improvement? If so, how?

2.  Likewise, another group of representatives and senators will study the "achievement gap": the disparity in education results between children of different racial or ethnic backgrounds.  One area to look at is what impact No Child Left Behind is having on students of color. What do you think are the most important factors in understanding Minnesota's "achievement gap" and what we can do to close it?

3. What other issues should education committee members be looking at between now and the beginning of the 2008 Session?

4.  What tools would help you better engage with legislators on education issues?

—E-mail updates on education issues before the Legislature
—An online forum for you to post comments to the Education Committee
—Other________________________________________________