Monday, January 26, 7 PM, Roseville
Why Invest in Education — Even in Difficult Times?
A Forum for Parents, Educators, Law Makers, and Community Members
Sponsored by the Roseville Area Schools Legislative Action Committee
Featured: State Economist Tom Stinson and State Demographer Tom Gillaspy
A complete listing of Events is always available at our website.
In this issue
What is Happening at the Capitol?
The House was extremely busy this week taking testimony from many education groups presenting their recommendations for the upcoming session. Some recommended cutting back on mandates and others suggested finding ways to identify what is working well in schools. There were ideas about how to tweak the system, but it was apparent that there is no "low hanging fruit" in the system where cost savings can be found. A number of the groups urged serious consideration of HF 2 (formerly HF 4178).
Parents United testified in support of HF2 and in support of an independent system of oversight for education spending and policy. Minnesota is the ONLY state in the Union without either a state Board of Education (it was abolished by the legislature in 1997) or an elected commissioner of education. Minnesota's system of policy-making for our schools lacks coherency from one administration to the next and tends to produce policy based on political compromise rather than sound and tested research. We need a better system: One that uses evidence-based research to drive policy and one in which not only our schools but also our lawmakers are held accountable for the policies necessary to improve student achievement. We will be talking about this initiative throughout the session as well as at our annual Parent Leadership Summit (details coming soon).
In a VERY interesting meeting of the K-12 Education Finance Division we heard a presentation by University of Minnesota faculty in which we learned that the U of M is ranked third nationally for research among all public colleges of education. This has important policy implications and begs the question: Why aren’t we doing more to support the use of research in creating state education policy, especially when this resource is right in our backyard? We look forward to a great deal of conversation around this issue in the coming months.
There was also an overview of the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) by Commissioner Seagren about the MDE's goals and initiatives to achieve those goals. In the coming weeks, there are two reports expected on QComp (the pay-for-performance teacher programs that 44 districts now use), one by the Office of Legislative Auditor and another commissioned by the MDE. We look forward to learning the impact of QComp on student achievement.
A note on Early Childhood efforts: Presently, only the House has a defined Early Childhood committee; the Senate combines early childhood with K-12 for an "E-12" committee. In the House this week the committee heard about the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, their scholarship program, the Parent Aware Quality Rating system, and state allowance use.
There is a joint Senate-House working group looking at our state charter schools. It is expected that legislation will come forward later this session calling for increased oversight of the schools/sponsors and greater training for school employees.
In this issue
