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Proposals to weed out bad teachers, get prospective teachers into the classroom faster and allow the state to step in to improve low-performing schools must become law if Minnesota is to apply for the second round of federal Race to the Top funds, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Thursday.

As much as $175 million over three years is at stake, but Pawlenty said the state won't even try for it if legislators don't sign on to his entire education overhaul agenda.

At a news conference, Pawlenty set out a laundry list of proposals -- some that have been introduced as bills and some not -- that he said are needed to move the state to the head of the class nationwide in K-12 innovation.

Top needs

Topping the list is a measure to ensure that mid-career professionals and experts can move quickly into the teaching ranks without having to earn a teaching degree. Though similar measures are already in law, Pawlenty and Education Commissioner Alice Seagren said they don't go far enough.

Pawlenty also pushed for a proposal that teachers be required to reapply for tenure every five years. Tenure, now granted after a three-year probation, makes it harder for administrators to fire teachers.

Pawlenty ripped the Legislature for shooting down one after another of his K-12 change proposals since he was elected governor in 2002.

'Laggards' or 'leaders'?

"Education reform has gotten bogged down in the Minnesota Legislature," he said. "That needs to change. ... There is consensus in the national debate on education reform about where states and schools need to go to move forward. ... The question for the Legislature is, 'Do you want to be a laggard or do you want to be a leader?'"

Pawlenty said the Legislature must pass all of his proposals if the state is to apply again for the federal money. "I don't think you can just pass one or two of these and say, 'That's enough,'" he said.

It's unlikely that the DFL-dominated Legislature will go along with approving Pawlenty's agenda. Key DFLers, for example, oppose Pawlenty's five-year tenure renewal plan, as well as any proposals that they think streamline the teacher licensing process too much.

Minnesota was turned down in its initial application for up to $250 million in the first round of Race to the Top. Tennessee and Delaware were the only states to win first-round grants; 41 states applied.

The total Race to the Top fund, $4.35 billion in federal aid, is targeted at states that are boosting student achievement and making big strides in changing the ways schools operate. Federal reviewers faulted Minnesota for not narrowing the gap in performance between white and nonwhite students and for an inability to improve teacher quality, among other shortcomings.

The deadline for applying for the next round of funding is June 1. Winners will be announced in September. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has estimated that as many as 10 to 15 states could win second-round grants.

Legislator has other priorities

Rep. Mindy Greiling, DFL-Roseville, chairwoman of the House K-12 education finance division, said Thursday that the application would have to do more to address Minnesota's racial achievement gap and turn around struggling schools to get her support. The state also needs to show it is committed to a stable source of funding for schools. She also was critical of the initial application, prepared by a consultant.

"We had a sloppy application," she said. "We had a lot of points off because the reviewers couldn't read one of the charts," Plus, she said, the application was a bare-bones approach that didn't highlight such Minnesota innovations as site-governed schools, which allow teachers and parents more say in how their schools are run.

"We just did the standard fare," she said. "We did it sloppily, and we didn't have any glitz in our application."

Norman Draper • 612-673-4547

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/90318512.html