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Update for April 9, 2010

Sausage-making vegetarians, and who to blame?

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Don’t miss “Vegetarians in the Sausage-Making Factory” – Register Now!
Monday, April 26th, 9:00 a.m.
Our 8th Annual Parent Leadership Summit
What Will It Take? 
A conference organized by parents, for parents
TIES Building, St. Paul

At the Capitol
We have been hearing a lot this week about Minnesota’s inability to secure a federal Race to the Top (RTTT) grant, but most of it centers around who to blame. You may like to see the Power Point (pdf) produced by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) for the high level meeting that took place on April 6 to autopsy Minnesota’s grant proposal. Or you can read the actual reviews on Minnesota’s proposal.

House K-12 Education Finance Division; Chair: Rep. Carlos Mariani (DFL-St. Paul)
If Minnesota submits a second application for a RTTT grant, we would lose points in the process if the state does not adopt Common Core State Standards. The application is due in June. The legislature adjourns in May so the adoption of these standards would need to be done quickly. The problem is the standards are still in draft form.

The presentation to this committee compared and contrasted Minnesota’s current standards, originally developed in 2003, to the draft of the national Common Core Standards. States are able to add to the Common Core Standards and one such addition in Minnesota may be creative writing, since the Common Core Standards are silent on this.

After a brief overview of commonalities and differences, it was apparent that legislators would need a great deal more time to give the necessary attention to this issue. This is a big deal. Does a state change its standards, adopting draft standards so as to possibly qualify for a four-year grant?

In this issue

Senate E-12 Education Budget and Policy Division; Chair: Sen. Leroy Stumpf (DFL-Thief River Falls)
The MDE presented information on the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program for Minnesota's 34 lowest performing schools.

Minnesota received $34 million in federal SIG money to turn around those 34 schools. The MDE is establishing an Office of Turnaround Schools (OTAS). The 34 schools may propose use of the dollars through a grant application scenario, for which only these 34 schools may apply. It is unclear what will happen if a school chooses NOT to ask for the money. It is conceivable that federal Title 1 dollars may act as a pretty big stick—or carrot.

The use of the grant money is highly prescriptive: there are required activities and permitted activities. After the MDE provides for an evaluation of each school, the federal requirement is that each of these 34 schools choose one of four intervention models to implement:

1. Turnaround Model
2. Restart Model
3. School Closure
4. Transformation Model

Close, charter, fire… these interventions look like they were developed only with an urban/suburban eye since simple geography shows that several of these models will cause tremendous difficulty in rural areas.

Caution, commentary ahead: Is our desire for “accountability” trumping our ability to help kids learn? A blogger called "Mrs. Mimi" wrote the other day that we fire teachers because “we can't fire poverty.” Diane Ravitch referenced this blog in a compelling article she wrote, saying, “Since we can't fire poverty, we can't fire students, and we can't fire families, all that is left is to fire teachers.” What makes the article and the stance Dr. Ravitch takes today so incredible is to know her background. Arguably, she was one of the first to establish the tenets of NCLB into our school system “as she joined the Education Department of George H. W. Bush, endorsed private school vouchers, and became part of an influential education task force sponsored by the Hoover Institution.”

Also heard this week:

• S.F. 2716 (Saltzman-DFL- Woodbury) Charter school provisions modifications; charter schools facilities authority establishment; credit enhancement account creation; purchasing and borrowing authority authorization; building lease transition aid eligibility authorization.

In this issue

A Look Ahead
Still not sure if there will be an Education Omnibus bill this year; things are very quiet right now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t heat up in a heartbeat! Stay tuned….

From the Website

Find these articles — and much, much more — at our News & Events page!

• Autopsy on Race to the Top Grant from “At the Capitol with Charlie” (video)
  
  
• Minnesota Families Sound Off – you can, too!
  
  
• Finances, aging boomers portend sea change in schools, Star Tribune

You really won’t believe everything that’s in our News Archive — check it out!

Bills to Continue to Watch

• HF3063 (Newton-DFL-Coon Rapids) SF 2769 (Betzold-DFL-Fridley) School district authorized to renew an expiring referendum by action of the school board
• HF3503 (Newton DFL-Coon Rapids) SF3088 (Lynch-DFL-Rochester) School districts authorized to levy pay costs attributable to increase in employer contribution rates for pension plans.
• HF3699 (Greiling-DFL-Roseville) SF 3317 (Bonoff-DFL-Minnetonka) School district discretionary levy authorized.
• HF3155 (Benson-DFL-Minnetonka) SF 2805 (Bonoff-DFL-Minnetonka) Referendum allowance limit increased for certain school districts.

In this issue

“Childhood has no rewind: Our children cannot go back to grade school and
get another education when times are better and we all have more to give.
When the playground is empty and the children are gone,
either we will have sacrificed for them, or we won’t."