Mr. Dahle Goes to St. Paul

The past few weeks allowed me a chance to visit with several groups about a range of issues.  The University of Minnesota College of Education and  and Human Development held a forum in Northfield a few weeks ago with several educational leaders from the area in attendance.  The discussion focused on quality teaching and how higher education must work diligently and directly with school districts to make sure high quality educators are the norm and not the exception.  The college has a long range plan to improve teacher effectiveness by connecting ongoing research to teacher programs.  The programs will focus on improving teacher support, strengthening curriculum, diversifying the teacher workforce, adaptive teaching, enhanced student teaching experiences, while measuring student progress.  It seems like the right approach to “education reform” in an area that has received a lot of attention recently.

Last week I attended the Northfield Rotary Club meeting luncheon.  Representative Bly talked about the recent legislative session and provided our thoughts on some of the budget issues that the state will face in the next biennium.  It was a great meeting with a super bunch of local individuals who have our community’s best interests at heart.

This Saturday I will be attending a meeting in Waterville with the Waterville Lakes Association.  They have some concerns about the DNR’s plans to possibly designate Lake Tetonka as a Muskie  lake.  The State DNR is considering several sites and are gathering feedback from local citizens about future plans.  The Sportsmen’s Clubs, Darkhouse and Angling groups are also weighing in on the issue.  The DNR will not make any final decisions until later this year, but are wanting to get the dialogue going this summer.

What’s up with Article 6 of the Education Omnibus bill (SF3189) awaiting action in the Minnesota Senate? The title is Race to the Top and there are several provisions in the article that raise serious questions about our future education policy.

I have already expressed my concerns about the Alternative teacher licensure provisions in the bill. To address those concerns I have offered an alternative teacher preparation amendment which focuses on mid-career professionals. Alternative licensure candidates would find work where there is a need for teachers in shortage areas or the school identifies a need to eliminate a student achievement gap. The eligibility requirements under the proposal maintain high standards for teacher candidates and require at least 12 weeks of student teaching under a fully licensed classroom teacher.

Other sections of the bill create a tiered licensure system for initial, standard, and master teacher along with statewide teacher, principal, and superintendent evaluations. I am all for evaluations but one provision under this bill would consider a teacher “highly effective” if the students test scores on statewide student assessments improve. We want to raise the bar for students but labeling teachers with this approach needs much more discussion and input. Would it require even more testing in more subject areas in our already over-tested schools? Can we truly measure student growth in an overloaded semester class full of at risk kids? Where does the parent and community component fit in?

Section 4 allows the Commissioner of Education to take over the collective bargaining process if labor and management are unable to agree on a school’s continuous improvement plan. That plan may address, but is not limited to, hiring, reassigning and transferring employees, work rules related to the educational calendar, retention, and employment performance incentives. Should the Governor’s appointed commissioner be allowed to intervene in a process that allows both labor and management ownership in local decisions regarding employment and working conditions? Will decisions by a commissioner create the buy-in necessary to turn a school around?

Section 3 allows the commissioner and the chairs of the House and Senate to provisionally adopt common core state standards now, never mind the work done on state standards over the years, or the lack opportunities for input from our teachers, administrators, or even legislators. Should we adopt national core standards that no one has seen? It all seems a bit rushed.

Article 6 has more questions than it has answers. Even though Minnesota has a long history of educational excellence, there is no doubt we should continue to look at real educational reform aimed at reducing the achievement gap. We can focus on the teacher, but we should not ignore early childhood education, all day kindergarten, extended school programs, targeted services, class size reduction, and other proven initiatives. Race to the Top could be a race to Mediocrity if we rush into “reform” for reform’s sake.

With the recent headlines highlighting teen driving tragedies, we ask ourselves, “Do we need stricter driving laws and are 16 year olds mature enough to get a license?”
I have been teaching driver education since 1982. Personally, I don’t believe we need to raise the minimum age at which a student can get a license to drive. We have, over the last few years, implemented tighter graduated driving license requirements and I believe our laws are adequate. But we can do a better job of enforcing those laws and educating both parents and students about their importance. It takes time to make those laws a part of the driving culture and routine in terms of expectations and practice. Look how far we have come with seat belt laws. If I ask a classroom full of students, “How many of you buckle up regularly?” All hands are in the air. When I first started teaching, seat belt use was spotty at best and now, starting with the infant seat, we have changed teens and adults attitudes about seat belt use significantly. Making seat belt violations a primary offense during the last session was the right step in making sure seat belt use has even more compliance among our drivers, both young and old.

It is easy to explain to young drivers the importance of driving safely. Education, modeling good behavior and increased enforcement can help reinforce those rules. Unfortunately, there are some very bad decisions being made by a handful of students who choose not to follow the law after they get their license…alone or with a few friends. Peer pressure, a sense of invincibility, cell phones, and inexperience can all lead to bad choices. Some of these same students make poor decisions about alcohol use, drugs, or even friends. That being said, I believe that most 16 year olds are mature enough to drive safely. For every excellent 16 year old driver I see, I can find a dozen 19 year olds who display immature driving behavior. Drivers need experience. Delaying the age at which our teens get a license is not the solution.

We can legislate so far. It is up to the schools, parents, community, and local law enforcement to continue to speak to our students about why these laws are in place. The unfortunate and tragic events of the past week were certainly a wakeup call to all of us as to why these laws exist. I hope it was a prelude to hundreds of heart to heart conversations between parents and student at the dinner table or during those practice driving sessions. If parents took the time to ensure their students receive as much time behind the wheel as they get with hockey practice, piano lessons, or in front of the TV, we may be able to lower our teen death rates. Car accidents are the number one killer of teenagers. It’s not even close. Having a student driver is a license to worry, renewable every day. Help me help your teenage sons and daughters live to see another day.

Much of the work of the Education committee over the past few weeks has been on Race To The TOP (RTTT). Last Friday I attended a three hour meeting at the Minnesota Dept. of Education and this morning I was a part of the Joint House and Senate Education Committee. Today’s discussion focused on the Governor’s proposal for Round Two of the application process, specifically in areas where Minnesota scored low on its initial application. The committee took up three items. Two of those included alternative teacher licensing and using a student growth model as a measure of teacher effectiveness. I wasn’t sold. The main questions I still have, will these proposals close the achievement gap, improve graduation rates, or raise the bar for under performing schools?
The third item made some sense: using teacher mentoring and staff development to improve classroom instruction. But we can do more. Let’s focus on proven strategies we know can make a difference. Let’s invest in early education and all day kindergarten. Let’s support after school programs, extended school, and summer intervention programs. School counselors, school social workers, and strong parent and community involvement is essential. Let’s demand reasonable class sizes. Let’ be sure our professional development funds improve teacher quality and raise expectations. Staff development must include strategies and measures for aligning curriculum with accepted core standards and outcomes. Let’s give teachers time to collaborate and develop lesson plans that improve student learning across disciplines.
With over 200 applicants for every teacher opening in my school district, let’s make sure we hire the best and brightest teachers. More importantly, make sure we weed out ineffective teachers during the three year probationary period. Let’s provide ongoing peer review and mentoring programs for all teachers. Let’s beef up teacher preparation programs in our colleges and universities. Let’s consider student loan forgiveness in under served areas.
We can all agree that teacher quality is important, and we can do better with the system we have. Federal dollars would be nice, but money and an unreasonable deadline should not drive our state’s education policy. There were plenty of good ideas presented at this morning’s meetings. The Governor’s tired proposals regarding teacher quality were not among them.

Growing up, the Public Library was always one of my favorite stops when headed downtown. It provided a lot of fond memories. I recall the joy in reading every one of the books in the Hardy Boys series. Having completed that goal, I even started reading the Nancy Drew mysteries (although I never shared that with the neighbor kids). Signing your name to the library card was always a source of pride and satisfaction. Seeing classmates, neighbors, town folks both young and old, gathered at the library was a comforting part of my childhood, an experience I will happily pass on to my own children.
Yesterday, I attended the grand opening of the Lonsdale Public library. Judging by the number of people in attendance, you knew that this brand new facility, with both library and a beautiful new community room, was a popular and welcome addition to their town. Neighbor to the Three Links Care facility, it provides a great space for citizens of all ages to come together to share not only the joy that books can bring, but a reason and opportunity to visit and share time with each other.
While the Northfield Carnegie Library will be celebrating its 100th anniversary this April, the brand new Lonsdale library becomes only the 2nd new library to be built in Minnesota in the past year. That is a great accomplishment. Whether brand new or a century old, the town library strengthens a community through literacy, providing access to information, intellectual freedom, and fostering lifelong learning and enrichment.
At a time when community budgets become strained due to economic realities, we need to do whatever we can to support these valuable community assets. The services, programs, and resources, and memories they provide are too valuable to take for granted.

Today I was reminded of the 1970 movie “Cold Turkey” starring Dick Van Dyke. It was the fictional story of Eagle Rock, Iowa where the entire community pledged to quit smoking. Their reward should they succeed? $25,000,000.
In the Senate Energy committee today, we heard from the students and community members of Rothsay, Minnesota who, with the help of Ottertail Power Company, hope to reduce the entire community’s energy use by 15% over the next 5 years.
Since April of 2009, this town of 500 and home to the world’s largest Prairie Chicken, has been conducting energy audits for businesses and homes, analyzing bills, providing education workshops and consultations, and providing low interest financing to meet their goal. Smart monitors have been placed in residential homes. School curriculum has been created to help students lead community wide efforts to get pledges and information to community members. Ottertail Power is making community and school connections while providing resources and tracking information to its new community partners.
Seeing middle school and high school students take leadership roles in this endeavor is one of the most satisfying aspects of the project. Changing existing behaviors (both adults and students) seems to be one of the biggest challenges. While Minnesota’s Next Generation Act looks to increase energy efficiency goals statewide, we are anxious to hear more about the Rothsay Community Energy challenge. We hope to apply lessons and solutions learned on a much larger scale. Decreasing our nation’s energy demands is a great example for not only small town America, but for our nation and our precious planet. The rewards are immeasurable.

This past Tuesday, the Education committee in the Minnesota Senate passed an alternative Teacher licensure bill. I voted against that bill.

At a time when discussions have focused on increased rigor, teacher quality, and closing the achievement gap, fast tracking teacher licensure doesn’t see make sense. Senate File 2757 would allow person with a BA who has passed reading, writing, and math exams and a 5 week preparation course to be in charge of a classroom.

How can an individual, who has not adequately demonstrated proven success in an actual classroom setting experience, do a better job in closing the achievement gap? Hundreds of laid off teachers and recent college graduates from 4 year teacher preparation programs are already looking for work. There are sufficient high quality experienced teachers for most subjects.

The current system allows for flexibility. There are certain organizations such as “Teach for America” that already have programs in place in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Brooklyn Center having been granted waivers by the Board of Teaching. That program could continue.

Minnesota has long been a leader in quality education. We consistently lead the nation in ACT scores and high school graduation rates. Some argue that an alternative teacher licensure option in Minnesota will increase our chance for success in the Federal “Race to the Top” initiative. Federal oversight, (think No Child Left Behind) should not be the carrot for teacher quality in this state. Let’s do all we can to ensure that our current 70,000 educators are the best they can be.

I recently held a town meeting in a small town on the Western side of my Senate district. As the town meeting turned its focus to the budget crisis, one gentleman stood up claiming to have all of the answers regarding Minnesota’s budget woes. He said he had a proposal for “solving the state’s budget deficit without raising taxes.” I said I was interested in his “list” and he said he would be sure to send it to me. Sure enough, a few days ago I received a document outlining what some of those cuts might look like. Here is a small sampling of some of what Minnesota could expect (and I quote):

• Eliminate intrusive and ineffective home visiting and mental health screening programs
• Eliminate Early Childhood Professional Development
• Eliminate Kindergarten Readiness Assessment and Intervention Programs
• Eliminate Preschool screening and ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education)
• Eliminate Early Childhood Literacy
• Eliminate After School Community Learning Grants
• Repeal the public school staff development mandate
• Reduce the number of MNSCU campuses
• Require the DNR to fully self-fund via fees
• Eliminate Local Government Aid
• Reduce Court appropriations and increase attorney’s annual license
• Reduce Human Rights Department funding
• Provide Health Insurance subsidies, not Health care services and payments

No thank you. If this list is a solution, count me out. The cuts to early childhood education alone would set this state back 30 years creating a host of problems for years to come. We need to reaffirm the connection between intelligent investments and the public benefits we receive in return. We are a state of community minded people who care about our children, our neighbors, the elderly, and the poor. We value these public assets and most of us are more than willing to pay for them.

The document to which I refer comes from the Minnesota Budget Solutions Coalition which includes organizations such as the Minnesota Majority, Taxpayers League of Minnesota, Minnesota Family Council, and NFIB Minnesota Chapter… to name a few.

This past Monday I had the opportunity to sit in on a joint session of the Montgomery city council and school board. Montgomery successfully passed a school bond referendum this past December. There’s no question the Montgomery Lonsdale school district was in need of a new facility and it was clear the Superintendent, Board, and Council members were excited about the city building a new high school. As we talked about the state budget crisis and the $1.2 billion shortfall facing the upcoming legislative session, one message was quite clear. Montgomery, both school and city, is not in a financial position to make significant budget cuts. Since 2003, Minnesota state investment in schools has dropped an inflation-adjusted 13 percent and schools like Montgomery Lonsdale has had difficulty making ends meet.
The city faces similar financial strain. In 2009, Montgomery lost $71,353 in Local Government Aid (LGA) though unallotment. The 2010 cuts will total $164,408. Needed improvements for streets and infrastructure may have to wait. The weak economy has dramatically softened the real estate market and as local assessments continue to catch up to the effects of the economy, property values will continue to adjust. Last year, residential homestead property values overall fell in cities. On top of that, commercial and industrial property values are on the decline. As a result, cities could see more of the burden of their property tax levy shifting to homeowners in the foreseeable future.
How much more can we cut LGA to cities like Montgomery? What kind of community do we want to live in? How can we ensure our students are getting the best education if we continue to slash budgets while schools are barely holding on with a funding stream that relies on operating referendums? While schools can be placed on a failing list for not making Average Yearly Progress (AYP), perhaps we should place an entire state on the failing list for not properly investing in our students, our schools, and our communities. When a school is not making AYP, everyone rallies to address the problem. When a community sees the need for a new school, local citizens step up and deliver. We need that same effort, in bipartisan fashion, at the State Capitol come February.

The following report was written by Rob Hardy, school board chair for Cannon River STEM School, for northfield.org.

About 75 people gathered in the big room at ARTech charter school on Tuesday, January 5, for an evening of conversation with State Senator Kevin Dahle and State Representative David Bly. The main topic of the evening was education funding, and the impact on Minnesota public schools, and charter schools in particular, of the state budget crisis and the 27.5% holdback of state general education funds.

What is the 27% holdback? By statute, 10% of state per pupil education funding is held back from public schools in the state of Minnesota until after final enrollment figures are available for the school year. The money is generally paid to the schools in the first half of the following school year. This year, in an effort to address the state budget shortfall without raising taxes, Gov. Pawlenty increased the holdback to 27%. This means that 27% of the amount that schools have budgeted, and to which they are entitled according to the per pupil funding formula, is held back—payment to the schools is deferred.

This has put charter schools into a bind. Because 27% of their general education funding is being held back, schools are finding it necessary to secure loans in order to meet their expenses—to pay teachers. The interest payments then have to be included the school’s general education budget. In effect, funds that should have gone into the classroom are going into interest payments to banks—if, that is, the schools can secure loans at a time when banks are tightening credit.

Both legislators expressed their strong support for charter schools. The hard reality is that the state budget is facing a projected $5 billion shortfall in the next biennium. To this point, the stategy of Gov. Pawlenty has been to make cuts and accounting shifts, rather than to raise additional revenue.

See the entire story at http://northfield.org/