Mr. Dahle Goes to St. Paul

I was driving back to St. Paul yesterday afternoon heading to the Capitol, a place I had left only a few hours earlier, as the sun was rising in the east. The Twins game blared on the radio, our favorite nine well on their way to losing their third game in a row to the dreaded New York Yankees. Earlier in the morning, the Senate had just sent the Governor a 3rd balanced budget, uncertain if it would be the third rejected proposal in a row, for the Minnesota legislature.
Fast forward to Monday morning, just before 7am. The Senate will reconvene in about 30 minutes after an all night wait to get the final bill drafted ready to hand to the Governor. Surprisingly, a lot has changed in the last 24 hours. The Twins didn’t lose their 3rd game in a row. Jason Kubel hit a dramatic grand slam in the 8th inning sending them to a much needed win over the Bronx Bombers. And the Minnesota legislature avoided a strike out with another veto from Governor Pawlenty. The bill was crafted with some agreement on an early enrollment option for Medical Assistance, a few more cuts to health care and other areas, additional cost shifts including delayed aid payments to schools. The bill is not ideal. While there are no direct cuts to schools or nursing homes, it relies on too many budget balancing gimmicks, over use of borrowing, and direct and indirect cuts to essential services.
But the Governor’s signature on this bill will salvage the weekend; bring a close to the session, while essentially avoiding extra innings. Just as Twins fans found an unexpected glimmer of hope in the Big Apple, the Minnesota legislature found unexpected agreement with the Governor. It must be time for a break. Hey, I see the Yanks are in town next week.

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.

The DFL convention came to a close last night shortly before midnight with Margaret Anderson-Kelliher securing the endorsement after a spirited battle for delegates. I returned home this morning, a bit weary but energized as well. The candidates were extremely passionate in speech after speech offering insight about what we could do as a state with new vision in the Governor’s office. When not working the crowd myself, I sat with friends and neighbors, District 25 delegates, for much of the day. One of those delegates, an eighteen year old and former student in my Civics class, experienced his first State party convention. Others had years and years of convention experience. Delegates had different ideas about who the next Minnesota Governor should be. Four of us sitting in close proximity, all cast different votes for different candidates: Rybak, Kelliher, Marty, and Thissen, eventually settling in on the two candidates left standing. When Rybak conceded at around 11:30pm we all shook hands, donned our Anderson-Kelliher buttons, headed into the Duluth evening knowing there would be much work left to do.

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.

The Boy Scouts of America celebrated its centennial anniversary in February of this year. The largest youth organization in the United States, it has 2.8 million youth members and 1.1 million adult leaders in the programs of cub scouting, boy scouting, and venturing. Since 1910, more that 111 million have participated in the organization’s traditional programs. The organization was granted a federal charter in 1916 by an Act of Congress signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson.
Today I attended the presentation of the Eagle Scout rank to Bradley Walechka of LeCenter, Minnesota. As a Civics teacher, I teach young people about the importance of citizenship, patriotism, and service to one’s community and nation. But family, friends, community, and organizations like the Boy Scouts of America are pivotal in supporting and nurturing our young men and women to become the best citizens our communities can hope for. The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is “to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling them the values of the Scout Oath and Law: Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.”
Annually, scouts and their leaders volunteer over 35 million hours of service to their communities through more than 75,000 service projects, meeting a wider range of needs in the areas of food, shelter, education, and environmental conservation.
Congratulations Boys Scouts of America on your 100th Anniversary Celebration. Congratulations, Bradley. Your success and your efforts give us all reason to be proud of our next generation of citizens …and our country’s future.

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.

Eminent domain is basically a situation where someone wants to take away the property you own and the law allows that entity to use a lawsuit against you to acquire it…even though a FOR SALE sign never existed.

SF1112 came to me over a year ago. I had heard the concerns of landowners and farmers at town meetings, scheduled appointments, emails, and phone calls. The Minnesota Pipeline had rolled through their farms and property a couple of years ago and with the CapX2020 transmission line seemingly on a similar path, these constituents wanted change.

In 2006, the Minnesota legislature overhauled the eminent domain laws. Tougher laws were passed as it relates to the condemning of private land. However, Public Service Corporations were given an exemption from the same laws that government entities were required to follow when exercising easements, right of ways, or the taking of land. The exemption became an issue when landowners were failing to get legitimate offers for their land and the exempt utility companies did not have to get appraisals for the land, negotiate in good faith, or pay attorney fees or damages when a business was negatively affected. Low ball offers were commonplace and property owners were paying thousands of dollars in appraisals, mediation, attorney fees to defend their property rights.

SF1112 puts transmission lines and pipelines under the same statute essentially ending their 3 year exemption. A version of that bill (as an amendment) passed the Minnesota Senate last week with a wide margin of support. A similar bill, authored by Representative David Bly, has passed the House.

While I am the chief author of the bill, this legislation really belongs to people like Russell and Judy Martin, Joyce Osborn, John Schmick, and others who have worked so hard and for so long to bring fairness back to a process that had none. This legislation is a real victory for Minnesota’s property owners.

Representative David Bly and I will be holding a town meeting this Monday, March 29 from 7:00-8:00pm at the Northfield Public Library. With the legislative session nearing the halfway point, we welcome the opportunity to hear your concerns and thoughts about the issues facing Minnesotans. If you are unable to attend, as always, please contact me to express your concerns about the economy, jobs, education, the environment, energy, or health care. I am always willing to listen. We’re in this together, and I’ll do my best for you.