Dayton Renews Pledge to Raise School Funding (MN)
February 7, 2011
Gov. Mark Dayton unveiled a sweeping vision for Minnesota education Friday aimed at improving child literacy, establishing teacher performance standards and closing an achievement gap that has been called one of the worst in the country.
The plan also calls for fewer — but better targeted — tests and expanded all-day kindergarten.
The far-reaching proposal included few specifics. Several of the ideas in the plan have been tried before, but floundered.
Despite expressing doubts last week that he could fulfill a campaign pledge to spend more on education, Dayton said Friday that "We will fulfill my campaign promise to increase funding for K-12 public education — no excuses, no exceptions — into the next few years."
Republican and DFL lawmakers said Dayton’s proposal touched on worthwhile points, but broke little new ground.
"There’s nothing terribly new in here, but it is a good, solid plan," said Roseville Rep. Mindy Greiling, a ranking DFLer on education. "What would be new is if we funded it. That would be brand new."
Rep. Sondra Erickson, R-Princeton, said the plan advocates "more government" and higher spending without making concrete changes.
"He has some good points here, but I don’t really find any reform in his seven points," said Erickson, chair of the Education Reform Committee. "We’re going to have more commissions and more advisory councils. I think we’ve been there and done that."
The achievement gap has caused alarm among governors and education commissioners for years. Minnesota’s gap is often cited as one of the biggest in the United States. Dayton did not detail what his administration would do differently to close it.
Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius said a signature focus of her tenure will be making Minnesota’s achievement gap — between the state’s white and nonwhite students — better than the national average.
"I’m going to hold myself and my team accountable for closing this achievement gap and making it smaller so we’re not nation-lagging, but nation-leading in the growth of our students," Cassellius said.
The plan also calls for as-yet-unnamed accountability measures for schools. Dayton stopped short of suggesting any consequences for poor performance. Cassellius said they hope to focus more on encouragement than punishment.
Said Greiling: "I think Dayton has replaced the stick with a big carrot. Kind of a chocolate-covered carrot."
How much is new?
Legislators such as Rep. Nora Slawik, DFL-Map lewood, are longtime crusaders for more pre-kindergarten and all-day kindergarten funding. But even in flush times, such efforts took a back seat to other funding priorities. Previous estimates have put the price tag for all-day, everyday kindergarten at $120 million a year.
Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty formed at least two groups to study improved school funding, but the recommendations were light on specifics and the type of reforms Pawlenty favored. One group found mainly that schools needed a lot more money — as much as $1.8 billion a year.
Dayton likes the idea of changing school funding to pump more dollars into schools, but said that "unfortunately the money’s not available right now to support that undertaking."
To test, or not to test
Many parents, teachers and students would agree heartily with Dayton’s proposal to create a test-reduction task force. But a number of the state’s tests in reading, writing, science and math are mandated by the federal government’s No Child Left Behind law. Pulling out could cost the state tens of millions of dollars in federal aid, although national changes to the law are in the works.
School districts also do their own testing, which contributes to the sense that Minnesota schoolchildren are being tested all the time. One possibility, not specified by Dayton, might be to consolidate the tests.
Dayton’s goals of creating an alternative teacher licensing plan and statewide teacher performance evaluations might actually bear fruit this year.
Legislators and the powerful Education Minnesota teachers union agree in principle that both measures are required, t hough some sticking points remain.
Some school districts already evaluate teachers under the Q Comp alternative pay plan. That program awards state funding to school districts that are willing to scrap or alter their current teacher pay plans in favor of performance-based raises. Of the state’s 341 school districts and 149 charter schools, 50 districts and 54 charters participate in Q Comp. There was no mention of how a statewide teacher evaluation plan would affect that program.
"Instead of talking about how to spend more money and finding ways to spend more money, we ought to be talking about how to focus the resources we have on something we can measure," said Sen. Dave Hann, R-Eden Prairie.