Nice national poll and multi-million dollar Minnesota loss

Minnesota did well in one, and terribly in another major national education news story last week.  Ideas developed here were strongly endorsed in a highly respected national poll on public attitudes toward education.  Minnesota did not receive a cent of the more than three billion dollars awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to nine states and the District of Columbia, as part of its “Race to the Top” (RTT) Initiative.

The Gallup organization and Phi Delta Kappa, a national education group, did the survey.  This annual poll, done for the last 42 years, traditionally is released just before the start of school.  It surveyed more than 1,000 adults around the country.  The public displayed widespread support for many ideas that began or have been expanded in Minnesota.  For example:

* Seventy-three percent of respondents said that a teacher’s salary should be either “very closely tied” (19%) or “somewhat closely tied” (54%) to his/her students’ achievement.  This is the central idea behind Minnesota’s “Q-Comp” legislation, which says improving students’ achievement is part, not all, of what determines a teacher’s salary.

* Sixty-eight percent of respondents favor the idea of charter public schools (developed first in Minnesota).  Support nationally has increased steadily from 42% in 2000 and 49% in 2005.

There’s a lot more in the poll, which can be reviewed for free at www.pdkintl.org/kappan/poll.htm

Now, the $3+ billion total of awards:  Winners were  Massachusetts $250,000,000, New York $700,000,000, Hawaii $75,000,000, Florida $700,000,000, Rhode Island $75,000,00, District of Columbia $75,000,000, Maryland $250,000,000 Georgia $400,000,000, North Carolina $400,000,000, and Ohio $400,000,000.  The amount of the award was tied to a successful application and the number of K-12 students in a state.  Given our size, Minnesota would have received about $250 million if we had been successful.

Sadly, Minnesota did not even compete in the just completed second round of RTT applications.

The Minnesota Department of Education decided not to apply after the Pawlenty administration and state legislature could not agree on ways to improve education.    Minnesota applied in the first round of “Race to the Top” and lost.  Tennessee and Delaware won hundreds of millions of dollars in that first round.   Some Minnesota local districts and their teachers’ unions, along with a number of Minnesota charter public schools supported the first round application (as I had). 

But statewide teachers’ union Education Minnesota sent a letter critical of Minnesota’s application to the U.S. Secretary of Education.  The lack of support from some teacher groups, limited “alternative routes into teaching” that other states have developed and found useful, and other problems with the application, were cited in the federal review of our first round application.

Several states, including the winners in Massachusetts and New York passed reform legislation earlier this year, despite opposition from statewide teacher unions. 

Looking back is informative.  But we need to look forward. 

There’s still plenty to be proud of in Minnesota public schools.   But we need more openness to new ideas, and more collaboration, if we are to make progress with youngsters.