Governor’s proposed pre-K options get mixed reaction

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House members, in a joint hearing of the education and health and human services finance committees, pulled out their metaphorical magnifying glasses Wednesday to take a closer look at Gov. Mark Dayton’s proposed $130 million increase over the next biennium in early education opportunities for pre-K children of low-income families.The reaction to the proposal was mixed.Last month the governor unveiled in his 2016-17 biennial budget proposal, which calls for a $418 million increase in pre-K-12 spending. He targeted $109 million of that to expand pre-K learning opportunities for 31,000 children of low-income families and $19.4 million to eliminate the current 2,485-child wait list for Head Start enrollment.Rep. Mary Franson (R-Alexandria) said she was particularly concerned that only child care providers who participate in the Department of Human Services-sponsored “Parent Aware” rating system would be eligible to receive children whose families will use early learning scholarship dollars.Nearly 1,900 of more than 11,000 licensed providers across the state currently participate in the program.“It doesn’t seem like the providers want to participate in the Parent Aware program,” Franson said.Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson emphasized that the Parent Aware ratings system is a voluntary program, but that providers have increased their participation since its statewide rollout in 2012.“I think you are far more likely, if you are parent, to make sure that your children are getting that kindergarten-ready experience if it is a rated program,” Jesson said.Others, like Rep. Jerry Hertaus (R-Greenfield), said they wonder whether the governor’s proposal – which includes a voluntary option for elementary schools to eventually “scale up” to include half-day, pre-kindergarten education for 4 year olds –creates unnecessary competition between public schools and the state’s already existing 11,000-plus child day care providers.The Department of Education is attempting to work with schools and providers to provide a system that leans on a multitude of early learning options, said Bobbie Burnham, director of the department’s Early Learning Services.Rep. Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul) praised the department’s efforts to combat the achievement gap by increasing state support for expansion of early learning opportunities for children who live in poverty.  Murphy, who supports a universal pre-school model, said she wants the education and human services departments to explore opportunities to ensure that licensed child care providers can fit into such a system if it ever came to fruition.Rep. Jenifer Loon (R-Eden Prairie) questioned the governor’s proposal to move toward school-based pre-k programs and whether such initiatives are really targeted to help low-income families or whether they would, in effect, end up launching entitlement-based programs that apply to all children, regardless of income-based need.“With resources so scarce and economic questions on these programs, why move in that direction where it’s not targeted to those most in need?” Continue Reading

Solidarity is not a Crime. Response to Rowley Sarfehjooy Article

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 As members of an organization committed to peace and justice, the Minnesota Committee in Solidarity with the People of Syria (CISPOS), it was disheartening for us to see an article in Huffington Post that falsely alleges that we are working “in sync with neocon warhawks to produce and sustain a perpetual state of U.S. war.” Coleen Rowley and Margaret Sarfehjooy’s article “Selling ‘Peace Groups’ on US-Led Wars” does not provide insightful analysis and is constructed on unfounded claims.The article is fallout from the widespread controversy in the peace movement over how to respond to the brutal war in Syria.Many anti-war pundits and activists have bought into U.S. propaganda that the U.S. is actively supporting the Syrian rebels to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria. They point to the 1997 Project for a New American Century plan for regime change in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. They believed Hillary Clinton in 2012 when she said the Assad regime must go and that the international community stands with the Syrian people.  In fact…the U.S. has given very little training, small weapons, and funds to very few rebel groups.  Congress recently dropped $300 million for the Syrian rebels from the defense bill, almost completely cutting what the Syrian opposition already saw as paltry support from the U.S.  On the other hand, the CIA has long had a working relationship with Assad, sending him numerous terrorist suspects to torture as part of their rendition program. Assad has provided Israel with a secure border.Talk with Syrians and you’ll learn that U.S. aid was never enough to counter Assad’s MiGs, attack helicopters, Scud missiles, heavy tanks, chemical weapons. They repeatedly state that the U.S. bombing of ISIS has helped Assad – the bombing has sometimes targeted groups aligned with anti-Assad forces and never hit the regime. Continue Reading

Lawmakers listen as educators share ‘achievement gap’ success stories

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As Minnesota leaders in K-12 education continue to work toward their shared goal of narrowing the achievement gap, the House Education Finance Committee is looking to the educators themselves for examples of progress.On Tuesday, principals and superintendents from public and charter schools and school districts that have reported improvements in that arena shared their success stories.The purpose of the hearing, said committee chair Rep. Jenifer Loon (R-Eden Prairie), was to allow the committee to glean from educators successful tools and strategies they have used that have proven effective in closing the gap between students of color and white students with respect to their scores on Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA) exams.One of those schools is Global Academy in Columbia Heights.The public charter school with an enrollment of 430 kindergarten through eighth graders — 75 percent of whom are students of color — has been designated by the Department of Education as a “Reward School,” a status that recognizes the top 15 percent of Title 1 schools that have demonstrated exceptional student outcomes in helping to close the achievement gap.“‘How do we do this?’ People ask us that a lot,” said Helen Fisk, director. “Sometimes we are pretty stumped ourselves. But I think the answer is really pretty simple: it never occurred to us that our students wouldn’t be anything other than very successful.”Fisk pointed to the school’s International Baccalaureate learning program, ability to control quality of teaching staff based on at-will employment model and its one-to-one student-iPad ratio as a few of the reasons for its high MCA scores across the board in math, reading and science.About 68 percent math of its black students in grades three through eight were measured to be proficient in math, Fisk said. About 63 percent measured proficient in reading and 62 percent in science.In the most recent round of MCA results released by the Department of Education last fall, the gap between white and black students continues to persist on a statewide level. In reading, 33 percent of black students in grades three through eight were achieved proficient for their grade level, compared to 67 percent of white students. Continue Reading

HRC: Minnesota is ‘solidifying’ equality but lags on important issues

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The Human Rights Campaign recently launched a new index rating the states on LGBT equality, and while Minnesota ranks well above many other states, the report notes some glaring inequities particularly on youth and transgender issues.According to the State Equality Index, Minnesota is rated as “solidifying equality” along with neighboring Iowa. The report notes that:“States in this category have marriage equality and nondiscrimination protections, though some lack explicit gender identity protections. They have relatively robust anti-bullying laws, but bad laws begin to crop up in this category.”Liberal bastions such as Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York are also in the category. But Minnesota is behind states rated as “innovating equality.” Those states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia.Minnesota’s deficiencies range from a lack of equitable health care for transgender Minnesotans to a lack of solid protections in parenting laws.Relationship recognitionIn the relationship recognition category, though the state has marriage equality, Minnesota lacks an alternative to marriage. “Other states continue to allow both options for relationship recognition,” the report notes.Parenting lawsMinnesota’s parenting laws are also not as strong as other states. Continue Reading

Who protects the protectors?

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A man and woman are in the car ahead, and the car has a veteran’s license plate. Which one is the veteran?Most people would identify the man. But maybe this time it’s the woman. As the number of women in the military grows, so does the number of women vets.Life in the military can be hard for women. Like that license plate response, the military system was created with men in mind. Continue Reading

Help sought to tackle rising tuition, student debt

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A 15-year trend of rising tuition for students attending public and private colleges throughout Minnesota has captured the attention of the House Higher Education Policy and Finance Committee.Three themes emerged in committee discussions Tuesday and Wednesday: tuition continues to rise, enrollment has leveled off in recent years and student debt is at an all-time high. That news has many key players in post-secondary education wanting to take a closer look at how and why.On Tuesday, University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler pitched to legislators the university’s $65.2 million request for state funding to cover a tuition freeze for its students over the next two years. Without a tuition freeze, university administrators predict costs will rise between $2,100 and $2,600 over four years for undergraduate students. Kaler said the freeze on tuition would “enable the core middle-class families to more easily access the university.”Last week, Senate DFL leaders unveiled SF2 that would have the state pay education costs of students who graduate from a Minnesota high school and attend two-year vocational or community colleges governed by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. No similar legislation has yet been introduced in the Republican-controlled House.Committee members have yet discuss the university’s request or the provisions outlined in SF2. Continue Reading