I’ve been saying for some time now that Tim Pawlenty has been systematically dismantling everything that makes Minnesota exceptional. Now, I’m not suggesting, nor do I believe, that this is some sort of devious plan; on the contrary, I believe he thinks he’s doing what’s best for Minnesota, but it’s absolutely clear that he’s sorely misguided. In essentially every manner in which states are evaluated Minnesota is worse off than it was six years ago. And not worse off in the sense that most states are worse off (even though that’s not true), but worse off relative to other states. Since he took office we’ve slipped relative to other states in unemployment, job creation, transportation, commute times, average income, and the most important: education.
On the front page of the Star Tribune today:
Nearly half of the state’s public and charter schools are on the 2008 list of underperforming schools. Many face penalties ranging from warnings to complete restructuring, depending on how long they have failed to meet math and reading test score targets and other standards.
Since 2003 (when the statistics first began to be collected), the number of schools requiring phase-1 action in Minnesota has gone up over 1000%, from 10 in 2003 to 113 in 2008.
I’m sick of people interjecting and saying something to the extent of, “this is a complex set of factors and no single person can be said to be the source.” Sure, it’s complex, but the Governor is at the top of this complex totem pole because, ultimately, he sets the agenda. It might even be another matter if Pawlenty had been hands off on education, but he hasn’t been, he’s the only Governor in the history of the state to allow, much less suggest, a cut to K-12 education! EVER! I’m sorry, but the time for the “correlation not causation” argument is over.
This excerpt from Britt Robson’s recent piece on Minnesota Indpendent does a nice job of introducing a complex subject (emphasis mine):
Pawlenty’s disinvestment in real-dollar state aid to education is at odds with a longstanding Minnesota formula for economic growth. Five years ago, St. Olaf economics professor Terry Fitzgerald published an analysis for the Federal Reserve Bank entitled “Business Cycles and Long Term Growth: Lessons From Minnesota.” It is an in-depth look at how Minnesota managed to increase its per capita income from 14 percent below the national average in 1929 to 8 percent above it in 2001.
After crunching a lot of numbers and parsing through the history, Fitzgerald concluded: “Obviously there is an important interplay between an education system that supplies educated people and a state economy with enough jobs that demand those educational skills.”
State economist Tom Stinson concurs. Citing similar positive economic news over the last quarter of the 20th Century, Stinson told me late last year that “the reason that [economic growth] occurred was because far-sighted public and private sector leaders figured out how to manage the challenge that was posed by the baby boom. What they decided is they were going to invest in the education of that generation. And that paid off big time in Minnesota. Now it seems like an obvious decision to have made, but if it was, other states would have done it too and we wouldn’t have done as well.”
“Far-sighted” — That’s what Tim Pawlenty lacks in droves; the far-sightedness to see past the next budget cycle. Or perhaps more accurately: the far-sightedness to see past his next election cycle.
If only that were the only aspect of Pawlenty’s seeming complete ignorance of how to run a viable education system. Again, from Robson’s excellent article:
But rather than the tuition subsidies Stinson suggests, Pawlenty has sacrificed aid to higher education on his no-new-taxes altar, creating multiple years of double-digit tuition increases. In 2001, the average annual cost of tuition and fees to attend one of the schools in the MnSCU system was $2993. Now it is over $4000. (As someone who frequently cites his “up from the bootstraps” college education in Minnesota, Pawlenty seems hypocritical as well as short-sighted in his neglect of higher education.)
These are the casualties of Pawlenty’s no new taxes pledge. But, once again, progressives have lost the messaging war because even that pledge is a complete misnomer. In real dollars, every portion of the Minnesota population except one has seen their total state tax burden rise as a percentage of their income since 2001. The only portion who hasn’t seen this rise? The top 5% of all earners in state, their burden went from 10.5% in 2001 to 10.4% in 2009… If those people in the top decile (the top 10% of earners) were made to pay 11.7% (a full point less than the 12.6% middle class earners (the fifth decile) pay at 12.6%), the state would have $671 million more dollars. That’s enough to even get at what the Minneapolis federal reserve has found to be the single best investment a state can make: pre-K education. But, let’s not get our hopes up that our Governor will suddenly get over his near-sightedness…
The real tragedy is that Minnesota, like most states, is about to face real budget shortfalls, which will put all the Governor’s boot-strapping into even tighter quarters. Here’s to a new turn for the great state I love: mediocrity.
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You’re dead on that we haven’t even seen any tax relief. As a result of Pawlenty’s tax slashing, local governments have been forced to raise property taxes to compensate. I’ve got a chart that shows how property taxes have risen at the same rate that local government aid has fallen.
I agree that Pawlenty’s tenure has done real damage to Minnesota’s educational system, but we have to be a little careful in using No Child Left Behind numbers to assess change in schools. Since NCLB uses moving targets, even if we improve a bit each year, the number of schools not making “adequate yearly progress” will increase. In fact, we have increased test scores a bit, but not nearly enough to be on pace to hit the 2014 goal of 100% of all students at grade level.
That goal is the biggest problem here. As much as I agree that we need to give every student the education they deserve, and there are students out there who deserve better, some elements of student achievement are beyond the reach of the school system. As we chase this mirage in a dead panic, we hyper-focus on those students slightly below target that we can bring up to proficiency quickly and idle too many others. I also have a great fear that English language learners, students with cognitive disabilities, and students in poverty will be scapegoated as their targets are the most unreasonable, and not surprisingly, are the most likely to be the group that causes a school to be labeled “failing”.
Though I might not see the numbers the same way you do, Pawlenty’s gang is in on this unreasonable goal, so I agree with the spirit of the post.
You’re right Julie. The problem is with the way AYP is calculated and the way the targets are increasing each year. Minnesota’s standards and tests are considered to be among the highest in the nation, in contrast with other states who have progressively lowered standards in order to inflate thier test scores.
If the trend of the last three years continues, more schools will be considered failures than not, even as Minnesota continues to lead on national indicators such as SAT scores, the ACT, the NAEP assessments and high school graduation rates. That being said, the Pawlenty years have not been kind to Minnesota schools and that high rate of performance is bound to decline if those trends are allowed to continue.
The bottom line is that it’s important to consider the context — student scores are improving on tests that are getting harder, but the federal benchmarks to calculate AYP are rising at a faster rate.
Julie, that is a point well taken. You’re absolutely right that NCLB numbers need to be used with caution and I gleaned over that a bit. I think the point still stands, however, as I was using the Strib article as a jumping off point, not really as substantive evidence.
Truly well done. I especially like the the top percent payer analysis.
The latest math scores from the high school that I graduated from indicate that less than 30% of 11th graders are at or above grade level. I suppose they could all really buckle down this last year before they graduate and maybe reach grade level (right before they start shelling out $10,000 a year to go to the U.) but I’m not counting on that happening. I take it that the answer is to continue to pour more money into this well-oiled system and things will get better. I don’t think that we’ll be pouring too much more in even if you grab that 671 million from the top 5%. With a budget deficit of over 4 billion coming you’d still be 3,329,000,000 short just to keep what we have. Now grab another 671 million, another, another, and another and you’ll be even. Might be time for a different plan…
Pawlenty took office and refused inflationary increases for education - big surprise educational quality started slipping a few years into his “service” Anyone who is plugged into the schools in their neighborhoods and who has participated in efforts to maintain small class size, make it possible for teachers to teach core curriculum basics well, keep physical education classes, the visual arts and music programs knows schools have been pinched and even with local funding drives they have had to raise class sizes and cut programing (many do believe there is a correlation between playing music and developing math skills and other analytic skills - getting rid of those “extras” matter)
It has been pointed out that Pawlenty grew up during an era when low and moderate income families had quality education - heck even during the summer there were good free programs for kids — Camp Tamarack — the Twin Cities Institute for Talented Youth (kids got picked up on busses, brought to Macalester, there they studied for several weeks a topic - science, music, theater, art you name it. They got a box lunch and then a bus ride back to their stop. This was free - there were costs for kids who wanted to go on trips across the US - but seriously there were programs so kids could keep learning. Today you want to do TCITY you pay big bucks. For low and moderate income families where both parents work there are very few quality affordable summer programs - as a society we just don’t want to invest in the next generation
Pawlenty believes that if government provides big assistance to businesses - like the JOBZ program (just one example) some day big business will invest in the community - ha!
His first instinct is to promote corporations - remember BAMCO? REMEMBER BAMCO! - seriously people. Remember Pawlenty posing with other governors in Bagdad wearing a SPAM t-shirt? That T-shirt is now a hyped item at the SPAM museum in Minnesota. Apparently Pawlenty has traveled in the capacity of an elected official also promoting Pillsbury by having the dough boy on his chest. This guy isn’t about investing in the public good - he is about pumping up industry anyway he can. If only kids today had the public education opportunities/quality that Pawlenty had.
Most of the rhetoric seems to center around our entitlement to a free public education and blaming Pawlenty for slashing the k-12 budgets to spiral MN into the educational poorhouse.
Now, first, I think you can all agree that Mr. P doesn’t go into the classroom and educate your kids for you. You can’t blame him for failing that part. He essentially has to manage the budget in which the state run educational monopoly has to work with.
Now the second point is in response to the quote “he’s the only Governor in the history of the state to allow, much less suggest, a cut to K-12 education! EVER! I’m sorry, but the time for the “correlation not causation” argument is over.”
What a whopper! Anyone with a brain knows not to trust a blogger for the facts. Not only is K-12 education the #1 expenditure in the state budget, but if you look at the actual budgets, you will find Mr. Martin to be all wet. The 2000-2001 budget spent $8.1 Billion on K-12. After Pawlenty took the helm of the budgeting crisis in education, we saw it gutted out a mere 8 years later to find the 2008-2009 budget is spending $15.2 Billion on K-12 education.
Now for those of you who are below grade, that’s almost double the budget. If you factor in the $3.1 Billion used to provide tax relief, which ultimately ends up going to the schools, it’s more than double.
Bashing Mr. P is so blatently misguided, almost as much as your insinuation that more money=better education. The private schools do not have this problem. They are not beholden to the government mandates of substandard mediocrity, and the teacher’s union that asks for a raise everytime more money is put into the system, or the monopoly government-run schools that have run themselves into the ground thanks for political correctness and new-found Bill Of Rights for kids. Most private schools offer a higher quality education, pumping out smarter kids and most at 30-60% lower cost than public education.
It’s time to do what’s best for the kids for a “change” instead of protecting the monopoly teacher’s union. Competition is the only driving force to increased quality. Monopolies will screw you everytime.
Yes, there they are again, the two big lies of the Minnesota left. That in doubling the K-12 school budget we have somehow magically cut school funding, and that property tax increases have erased all the benefit of state income tax relief. Well my property taxes have gone up less under Pawlenty than they did under Ventura, so I know you’re lying. You people think if you say these things often enough it will make them true, but the only people that believe you are the ones living in the same echo chamber. Good luck in November.
Oh, and I forgot to add that we ran T-Paw’s education commisssioner out of town. To Florida. Where test scores continue to rise (although Ms. Yecke is no longer there).
I also agree that our property taxes have risen since we moved into our home in 19993 — like about 20% If I’d only made 20% on my mutual funds since 1993 I’d be pissed! 1.3% per year is what I’d call skyrocketting!
I find it interesting that none of you put any responsibility on the legislature for passing such an absurd funding formula, which favors three school districts: Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth over the districts in the rest of the state. It is not a small funding difference either. In Mankato, the per pupil funding difference was about $4,500. That means a classroom of 20 third graders in Mankato received $90,000 less than a classroom of third graders in Minneapolis. This past session, the legislature made the problem even worse by giving the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth school districts $860 more in their funding formula. Which means schools in the rest of the state, including Mankato, can now add $860 to the difference they receive compared to Minneapolis-St. Paul and Duluth schools.
Moreover, in 2006 the legislature spent hundreds of millions of dollars to bail out the Minneapolis Teacher’s Retirement fund. Had the Minneapolis school district not completely mismanaged its retirement funds, those hundreds of millions of dollars could have gone into the education formula and been sent to the classroom.
It’s not about how much we spend, but how the money is spent.
Matt,
The latest ACT scores are out and once again Minnesota leads the nation with an average of 22.6. Iowa comes in second with an average of 22.4 while Wisconsin is at third with an average of 22.3. The national average is 21.1. If our education system is being destroyed by Pawlenty why do we continue to have the smartest students in the U.S.? http://www.wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=8833713
Minnesota Republican blogger Chris, I agree 100%,
We need to replace our education system with charter schools. Let the free market decide the quality of education, who can afford it, and who cannot. Why should my tax dollars go towards providing free education for people who are lazy and stupid, many whom disagree with Minnesota Republican bloggers on the issues? America cannot afford this anyways because of all the whiny people who think they are entitled to things.
Why should government decide what sort of education our children get?
Great Job Smartest Man In The Room Chris
I have a better idea, frightened, let’s let the money follow the student and then the student and their parent/s can choose which school to attend.
Go get those top 5 percenters. They are getting off scot-free and need to pay. Why should they not have to pay any taxes when everyone else is carrying their load.
Go round them up at the country clubs, fine restaurants, and cigar shops. This is a disgrace. There is no way they should be able to make so much money and keep it. Those Pohlads and Cargills.
Isn’t that what I just said, Chris? You’re saying the same thing I did.
At least we agree 100%,
Great Job!
No, idiot, that isn’t what you said. What you suggested was that Republicans don’t care whether kids get a good education because poor kids can’t afford rich schools. If you give the poor kids the money, they can go to any school. I think Democrats don’t care enough about poor kids because they keep sending more and more money to Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth - regardless of whether those schools are failing the kids and short change the rest of the schools in the state (where there are also plenty of poor kids).
Minnesota Republican blogger Chris, I agree 100%,
Don’t tell me you think the Department of Education is not an entitlement program? As we Republicans define entitlements, the Department of Education is a HUGE entitlement. How much of my hard earned tax dollars are you going to hand out to people who do not deserve it, Chris? We’re supposed completely ignore who gets hurt by removing entitlements, because we are Minnesota Republican bloggers!!
How are we supposed to pay for this entitlement program, Minnesota Republican blogger Chris?
Great Job Chris
I agree, real identity of TFRGW. Throwing money at a social problem always solves it. Doesn’t matter how the money is spent or how the program is administered or implemented. More money = automatic positive results.
Frightened,
What I find shocking is how you can completely ignore all of the kids who are getting hurt by the Minneapolis public school system which is failing them. You want to defend the satus quo which has ranked Minneapolis schools at the bottom (#45 out of 50) of our nation’s largest cities.
Dantheman, I agree 100%,
These moonbats will blindly throw money at problems with no thought or intelligence, only the misguided belief that if we spend money on something it will improve lives. There are no plans, or studies, or debate and discussions on how to wisely spend taxpayer dollars on the Left, only we Republicans do that. The “blindly throwing money” talking point is one of the greatest talking points we Minnesota Republican bloggers repeat often.
We need to remind anyone who disagrees with us just how stupid they are for what we define them as. I recommend defining them in an exaggerated manner as often as possible, Minnesota Republican blogger Dantheman. People believe us, and do not see our exaggerations of the positions of people we disagree with. We Republicans have a proven track record of success after success. The American people are thankful for the strong, steady, bold leadership of the Republican party since Reagan.
The American people are hungry for the kind of leadership that exaggerates the positions of our enemies for political gain, especially the enemy of America, Liberal Democrats.
Great Job!
Chris, I agree 100%,
Throwing money at a social problem always solves it. Doesn’t matter how the money is spent or how the program is administered or implemented. More money = automatic positive results.
Great Job Minnesota Republican blogger Chris