Who can keep state at head of the class?

11/15/2006

Minnesota faces big challenges in education — a key issue in this year’s governor’s election

BY PAUL TOSTO
Pioneer Press

Make the schools better. It’s a demand Minnesota voters put at or near the top of their list in every governor’s race.

More than health care, jobs or roads, education is a vital piece of Minnesota’s identity. We’re supposed to be the nation’s best at public education. For the most part, we still are. But the future is increasingly uncertain.

For decades, the only question was how much to spend. Now it’s: How much, what are we getting for it, why are our fastest-growing student populations the least prepared for the future and why should Minnesota worry about China building 800 universities in the next 10 years?

Unless someone figures out how to answer all those questions, the next governor may be the guy trying to explain in 2010 why Minnesota education is rapidly in decline.

“It’s fair, even this close to the election, to be wondering when our leadership is going to help the public identify our challenges, identify our real competition,” said David Laird, president of the Minnesota Private College Council.

“There are 20 or 25 nations out there that are real serious about preparing their young people for a rapidly changing future. We’re arguing in Minnesota about whether or not we can get enough school districts to offer algebra II to most (high school) seniors,” Laird said. “All the students in Singapore take calculus in the 10th grade. That’s our competition.”

There’s no doubt education is paramount with voters.

Nearly one in four called education the most important issue in the governor’s race in a recent Pioneer Press-Minnesota Public Radio poll, second only to taxes and the budget, which makes sense because half the state’s general fund goes to K-12 and higher education. Education has topped the list of concerns in St. Cloud State’s annual survey the past five years.

Public schools are largely an issue for state lawmakers and the governor, who sets much of the agenda. The three candidates in the governor’s race generally agree on the need to spend more on education, seek greater accountability from K-12 schools and make college more affordable.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has made some dramatic changes in four years, pushing through new K-12 school standards in reading, math, science and social studies and an experimental program that ties some teacher pay to performance. He has also led an effort to identify and get more students into college-prep courses in high school.

Pawlenty has also proposed free tuition for top-achieving students, though it’s an issue where he’s vulnerable. Public college costs have leaped on his watch and DFL challenger Mike Hatch has hammered Pawlenty for it. Hatch and Independence Party candidate Peter Hutchinson are offering ideas to increase college affordability; each proposes new spending on early learning and full-day kindergarten.

Minnesota is still an above-average state in education. It always comes out looking good on national measures of third-grade reading, middle-school science and math, and college entrance-exam scores. The state’s high school graduation rate is among the highest of any state. Its college grant program is one of the more generous in the country.

But the averages mask problems.

The success of white, mostly middle- and upper-income students has shrouded some of the worst achievement gaps in the nation. Students of color and low-income students don’t score nearly as well, don’t graduate from high school as often, aren’t as prepared for college and, even when they do enroll, don’t earn four-year college degrees at rates even close to whites.

Local researchers say fewer than 5 percent of students of color or low-income students earn a bachelor’s degree from a Minnesota college within 10 years of their freshman year in high school.

These are problems that states have struggled with for years and that, for the most, Minnesota avoided because minority student numbers were pretty small. But that will change dramatically in the next 10 years.

The number of students of color graduating from Minnesota high schools is expected to jump 40 percent by 2015 as the state’s overall number of graduates declines. By 2015, one of every five graduates is expected to be a student of color, with the growth mainly in Latino and black students, groups that have struggled the most in Minnesota schools.

Looking at the trends, the Minnesota State Demographic Center said in a September report that “the large racial and ethnic gap in graduation and educational attainment, if not reduced, will depress the state’s high rankings” and that “while Minnesota has an exceptionally high rate of high school graduation, it is not as high on the rate of completing bachelor’s and advanced degrees.

“As requirements for new jobs become more technical and complex, these higher levels of education may be increasingly in demand.”