I had the distinct pleasure of attending the 85th Leadership Conference of the Minnesota School Board Association at the Minneapolis Convention Center today. It featured a collection of new and old school board members and administrators from across the state and was well-attended.
The event was more politically balanced than I would have thought. The key note speaker, Anne Barab, who was great, started her speech with the revelation that she was "from Texas, where No Child Left Behind was invented." This was greeted, as you might imagine, with a palpable silence. But she effectively demonstrated that NCLB has been very successful in Texas, especially in the area of getting "sub-group" students learning on a level with kids who have every advantage. She also encouraged school board members to "ruthlessly assess their reality," part of which is that NCLB is here to stay and will probably never be funded to the degree schools would like.
Her overall message was that educators, boards, and administrators have to become learners and create strategies based on new goals in education. It was laced with humor and anecdotes and the crowd was very receptive. There was a smaller seminar later on the issues that educators have with NCLB in regards to the funding required to bring severely handicapped students into compliance with 100% competency by 2014.
It occured to me that both sides are arguing for a perfection that will never occur. On one side, a perfect education system, and on the other a perfect piece of legislation.
I enjoyed a lively debate on vouchers in another seminar. If the conference made a strong argument on the deficincies of NCLB, the case against vouchers left much to be desired. An electronic straw poll early on revealed a strong resistence to the idea. I thought the presentation was fairly partisan and didn't take into account the free market as a legitimate measure of accountability.
A lively debate broke out that was essentially the whole room versus a school board member and myself. I'll spare the details but the debate did result in a David Letterman moment when I pointed out that minorities are the fastest growing support base for vouchers, in response to the claim that inner city kids would be left out.
A 60-ish administrator sitting a row ahead had been growing ever more irritated with the broad range of the discussion. When I mentioned the statistic he turned to me and said, "I don't believe you. No, no. That's not true."
It is true.
The bright spot was a school board member who asked if that information was available. I told her it was only a Google away. I got the impression a few people might look it up.
My highlight was a class on the 2006 political climate in Minnesota, and this may very well be the first publishing of some interesting results. Bill Morris, President of Decision Resources, Ltd. outlined a poll completed only in the last week entitled "The 2006 Political Season: Schools, Lawmakers and Public Opinion." The sampling of 800 had some interesting results for the upcoming season.
The results for taxes are confusing. Education funding led the "top fixable issues" of 2006, and Morris noted that "fixing" equated to more funding generally. 53% believe Governor Pawlenty has gone too far with budget cuts. However, 41% support a taxpayers bill of rights and 16% strongly support the legislation. 30% oppose or strongly oppose. Likewise, 31% favor state limits on property tax increases and 19% strongly support the measure. 26% oppose and 9% strongly oppose.
Those crazy Minnesotans eh?
On illegal immigration, 71% support or strongly support prohibiting illegal immigrants from receiving public benefits of any kind, and 67% support or strongly support prohibiting reduced in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. 73% oppose any mandate that prohibits local law enforcement from asking the legal status of immigrants.
There were many more results, but I will just mention just one more. Support for civil unions stands at 47% statewide while support for same sex marriage lags at 17% and support for no legal recognition of any kind straddles at 33%.
Morris thought any of these hot-button issues could affect the nature of the turnout this year by people who feel strongly about referendum questions. I expect that means a legislative cage match over a gay marriage amendment. Morris thought it was doubtful an amendment would get out of the judicial committee.
My thanks to the Minnesota School Boards Association and The Minnesota Newspaper Association for hosting my presence there today. It was an enjoyable experience.
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