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State Representative Paul Anderson
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4317
For more information contact: House GOP Communications 651-296-5520
GUEST COLUMN
VETERANS DAY RECOGNITION; NEW EDUCATION PROGRAM GAINS STEAM
By State Rep. Paul Anderson
A member of our military was honored Nov. 3 in his hometown of Freeport. Retired Staff Sergeant Mike Mills was presented with the American Patriot Award before an audience of family, friends, and fellow veterans. Mike was severely injured in 2005 in Iraq and, after a long road of recovery, has started a Web site aimed at helping other veterans. It’s called fortheveteran.com. Mike is truly an American hero, and you can read his complete story and see pictures at his site.
Only eight veterans have so far received this award, which is intended to honor combat-wounded veterans, and Mike is the first Minnesotan to be so recognized. A letter from Congresswoman Michele Bachmann that was entered into the Congressional Record was read, and I presented Mike with a proclamation signed by Gov. Pawlenty. Maxbat Inc. of Brooten is one of the founding members of the organization that started this award, and Jason Speidel of Maxbat was on hand to award Mike a specially made baseball bat. The Freeport Black Sox baseball team and the Freeport Softball Club also had special presentations for Mike. It was an inspirational program, one that made all those in attendance proud to be Americans.
The K-12 Education Finance Committee held a joint meeting last week with the Early Childhood Committee to learn more about yet another big federal spending program, this one called Race to the Top. Part of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, this program will award $4.3 billion in competitive grants to the 15 states whose applications are deemed the most innovative and would produce the most reform in education.
Minnesota already has a leg up in the application process as it was awarded a $250,000 grant from the Bill Gates Foundation to help with the cost associated with the grant application itself. The Minnesota Dept. of Education, after hearing input from various stakeholder groups across the state, will assemble the application, which the teachers union must approve before being sent to Washington. Individual school districts will also be given the opportunity to “sign on” to the program once the application is ready for submission.
The purpose of Race to the Top is to support investments in innovative strategies that are most likely to lead to improved results for students, long-term gains in school and school system capacity, and increased productivity and effectiveness. Four main areas will be assessed in the state applications: they are standards and assessments, improving teacher effectiveness and achieving equity in teacher distribution, improving collection and use of data, and supporting struggling schools.
Some of the ideas being encouraged in the application process are not popular with all groups. Alternative teacher licensure is nearly a mandate in this program; the teachers union is currently not fond of this. The idea of national curriculum standards is not universally popular in states such as Minnesota that are doing relatively well in terms of student achievement. And, there is also the nagging question of just how far the federal government should go in mandating programs for K-12 education.
One of the testifiers at the meeting was David Schreve, federal affairs counsel for the National Conference of State Legislatures. Mr. Schreve did not paint a rosy short-term picture for state budgets as he explained that most states, including Minnesota, used a portion of their stimulus funding to close gaps in their budgets. The figure for our state is that approximately 30 percent of the federal money we received (or will receive) went to fill holes in the budget as we basically were “treading water”.
When that funding runs out at the end of 2010, Schreve said most states are facing a cliff. And, to make matters worse, he said that because state budgets generally run about 18 months behind the federal economy, when things finally begin to improve, states face another cliff before their tax collections start to increase.
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Rep. Anderson encourages constituents to contact his new office with input regarding any state legislative issue. He can be reached on the web at www.house.mn/13A and via email at rep.paul.anderson@house.mn. To contact Anderson by phone, call (651) 296-4317. Mail can be sent to Rep. Paul Anderson, 239 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, Minnesota 55155.
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