League of Women Voters

Dear Jane and Matt,

The ultrasound pictures you sent us today, showing the miracle of our first grandchild swimming around, throwing her arms and legs about, fills me with joy. I am agonized more than ever by the distance between us! Florida suddenly seems way too far. Even though I fly a lot, it won’t be like running next door. I know you would really like to move back to Minnesota, since this is where you both grew up.

You know my heart longs for you to be here, more so than ever now, but these last few months, I wonder if I can encourage you to return to a state that is rushing toward average. We lived in Florida once, and while it was nice not to pay income taxes we soon realized that you got what you paid for. As you know, Jane, it boiled down to us finally enrolling you and your brother in a private school, something I thought would never happen in our family, since public school is part of our every breath.

Certainly if you did move back to Minnesota, perhaps I’d encourage you to move to Northfield…. Cows, Colleges and Contentment! Humor aside, the truth is Northfield does continue to defy the average label. If our granddaughter went to school here, you could count on the public being supportive of you and wanting to make education a priority. In return for proving we had done everything possible to trim budgets, and for increasing transparency and accountability, the community here passed a levy referendum in 2006 that allowed us on the school board at least to maintain programs. I’d like her to be able to go to a school that has, in addition to the basics, an orchestra, arts programming, Advanced Placement and physical education. Other towns in Minnesota are cutting those things because they cannot pass levies.

As a member of the Northfield School Board, it feels to me as though our students are receiving a better education than students in Faribault, to use a nearby example. That is not right! Shouldn’t the kids there have the same opportunities?

The central issue is this: Will we as Minnesotans rebuild a consensus around equity for our citizens, or will we continue to slide into competition, where some citizens (like those in Northfield who do come together in support) have more…. more educational opportunity, better infrastructure, a better standard of living?

Okay, just a bit of history here about school funding. Before you two were born, a consensus emerged about all that. Back in 1971 the final agreement, called the “Minnesota Miracle” came from that consensus among the Governor, the Legislature, and the people. For the education end of things, this guaranteed each and every student in Minnesota the same basic education funding, distributed by the state.

What came from that agreement is pretty amazing:

* Minnesota’s income followed the investment in education. Our per capita income dramatically increased until 2000, after which it has fallen in comparison with other states.

* Minnesota’s economy thrived. Our compound annual growth rate during the 1990s, compared to the national average, was nearly an entire percentage point above what it is now. Minnesota employment rates and employment growth are now declining as we continue to lose the consensus that we’re all in this together and we all deserve to have an excellent education. Right now Minnesota is right in the middle of the pack when it comes to economic growth.

* Minnesotans with high school diplomas and college degrees increased dramatically, and that brought industry and research capital into the state. But by the time my granddaughter is in middle school, at the current rate of regression, the rates for the majority of students will have reverted back to national averages, while our minority population will be less educated than the rest of the nation! Postsecondary educations in the 1970’s increased dramatically for white students. Shouldn’t we now do the same for our growing minority populations? Can we agree to do that? Right now, 36% of Minnesotans have a B.A. degree or higher, but at the rate we’re going, by 2020 only 25% will have those degrees.

* Minnesota’s per pupil funding in 1970 was sixth in the nation. And do you know what? In 2007 we were twenty-third! In one particularly alarming statistic, out of the 38 states that provide some preschool funding, Minnesota ranks #37. Fully half of Minnesota kids are deemed not ready for kindergarten.

Building the consensus to reform school funding in a time of budget crisis seems impossible, right? I mean, it seems counterintuitive to argue that our public schools deserve a bump up in 2009, while we’re in recession. But I believe this is exactly the time to get the agreement, build the consensus, for phased-in funding. When I was a child, after all the ugliness of World Ward II and the rationing and everything else, our country put together and funded the Marshall Plan, which in no small degree stabilized Europe and got it back on its feet. It’s time for a Minnesota Marshall Plan, a new Minnesota Miracle. There are brave folks in the Legislature who have authored a bill (Mindy Greiling taking the lead) that would allow this to happen. They’ve done the research and know what works for schools, so it wouldn’t be like just increasing the money supply without accountability. Accountability is here to stay. For as difficult as No Child Left Behind has been to implement, it has forced us to take a serious look at each student and to be serious about getting that particular student ready for the world.

I could get excited about pushing the tax pendulum back toward more state funding. We have had a state government in recent years that has pushed funding down to local responsibility, local decision making, even while increasing state and federal accountability measures. I will argue that such a local control has wasted a ton of local district resources, produced confusion and increased inequality. Minnesota invests less now in state and local government than under Governor Carlson. The amount we pay for state and local government has fallen from about 17% of every dollar in 1998 to 15% today!

I’d dearly love to see you all come back to live in the Midwest…. but the truth is perhaps North Dakota or Wisconsin would be a better choice, unless we can create a new public awareness that all of the kids here belong to everybody and they all deserve to be given the best.

I sign off as Grandma! What a new term for me! I love you.

P.S. Because Minnesota now ranks #27 in the states for prenatal care, best not come back before the due date. Don’t even get me started on health care in this state! And if you want to check out more information about this, you can Google growthandjustice.org. That’s a thinktank that has been putting this information together.