Every American child should have access to an affordable, world-class education.
Growing up in St. Louis Park, Al had access to a terrific public education system. That's because, in the 1930s, Governor Floyd B. Olson (a Socialist!) worked with a conservative legislature to pass the state's first progressive income tax – and devoted every dollar of revenue to K-12 education. That's how Minnesota had the lowest rate of soldiers rejected for lack of education in World War II. Up until recently, Minnesota has been a national leader in investing in education. It's time that our country truly commit to "Leaving No Child Behind." Except, this time, we should actually do it instead of just using it as a slogan.
Here's where I stand:
I believe we have to fully fund our public schools. We owe it to our states, and more importantly, we owe it to our kids to provide them with the same opportunities I had growing up.
- Every public school in America should have small class sizes, well-maintained facilities, plenty of school supplies, and more support staff.
- Teachers should be paid as the professionals they are. Professional development should be under the control of teachers at the school site, allowing teachers to gain new skills through coaching, mentoring, and assessment by other teachers.
- Parents shouldn't have to pay "activity fees" for their kids to play sports or participate in arts or music programs. We didn't have activity fees when I was a kid. Studies show that the number one determinant of whether a kid stays in school is whether they identify with their school. What do you want your kids doing between 3:00 and 6:00? I'd want mine learning skills and school spirit.
- When I get to Washington, someone is going to have to explain to me why we have unfunded mandates. It's unconscionable that the federal government fails to live up to its commitments. Right now, the federal government only pays for 19% of special education costs – after promising to cover 40%. When I get to the Senate, I'll fight to end unfunded mandates.
In addition to funding issues, I believe that the No Child Left Behind law must be dramatically reformed or scrapped altogether. I'm for accountability, but I'm not for the deeply-flawed NCLB system. I once read about something called McNamara's Fallacy. It goes like this:
The first step is to measure whatever can be easily measured. This is OK as far as it goes. The second step is to disregard that which can't easily be measured or to give it an arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and misleading. The third step is to presume that what can't be measured easily really isn't important. This is blindness. The fourth step is to say that what can't be easily measured really doesn't exist.
In other words, instead of trying to measure what's important, we end up deciding that whatever's easiest to measure is most important. If we're going to keep No Child Left Behind, we have to stop falling prey to McNamara's Fallacy. Here are a few of the reforms I'm for:
- End arbitrary performance standards and replace them with models that measure and reward progress achieved during the school year.
- Encourage more flexibility in measuring student achievement. Allow teachers to participate in the evaluation of their students' progress over the course of a year instead of at a single point in time (for instance, by assembling student portfolios).
- Reading comprehension and math skills tests only measure reading comprehension and math skills (and, I suppose, test-taking skills). We should measure critical thinking, teamwork, creativity, and other important skills. And we have to reverse the narrowing of our curriculum that has de-emphasized science, art, civic, and physical education.
- Stop duplicative testing. My daughter taught third grade in a public school for three years, and she was constantly frustrated by the amount of classroom time that had to be devoted to testing and test preparation. While we need to measure student progress, too many districts have overlapping district, state, and federal tests. We should audit tests at the district, state, and federal level to ensure that this doesn't happen.
- Instead of punishing low-performing schools, use research-based interventions to help them improve. Give them the resources to hire, develop, and retain the best teachers by offering increased pay, safe working conditions, and sufficient support staff and facilities.
- Stop including English language learners (ELLs) in measurements of annual progress before they're proficient in English. And don't punish a school simply because one "cell" – such as special education students – fails to meet a benchmark.
But there's more to do than just follow through on our commitment to providing every American child with a world-class K-12 education.
- I like to say that it's impossible to guarantee every child an equal opportunity in life – there are just too many factors (parents, economic status, talent) beyond our control. But we can and should guarantee every child a fair chance. That's why I believe we should invest in early childhood education. A child who's been read to by the age of 5 has twice the vocabulary of a peer who hasn't. Economists and educators alike believe that investment in early childhood education more than pays off in the long run. It's time we invested in the earliest part of life instead of building more prisons.
- We should also restore Pell Grants so that every American family can send its children to college without incurring a crushing burden of debt. When my wife's sisters were attending college on Pell Grants, a full Pell Grant paid for 90% of a college education. Today, it's less than 40%.
- Here's an idea I heard from a student in Mankato: Let's create an ROTC-style program for teachers. If a student pledges to teach a needed subject in a designated needy area for a certain amount of time (say, math in a poor rural district suffering from a shortage of math teachers), the federal government could forgive some or all of that student's loans.
After the collapse of the 35W bridge, we were all reminded of the importance of investing in our nation's physical infrastructure. But we shouldn't forget to invest in our nation's human infrastructure, either.
