Local Poll Results Support Teachers: Our district regularly polls local residents using an independent pollster to help them make budget and levy decisions. Our most recent poll yielded high marks for teachers. A-H teachers were rated as what local residents liked most about our district and 84% rated staff job performance as positive (that’s an 11% increase over 2007’s poll). That is particularly impressive as districts that close schools and make budget cuts generally see a drop in ratings. One take away from this poll is that A-H educators are doing great work, and our public knows it.
Education Bill Loaded with Bad Policy: The conference committee has completed the combination of the House and Senate Omnibus Education Finance bills. It will up for a legislative vote within days and then on to the Governor. To see the full conference report, visit http://tinyurl.com/69psr25 .
The conference report contains less funding than the original bills and retains many policy provisions that are problematic. They include:
- Elimination of teachers’ right to strike
- A Florida-style accountability system that rates schools A-F, based entirely on test results
- Elimination of the 2 percent district budget set-aside for educator professional development
- Elimination of the set-aside funding requirement for guidance counselors and other student support staff
- Severe limits on teacher pay increases (school boards would be allowed to impose caps on negotiated salary increases)
- Elimination of the Jan. 15 contract settlement deadline
- Elimination of integration aid
- Private school vouchers
- Teacher “effectiveness” determined by state-mandated teacher evaluation system tied at least 50 percent to student test scores, the rest on measures including annual principal evaluations and parent surveys
- The order of teacher layoffs determined by test-based “effectiveness” ratings
- Elimination of teacher tenure, replaced by five-year contracts based on the above teacher “effectiveness” ratings
Grab your cell phone and let our legislators know how you think they should vote on this bill (to find your legislative district, visit http://www.gis.leg.mn/OpenLayers/districts/ ):
District 32 Sen. Warren Limmer (R) 651-296-2159
District 46 Sen. Linda Scheid (DFL) 651-296-8869
District 47 Sen. Benjamin Kruse (R) 651-296-4154
District 48 Sen. Mike Jungbauer (R) 651-296-3733
District 49 Sen. Michelle Benson (R) 651-296-3219
District 50 Sen. Barbara Goodwin (DFL) 651-296-4334
District 51 Sen. Pam Wolf (R) 651-296-2556
District 32A Rep. Joyce Peppin (R) 651-296-7806
District 46B Rep. Debra Hilstrom (DFL) 651-296-3709
District 47A Rep. Denise Dittrich (DFL) 651-296-5513
District 47B Rep. Melissa Hortman (DFL) 651-296-4280
District 48A Rep. Tom Hackbarth (R) 651-296-2439
District 48B Rep. Jim Abeler (R) 651-296-1729
District 49A Rep. Peggy Scott (R) 651-296-4231
District 49B Rep. Branden Petersen (R) 651-296-5369
District 50A Rep. Carolyn Laine (DFL) 651-296-4331
District 51A Rep. Tim Sanders (R) 651-296-4226
District 51B Rep. Tom Tillberry (DFL) 651-296-5510
