Emmer proposes massive education funding cuts, won’t work with Education Minnesota

Republican candidate for governor Tom Emmer proposed massive cuts to education in a debate televised statewide Aug. 13, and said he would not work with Education Minnesota in considering education policy.

During a budget demonstration on TPT’s Almanac, all three gubernatorial candidates used hockey pucks to allocate state funding. Currently, education accounts for roughly 43 percent of the state budget.

Emmer devoted 30 percent of his state budget to education.
Democrat Mark Dayton’s hockey pucks put education funding at 43 percent.
Independent Tom Horner set state spending on education at 41 percent.

When Dayton questioned Emmer about his massive cuts to education, which would reduce education funding in Minnesota by one-third, Emmer responded by saying “I think you read it wrong, it was based on what was there. And I didn’t do the cornucopia of new revenues that you were grabbing.”

Dayton pledges to invest in education
Dayton vowed again during the debate to raise taxes on the highest-income earners in Minnesota, and use the money to invest more in education. Dayton said his view of education reform is to end state budget cuts to education. He also criticized the use of funding shifts that delayed payments to schools to balance the state budget.

“If I reached my hand into somebody’s pocket and took out their wallet and said ‘I’m going to give it back to you when I feel like it,’ we wouldn’t call that a shift in the real world,” Dayton said.

Emmer claimed that education has been held harmless in recent years of budget cuts. He also disputed Dayton’s contention that funding has been cut $1,300 per pupil in inflation-adjusted dollars since the beginning of the Pawlenty administration. Several media organizations have examined the question and found the $1,300 per pupil cut in funding is an accurate number.

Emmer will not work with union
During the hour-long discussion, Emmer also said he did not intend to work with Education Minnesota on education policy. “I suspect we’re not going to be working with the union leaders because they seem to be about protecting turf as opposed to looking at real reforms in our schools,” Emmer said on TPT’s Almanac.

Education Minnesota President Tom Dooher called that position “disheartening.”

“It’s very disappointing to hear a candidate for governor say he’s not interested in the teachers’ perspective on how to improve our schools,” Dooher said. “It would be like a hospital operating without input from nurses. We need to work together to improve education for all children, not push partisan political agendas,” Dooher said.

Emmer supports unproven 'reforms'
Emmer said he supports alternative licensure of teachers, performance pay for teachers, and eliminating tenure.

“In one breath Rep. Emmer claims Minnesota is blessed with ‘great teachers,’” Dooher said. “And in the very next breath he proposes lowering the standards for becoming a teacher, suggests punishing teachers when children get low grades, and claims schools should be able to fire teachers at will, with no due process,” Dooher said.

Dooher noted there is no research indicating any of those measures improve student test scores. He called Emmer’s view on education reform “a smokescreen that diverts attention from the real reforms needed in Minnesota. Those are adequate funding and eliminating the achievement gap.”

Union proposes research-based methods
Dooher said Education Minnesota supported a bill at the legislature that specifically targets resources to schools where students struggle the most. The achievement gap bill is modeled after successful programs in some Twin Cities schools and in other states, where student performance has significantly improved. The bill would:

Provide a variety of social services in certain schools.
Lengthen the school day or school year if necessary.
Reduce class sizes.
Invest in early childhood learning.
Work to attract and retain more teachers of color.
Give educators adequate opportunities to plan teaching techniques to reach individual students.

“Education Minnesota will work with anyone who truly wants to help children learn,” Dooher said. “It’s our obligation to provide every child the best education possible and we’ll only be able to accomplish that if we work together.”

Education Minnesota has endorsed Dayton for governor because Dayton best understands the challenges of classroom teaching and is the only candidate proposing increased resources for education.

This independent expenditure is prepared and paid for by Education Minnesota PAC, 41 Sherburne Ave., St. Paul, MN 55103 in support of Mark Dayton. This material is not approved by Mark Dayton nor is Mark Dayton responsible for it.

September 08, 2010