Pawlenty to push for test-linked teacher pay and tenure, school turnaround

Gov. Tim Pawlenty this legislative session will push for some of his same education proposals that went nowhere in 2009, along with new "reform" measures to tie teacher tenure to student test scores, replace teachers and principals in struggling schools, and transfer control of urban schools from elected boards to big-city mayors.

In his State of the State message Feb. 11, the governor said he plans to "protect" K-12 education programs while most other areas of the state budget will be cut. But dollar signs won't be attached to his proposals until Feb. 15, when Pawlenty is scheduled to release his annual budget.

The governor insisted his proposals would uphold high standards for teachers – even as he repeated his call for an alternative licensure system that would bring new teachers into the classroom with minimal preparation.

Pawlenty said he will again ask the Legislature to pass his Teaching Transformation Act, which gained no traction in the 2009 session. Among other proposals, it would:

Tie teacher pay increases to "improved student performance."
Raise admission requirements for college teacher preparation programs.
Create an alternative licensure program to bring mid-career professionals into teaching through summer programs and on-the-job training.

Education Minnesota President Tom Dooher said many of the governor's ideas to change the state's education system are "punitive to teachers rather than positive for children. They will create more bureaucracy instead of less, and drain precious resources from classrooms."

Pawlenty said in his speech that he supports giving the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul "full control, and I mean full control," of their city school districts. In the meantime, he said, he has directed the Minnesota Department of Education to use "existing authority" to create a new state-level office that would intervene in struggling schools and dictate their "turnaround" efforts.

The proposed Office of Turnaround Schools is part of the state's federal Race to the Top application, which has yet to be approved. The governor said persistently low-achieving schools need "new leadership, new authority, and new teachers hired and assigned based on performance, not seniority."

Pawlenty also described the current teacher tenure system as a "public policy fossil" and proposed replacing it with a system of five-year tenure, with renewal linked to student performance.

"Teaching is an honorable and indispensable profession," he said. "But we don't raise its value by lowering our standards."

February 11, 2010