President Dooher urges governor not to give up on Race to the Top
Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s decision to abandon a second Race to the Top application is a great disservice to Minnesota, Education Minnesota President Tom Dooher said May 19. He called upon the governor to reconsider.
Education Minnesota has presented a comprehensive Race to the Top plan, targeted to closing the achievement gap, that would have significantly strengthened a second state application for the federal grant money, Dooher said. The union announced the plan in December, and offered again in March to help the state revise its unsuccessful first application to focus on the achievement gap.
“Eliminating the achievement gap is too important to walk away and do nothing, as the governor suggests we do,” he said. “Tim Pawlenty had eight years to do something about the achievement gap in our schools. And now, given one last chance to make a difference, he chose to give up without even trying.”
Pawlenty announced his decision May 19 not to reapply for the second phase of the Race to the Top program. The governor blamed the DFL majority in the Legislature for failing to enact a long list of teaching “reforms” the governor had insisted were necessary for a successful application. He then went on to blame Education Minnesota for allegedly influencing Democrats to block the “reforms.”
The governor’s proposals included alternative teacher licensure, state-developed teacher evaluations, and teacher licensure, tenure, pay and employment tied in large part to student test results. None wound up in the education policy bill, which died in the final hours of the session.
In a heavily political statement, Pawlenty said DFL lawmakers have “outsourced education policy to the teachers' union.” He claimed that his favored reforms are now a national bipartisan consensus, and that Minnesota will now fall behind other states that have adopted those measures in hopes of gaining the federal money.
“Minnesota challenges need Minnesota solutions,” Dooher said. “Copying other states that are trying to catch up to us is not the answer.”
“The governor would have us all believe that if we don’t do things exactly the way he wants them done, then this application is doomed to failure,” Dooher said. “The problem with this governor is that if you disagree with him about policy, he labels you an obstructionist.”
He added: “Tim Pawlenty needs to stop blocking the path to closing our achievement gap. He needs to put aside eight years of tired, failed policies and make a true effort at a Phase Two application before the June 1 deadline.”
May 19, 2010