STAR/TRIBUNE
Republican Tom Emmer and Independence Party candidate Tom Horner went on the offensive during Thursday's gubernatorial debate on education, attacking Education Minnesota, the state teachers union, and its choice for governor, DFL candidate Mark Dayton.
Though all three candidates agreed that effective teachers and principals are key to improving education, they differed significantly over how to keep good educators in schools, flush out bad ones and fund needed reforms.
Emmer said that when he talks with business and higher education leaders, he hears a common theme: "We're not producing what we have to out of our K-12 system." Horner and Emmer called for change in the state's teacher tenure system, one of the most hotly debated issues in education.
Despite pressure to consider such change, Education Minnesota has clung tightly to tenure, which affords teachers great protections after a three-year probationary period.
Dayton, who has the union's endorsement, agreed that banishing "bad teachers and bad principals" is key, but argued that wholesale change is not necessary. He'd opt to use a scalpel rather than a saw to refine the law, he said.
Emmer also pledged to support alternative-teacher licensure, another proposal that Education Minnesota has opposed. Supporters of alternative licensure are pushing for quicker, more direct methods of getting more people without teaching degrees into classrooms, especially in subjects where there are teacher shortages such as science, math and world languages.
Horner accused Emmer of double-talk on early childhood education, saying that he had voted against funding for such programs. Emmer referred to a single vote on the issue as a snapshot of his record.
"A six-year record isn't a snapshot; it's a motion picture," Horner shot back.
Dayton attacked Emmer's plan to deny education funding increases for the next two years, arguing that his stance would continue the trend of underfunding public education.
With the state's growing student population, Emmer's plan to hold funding "harmless" by not increasing or decreasing it, would actually do more harm than good, Dayton said, by not adjusting for inflation. "This is an investment in the future of our state," he said.
In his closing statement, Emmer made his platform clear: He believes that more spending won't solve the problems. "Politicians have been making promises my whole life," he said. "This is about recognizing that we have limited resources."
I belive that the tenure is not the problem, it is the hiring. Principals should be looking into teachers more then just a resume. Maybe it traces back to the teachers, teaching them. Some schools are based on connections to the principal, other teachers, ect., ect.,. They should be giving an anonomus poll through the high school asking exactly what they want to know about their co workers habits. Lets face it, through life you will have good teachers, bad teachers, excellent teachers, and just teachers. The school system will not change unless there is more being done by students as well as school faculty.
ReplyDelete