The House has both an Education Finance Committee chaired by Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington) and an Education Reform (Policy) Committee chaired by Rep. Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton). The Senate has again combined finance and policy to form one Education Committee chaired by Sen. Gen Olson (R-Minnetrista). Since very little policy can be enacted without a cost to our schools, it is logical to combine the two.
Both House education committees met this week, introductions were made and committee members were given time to express their priorities. The prevailing themes revolved around teacher quality, closing the achievement gap, choice and local control. Chair Garofalo stated that the Education Finance Committee's motto will be "kids first - no excuses, no exceptions" and the decisions that the committee makes will be guided by the values of "choice, accountability and results". He believes that solving the achievement gap is a moral imperative as well as critical to the future economic success of Minnesota. He will look at using proven data driven solutions.
Chair Erickson said she saw the objectives of education as a three legged stool - with the children coming first but also including teachers and parents. She wants any reforms, especially those that impact the teacher, to result in improved teaching, improved caliber of the teacher in the classroom, result in increased learning for the children, raise student achievement, prepare students to become responsible citizens, empower the parents not the government, and promote local control. She said more and more parents want choices, both within and outside of the public school system.
In previous years where most of the bills heard in the education committees were "put on the table for possible inclusion of the final education omnibus bill" which is the last bill crafted by the committee late in the session. The new House chairs said to expect more single subject bills to be passed out of committee earlier and expedited to the governor's desk. It is clear that one of the first will address alternative pathways to teacher licensure. This would include mid-career professionals who would like to become teachers and incorporating programs like Teach for American, where recent college graduates in fields other than education commit to two years of teaching after completing some teacher training. This could be a bi-partisan effort as Rep. Carlos Mariani (DFL-St. Paul) authored a bill for alternative teacher licensure last year when he chaired the House Education Policy Committee. We will see how the republican version differs from Rep. Mariani's.
It will be very interesting in the coming weeks to see how these broad objectives and themes stated by the committee chairs will translate into actual bills. As they say, the devil is always in the details!
You might be interested in the membership of all the committees in the House and the Senate.
