The United Negro College Fund held its annual Leaders' Luncheon on Education this week in Minneapolis, featuring a discussion panel with two state legislators (a Democrat and a Republican), Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and State Education Commissioner Brenda Casselius. Each respondent was asked to respond to the question, “What has to happen to improve education in Minnesota?”
I found this discussion to be very rich but also extremely frustrating. For the life of me, I don’t know why we continue to allow this conversation to be framed simply as “more money” (the Democratic response) vs. “more reform” (the Republican response).
Of course, it is both: money and reform. We need adequate funding to educate students for the 21st century, and we also need reforms that challenge a status quo system that often prioritizes the needs of adults at the expense of children.
Can it be that hard to agree that education is the single most important investment we can make in the future of our state and therefore deserves to be well-funded? Is it that difficult to see that we have an ossified system with certain structural barriers that stand in the way of increasing student achievement?
If we have the will—and if we stop playing politics with education—we can build a bi-partisan consensus for both more money and deeper reform. This would be the responsible thing to do.
Mayor Rybak came the closest to offering a more nuanced response to what can be done by calling on everyone to be more accountable: teachers, principals, legislators, nonprofits, the mayor’s office, the county, faith communities, parents and students, everyone.
We need to stop finger pointing and point the finger back at ourselves. We need to ask if we are doing everything we can. And we need to hold decision-makers accountable for moving forward an education agenda that is common-sense, child-centered and bold in its willingness to do what is necessary.
