Why is education a critical issue?

In today’s global economy, a highly skilled and educated workforce is very
important  to the success of Minnesota businesses, and the TwinWest area
is home to  several successful and innovative school districts. Statewide,
however, employers  continue  to report that high school and college graduates
are often unprepared for  the demands of the workplace. The global demand
for skilled workers means our  students must meet higher academic standards
and expectations. We must  challenge  all of our K-12 institutions to become
more accountable, more  student-focused, and  more innovative in order to
prepare Minnesota students for employment or higher education in a
changing economy.

The business community’s active participation is crucial to the success of our
schools. Employers must maintain a strong working relationship with school
districts for one another’s mutual benefit. TwinWest member businesses
continually seek to collaborate with area schools through our Business
Education Partnership programs like Ethics in the Workplace and School
Administrator/Principal for the Day. Business leaders also participate by
volunteering in school events and programs and by providing internships and
career exploration opportunities to high school students.

What are Minnesota’s education challenges?

Need for skilled workers

• As more baby boomers near retirement, Minnesota will need many highly skilled
  and educated workers to replace them. Businesses can no longer rely on the
  high growth rates of native born workers to fill job vacancies. By 2008, the Bureau
  of Labor Statistics predicts there will be a shortage of 6 million workers
  nationwide. Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development
  estimates that over 370,000 new jobs will be created in the next 10 years in
  Minnesota alone.

• The baby boom generation is a highly skilled segment of the workforce with 46
  percent of them having at least a college degree in 2000. This means that by
  2029, the Twin Cities region will lose more than 350,000 highly skilled workers
  to retirement.

Changing demographics

• Based on demographic trends, Minnesota’s future labor pool will be far more
diverse than it is currently, which could have serious consequences for
businesses. According to a Brookings Institution report, at all levels of education,
minority residents (with some exceptions) fall short of the region’s educational
attainment rates, which will also have an effect on the availability of skilled labor.

Educational achievement gaps

• Minnesota’s economy continues to be fueled by high-growth, high-technology jobs
in biosciences and medical devices, yet globally United States preeminence as a
leader in technology is falling behind. Only 15 percent of undergraduates receive
degrees in natural science or engineering, compared with 50 percent in China.
Between 1999 and 2003, China doubled production of engineering grads, while
U.S. numbers have remained stagnant.

• In a globally competitive marketplace, students must continually meet higher
standards of educational achievement, and yet only about half of the state’s
students entering kindergarten are “fully prepared” according to state
assessments conducted by trained kindergarten teachers in 2002 and 2003.
The others are either “in process” (38 percent) or “not yet ready” (12 percent).

• In a continual search for better solutions, Minnesota’s schools must respond to
challenges from other nations’ educational systems that have achieved success
using different educational models and a longer school calendar year.

What education solutions does TwinWest advocate?

Education funding

• TwinWest supports putting accountability measures in place to measure
outcomes and results. Any additional investments in education must be
evaluated in terms of the direct impact on student educational attainment to
make sure we are getting the most out of our education dollars.

• To attract and retain high quality teachers, we support continuing the
transition from the current compensation system to an alternative
compensation system that reflects student achievement, teacher knowledge,
skills and performance.

• We encourage school districts to be innovative and to continually seek
out more efficient ways to deliver core services. We support enabling
school districts to take advantage of partnerships with other districts and
with the business community in order to take advantage of shared
technology,  purchasing power, and economies of scale.

• TwinWest does not support the mandatory participation of local school
districts in a statewide insurance and benefit purchasing pool. This type
of plan punishes those schools that have already done a good job in
setting up their employees’ benefit plans.

Accountability

• We support efforts to simplify and add accountability to the K-12 funding formula, including:

          • A cost factor for the metropolitan area which takes into account
            higher market-based operating costs
          • A simplification of the finance system to clearly relate dollars spent with
            student achievement that the general public can easily understand
          • Increased clarity and standardization in financial reporting across all districts
          • Better coordination and timing between the Legislature and school districts

• We support the removal of levy caps for operating referendums to allow parents, business owners, and residents to have greater local control over school funding levels.

• We support binding arbitration and believe that teachers should be categorized as “essential” state employees and should not be able to strike.

Standards and testing

• Minnesota has consistently been ranked at the very top of the nation in terms of
educational attainment. However, our competition is no longer just within this
country. Our systems, standards, and test results need to reflect the demands of
a global economy and reflect how our students rate on an international level.

• Student progress must be measured in a way that allows individual educational
attainment to be tracked over time and across all grade levels.


Early childhood education/school readiness

• Minnesota must maintain the productivity and inventiveness of its future workforce.
TwinWest supports the efforts of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF),
Minnesota Business for Early Learning (MnBEL), and the Itasca Group.

• TwinWest acknowledges that kindergarten students who are prepared to thrive in
school reduces the need for remedial education and typically translates to better
K-12 education performance. According to research completed by the Minneapolis
Federal Reserve Bank, investments in early childhood development (ECD)
programs have an annual return of $8 for every $1 invested.

• The highest priority must be high-quality early care and education for “at-risk”
children; more readily available financial support from multiple sources must
be available to those families most in need.

• With nearly all fathers and 80 percent of mothers in the Minnesota workforce,
school readiness cannot be exclusively a family responsibility. There must be
well-trained early-care and education professionals working within a system
that keeps parents involved and focuses on the needs of children and families
and not on system or program needs.

• TwinWest supports successful and cost-effective public sector programs, but
continues to advocate for the development of private-sector and 
community-based options to address a wide variety of needs.

• “Pay for performance” must be a component of these programs in order
to provide an incentive to consistently produce results – more school-ready
children – and help develop a market-based solution.