Education Liberty Watch Statement on Questionable Decision to Take QRS Statewide

“We are deeply disappointed that Governor Dayton has joined with liberal allies unwilling to accept legislative defeat.  It is deeply disturbing that after a stinging legislative rebuke, this administration would resort to this sort of unjustified expenditure of public funds to qualify for one-time federal money from a basically bankrupt federal government that has had its credit rating downgraded for the first time in nearly 100 years.  Given the federal government’s precarious fiscal situation, the availability of these funds is extremely doubtful.

We also find it sadly  ironic that proponents of this bad idea have decried the use of one-time education shift and tobacco bonds to balance the state budget, but are perfectly happy to try to sidestep the legislature in order to gain the one time federal Race to the Top funds and impose their big-government schemes on the private childcare businesses and young children.  This program will subject Minnesota to increased federal control and more unfunded mandates that have engendered much bipartisan opposition with other federal programs like No Child Left Behind.  It is also ironic that legislators that opposed Race tot he Top for K-12 are now fine with federal government control of preschool.

We strongly question this idea of established statutory authority to make this move.  If there was proper authority to do this, then why did nanny state proponents spend an entire session trying to implement this flawed, expensive and bureaucratic system?

The public and policy makers must be aware of the following disturbing facts regarding quality rating systems and preschool in general:

• Only 14% of eligible providers in the pilot areas volunteered to be rated with home providers being extremely wary of the many bureaucratic hurdles imposed on them by this system
• Only 25% of parents with children in rated programs even knew about Parent Aware, meaning that at least 75% of parents in the program are not using the system to make their childcare decisions
• Two thirds of the programs received an automatic free pass of a four star rating just because they are large centers or public programs, like Head Start, while small private programs are subjected to the full rating process, described as arbitrary by some providers.
• The evaluators of Parent Aware said, “The design does not permit us to determine if Parent Aware causes outcomes for programs, parents, or children. “
• It has taken $20 million of private funds and five years to get these poor results in four pilot areas, so it would likely cost many times more than that in public dollars and certainly much more than the projected $2 million of public funds to take Parent Aware statewide.  This does not even include the cost to maintain this government heavy system.
• Poor children that participate in early childhood programs often either retain no academic benefit or a decline in test scores, as well as emotional and behavioral problems, in the elementary school years.

Education Liberty Watch will continue to work with the citizens of Minnesota and their elected representatives against this expansion of government control and regulation of private childcare and preschool programs, imposition of a government preschool curriculum on our state’s youngest children, and out of control state and federal spending. ”

Contact:

Karen R. Effrem, MD

952-361-4931

Hawkins & MinnPost Join MELF’s Disdain for Constitution

As we have previously reported, the mainstream media and left-leaning websites (pardon the redundancy) have reported (Jeremy Olson) or even cheered (Gail Rosenblum and MPR) the efforts of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF) to stomp on the Minnesota Constitution and do an end run around the legislature by unilaterally implementing the Parent Aware quality rating system (QRS) that was clearly and formally rejected by 92-100% of the Republican majorities in both the House and Senate.

However, besides MELF itself, nowhere have we witnessed more sneering disdain for the decision of the people’s elected representatives and the rule of law than by Beth Hawkins of MinnPost in her August 2^nd column.  She is almost swooning with admiration for MELF executive director Duane Benson’s recommendation for Governor Dayton to ignore the legislature and implement Parent Aware statewide via administrative dictate:

In the wee hours of the morning after the special session, Duane Benson, the velvet-gloved force who directs MELF, hatched a modest proposal for seeing that a quality-ratings system does get implemented this year before the business-led nonprofit quietly closes its doors. Trust a onetime GOP Senate minority leader to figure out how to end-run the Legislature.

Hawkins is delivering this gushing praise of this Arne Carlson style “Republican” that compromised, collaborated, and caved with one of the Senate’s chief leftists, the now thankfully retiring Linda Berglin, to impose the infamous 2% sick tax on all health care visits in the state.  In addition, even though MELF was given authority and money back in 2005 to make recommendations on statewide childcare policy, they refused the money so that they would not have to comply with the state’s open meeting laws and involve the public and policymakers in the deliberation of their schemes. Continue reading »

Great Thompson and Garofalo Statements on MELF’s Improper Actions

Senator Dave Thompson, Assistant Majority Leader and member of the Senate Education Committee, and Rep. Pat Garofalo, Chairman of the House Education Finance Committee have responded forcefully and correctly to the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation’s (MELF) efforts to pressure Governor Dayton to unilaterally and unconstitutionally implement the Parent Aware quality rating system statewide as we warned you on  July 29th.

Senator Thompson describes the actions of  MELF and its executive director Duane Benson as improper in no uncertain terms.   Here is the senator’s excellent statement obtained by Education Liberty Watch:

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Imposing a Federal Curriculum on Private Schools – Why Voucher Programs that Require State Tests Are So Dangerous

On May 9^th, a group of academics, think tank leaders and policy makers led by Bill Evers of the Hoover Institution, Sandra Stotsky and Jay Greene of the University of Arkansas and others, who have long seen the dangers of a federal curriculum, released a 100+ signatory counter-manifesto to the Shanker Institute and US Department of Education’s efforts to combine national curriculum guidelines and national tests with the Common Core National Standards already being implemented through the Obama administration’s Race to the Top initiative.

Along with many distinguished groups and policy makers at the state and federal levels, Education Liberty Watch has the honor of being one of the original signatories to this excellent document.  The consortium’s press release discusses the problems and lack of need for these brazen moves to nationalize standards, curriculum, and tests:

• These efforts are against federal law and undermine the constitutional balance between national and state authority.
• The evidence doesn’t show a need for national curriculum or a national test for all students.
• U.S. Department of Education is basing its initiative on inadequate content standards.
• There is no research-based consensus on what is the best curricular approach to each subject.
• There is not even consensus on whether a single “best curricular approach” for all students exists.

As is proper, the first and greatest concern listed is the legal/constitutional issue.   This is enormously important, because the U.S. Constitution is silent on the matter of education.  Yet the federal role in education is growing larger by the year. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has the federal government interfering in and setting state and local education policy in a myriad of ways. One good provision in NCLB, however, prohibits federal interference in curriculum.

NCLB is awaiting reauthorization.  The Obama administration/s blueprint for that reauthorization includes requiring that states implement national “college and career” ready standards in order to receive funds under this law.  No one seems to be noticing that federal funding of these standards is a significant violation of that prohibition on federal interference with curriculum as is the federal DOE and Shanker Institute’s effort to develop national curriculum guidelines.

Now thanks to the Race to the Top program’s bribery/thuggery of dangling billions of deficit dollars from the worthless stimulus program paid for with a maxed out credit card to cash starved states to “voluntarily” accept unconstitutional, lowest common denominator national standards and federal control of education, 43-1/2 states and D.C. are implementing these national standards in their states.  (Putative conservative former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty’s education department adopted the English language arts standards, described by curriculum and standards expert Dr. Sandra Stotsky as “content and culture free,” but was at least wise enough to decline the math standards.)

Yet, these national standards are now or are becoming the basis for the state tests that private schools or low income families that accept vouchers must take.  Hence, not only are public school systems ceding their constitutional authority to determine curriculum in order to try to gain a paltry amount of federal money that if they receive it, will likely not continue, but now the private schools that want to offer poor students a refuge from the academic failure of public schools must give these state tests and only these state tests, which are now based on the national standards.

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