Today there were several education related stories in the Trib although none were of immediate Duluth interest. Wrenshall and Carlton are thinking about merging but someone from Wrenshall got lots of applause at a meeting when she suggested that Carlton was the poorer partner in such a merger and should be going hat-in-hand to other districts if they needed help. What a charming and generous attitude. Of course, if the Duluth children in Wrenshall ever came back to the ISD 709 schools that might no longer be the case.
This Mother’s applause generating remarks bolster the analysis of pollster Bill Morris who warned that when children leave a school district for charters or to open enroll elsewhere their chances of their parents voting “yes” in referendums goes from 85% pro to 85% con. That is a sobering concern with Edison on the verge of opening a high school that will siphon another 700 students from the ISD 709 schools.
The other two stories concerned the state legislature’s control over local education. There is a proposal to let local districts choose to start before Labor Day which has the hospitality industry up in arms. (They might have to cut their seasons short if they lose their student laborers.) There is also an appeal by a number of strapped school districts begging to be permitted to continue with their money saving four-day weeks. Not surprisingly some folks in the state are not keen on letting some District’s operate on schedules that deviate from a norm no matter that they find their innovations to be working.
Lots of legislators were caught up in education related issues yesterday and Art Johnston and I were part of the mix doing our own lobbying in St. Paul as well yesterday. To keep folks nervous, I’ll hold off describing our bipartisan mission but we received cordial greetings from the dozen or so legislators we met with.
No doubt this post will prompt someone to follow up and see what we are up to. Good. I like to keep people on their toes. I’ll describe what we are up to in detail at-a-later-date.
Our fellow Board members won’t have quite the easy access to our activity as they would have in the old days. Our District’s long time lobbyist Ron Solberg retired a while back and the Board majority no longer has anyone in St. Paul to do their bidding. That’s just as well since our legislative agenda this year doesn’t amount to much.
