Business Forum: A productive, inventive workforce for the future

It was fitting that this month's summit on school readiness, called by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, was held in the shadow of 3M's corporate offices. The technology-intensive industrial behemoth is one of Minnesota's finest economic success stories, relying largely on home-grown and -educated talent.

Pawlenty and six others were selected by the National Governor's Association to hone state-specific strategies on how to prepare pre-kindergarten children to succeed in school and, presumably, end up working at world-class businesses.

About half of the state's entering kindergartners 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).

Four years ago, the issue of the school readiness of children in Minnesota was barely discernable on the political docket. The business community is one reason why we will be hearing more about school readiness in the coming months. Under the leadership of Art Rolnick and his colleagues at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank and the nonprofit advocacy and research organization, Ready 4K (R4K), many in the business community have been doing their homework.

In 2004, Al Stroucken, CEO of H.B. Fuller, agreed to chair an R4K-affiliated group called Minnesota Business for Early Learning (MnBEL). A United Way leader, Stroucken also became involved in that organization's "Success by 6" efforts and the Itasca Project's early-education task force. Not long after, the Minnesota Business Partnership expanded its education agenda to address the issue. Many local chambers of commerce are weighing in through a series of programs supported by the Minnesota Initiative Foundation.

Stroucken asked Rob Johnson, a senior vice president at Cargill, to create a long-range policy framework. One key idea adopted was the development of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF).

Now operational with seed funding from Cargill, the McKnight Foundation and United Way, the new foundation has hired Duane Benson, a former state senator and former executive director of the Business Partnership. Benson will lead the "R&D" effort to identify the best ways to prepare children -- prenatal to age 5 -- to succeed in school. Cargill CEO Warren Staley agreed to chair the foundation's board, which also includes Rolnick, Stroucken and the top executives at Best Buy, Taylor Corp., Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and Liberty Diversified Industries, among others.

There is a common message coming from business in all of this: Minnesota cannot afford to lose the productivity and inventiveness of its future workforce. At least four key words frame these initiatives: parents, access, quality and results. The common themes include:

• While support of parents as the primary and most important teacher of their own children is essential to the success of these efforts, many in the business community now believe that school readiness is not exclusively a family responsibility. Employers, communities, child caregivers, health professionals, schools and policymakers, among others, each have responsibilities.

• To move ahead, the primary focus should be on children and families and not on programs and funding streams.

• The highest priority must be high-quality early care and education for "at-risk" children, too many of whom are not fully prepared for kindergarten. There must be more readily available financial support from multiple sources to those families in most need.

• With nearly all fathers and 80 percent of mothers in the Minnesota workforce, there must be well-trained early-care and education professionals combined with a workable, accountable, quality-improvement rating system that parents can understand and rely on to make wise choices.

• The notion of linking a "pay for performance" incentive to those programs that consistently produce results -- school-ready children -- should be a key part of the market-based solution.

It's not just business whose energy is focused on school readiness. The public is signing on, according to February poll results conducted by Peter Hart Research Associates and Decision Resources. The findings show that Minnesotans believe the school-readiness issue should be a top priority (71 percent), that half of our children begin kindergarten without the knowledge and skills they need to do their best (63 percent), and that they are more likely to vote for a candidate for governor who supports voluntary, high-quality early-education programs for all Minnesota children (54 percent). Chuck Slocum is president of the Williston Group, a management consulting organization. His firm has worked with R4K and Minnesota Business for Early Learning (MnBEL). Slocum can be reached at chuck@willistongroup. com.Chuck Slocum is president of the Williston Group, a management consulting organization. His firm has worked with R4K and Minnesota Business for Early Learning (MnBEL). Slocum can be reached at chuck@willistongroup. com.