Continued: Pawlenty: Education key to U.S. standing

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty received a standing ovation from a largely Republican crowd on Tuesday morning after a speech about education in the United States and what needs to be done to regain America's standing as an education leader in the world.

Pawlenty, who said that government needs to work together with teachers' unions to accelerate changes, spoke at a discussion at the Minneapolis Marriott with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, former Democratic presidential candidate the Rev. Al Sharpton and others.

"In a place like Minnesota, we're not going to be able to leapfrog [unions] very effectively," Pawlenty said at the "Time to Choose -- Children or the Bureaucracy" discussion organized by American Solutions for Winning the Future, a 527 group started by Gingrich. Several hundred people, primarily Republican delegates and party operatives, attended.

The so-called 527 groups get their name from the IRS code under which the tax-exempt organizations are authorized.

Pawlenty told the crowd that the number one thing the country can do, besides having parents invested in their children's education, is have quality, dedicated teachers and "rigorous and relevant" professional development for them.

He also touted his "Q Comp" program, which sets up a merit-pay system for teachers in participating districts, while focusing on professional development.

For reform, he said, "we can't wait another 30 years. The pace is too slow."

Pawlenty also said that Minnesota's highest-in-the-nation ACT scores and other high national test results only tell "half the picture," because those rankings compare the state with other states and not with the rest of the world.

Tied to national security

Gingrich asserted that education is a national security issue, and that the secretary of defense should issue a report on the status of our education every year. He said that the country's failure to focus in math and science is "a greater threat than any conventional war."

Sharpton received an unexpected standing ovation from the Republican crowd after his speech. He said that a "cynical" Democrat asked him Tuesday morning why he was going to appear on the stage with Gingrich.

He said he looked in the mirror and told that man that "there must be some things we can put partisan and ideological things aside for, and that must be our children."

Emily Johns • 651-298-1541

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