Lori Sturdevant: The professor of policy

Generous man that he is, John Brandl 10 years ago tossed my name into the preface of his provocative book, "Money and Good Intentions Are Not Enough, or Why a Liberal Democrat Thinks States Need Both Competition and Community." (That's Brookings Institution Press, 1998.)

He thought I rated a mention because, years before, I'd approached newly reelected state Rep. John Brandl, DFL-Minneapolis, and asked a question routinely put to rookie legislators: "What's your agenda for Minnesota?"

Brandl didn't take that question -- or anything related to state policy -- lightly. His return to the House for a second term, after spending 1979-80 in voter-imposed exile, wasn't motivated by a desire for the fleeting thrills of partisan jousting or local limelight. He was a Ph.D. economist and political scientist -- Harvard-schooled, no less -- on a personal mission to bring the lessons derived from scholarly research to bear on the governance of his home state.

In the ensuing 10 years in the Legislature, through more than 30 years on the faculty at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs -- five of them as its dean -- and with a prolific flurry of bills, floor debates, articles, academic lectures, monographs and books, Brandl has been answering my question.

His answers haven't always been popular, either with defenders or critics of the status quo. But they've always been worth hearing, and they've always been delivered with gentlemanly grace.

That's why I strained to catch his answer one recent day after asking once again: "What's your agenda for Minnesota?"

Brandl is ailing with cancer. His voice isn't strong. But his ideas -- and spirit -- are as robust as ever.

"I think we have to raise taxes!" he said emphatically, then chuckled at my raised eyebrows.

"I know, you can't just make that statement in the abstract. You need to be able to say, 'This is what we're going to do with the money, to make better use of the money.' "

The economist in Brandl sees a big state budget deficit coming in 2009, perhaps as large as the $4.5 billion horror story of 2003. The government reformer in him sees how all that red ink could be turned to advantage.

"In this situation, if the governor plays it right, he could get something good for Minnesota out of this. He could say to the Legislature, 'We're not going to let the state go broke, so we're going to do some cutting. Then I'm willing to raise some taxes, provided you're willing to do some things differently.' "

What things? Brandl would start with education, first and always. It was 25 years ago this year that he began talking up vouchers to low-income families, to allow them to choose private as well as public schools for their children. The idea met fierce opposition and went nowhere. In the years since, the achievement gap between rich and poor children has widened.

"More than a whole generation of poor kids have been lost," he said. "I'm struck at how horrified we are [of his voucher idea], struck to the point of wondering whether there isn't a certain bigotry behind it. That may be too strong a word, but it shows how strongly I feel about this. We've got to be trying things different from what we've been trying for those kids."

There's plenty more on his reform agenda:

•Let college tuition rise, but expand the reach of the State Grant Program, the financial aid program he helped design.

•Raise welfare benefits for indigent families, but ask more educational progress and/or public work from recipients in return.

•Instead of institutionalizing so many of the state's frail elderly, shore up family and community support systems that can keep more elders at home.

•Beef up the long-range planning function in state government -- and encourage more academicians to participate in that work.

In advocating the latter, Brandl is up-to-the-minute. Last week, a national consortium of more than 80 colleges and universities recommended revamped tenure and promotion policies so that "public scholarship" is recognized and rewarded. (See more at www.imaginingamerica.org.)

Brandl recommends a career as a professor-politician to his colleagues and students. He's found great satisfaction, he said, in probing the synergy of politics and scholarship, and in moving from government to academia and back again. "It's always puzzled me that more academics don't do that."

Minnesota needs more John Brandls. A dinner Monday night at the Humphrey Institute (sorry, it's by invitation only) will salute and thank the one we've been lucky to have.

Lori Sturdevant is a Star Tribune editorial writer and columnist. She is at lsturdevant@startribune.com.