It was the coldest day of this year when I joined a lively group convened in St. Paul as part of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce's "2014 Education Summit."
Experts shared their views on why the state is too often failing its students. Notwithstanding the oft-quoted view that "all our kids are above average," it is clear that for too many of Minnesota's young people, that definition of above average is not enough.
Among the summit presenters were former Washington, D.C., Superintendent Michelle Rhee and her one-time teachers union challenger, George Parker; a panel review of what Minnesota could learn from other states, overseen by former State Education Commissioner Alice Seagren, and 2006 gubernatorial candidate Peter Hutchinson, a onetime teacher.
All of this got me thinking about a long-ago reformer of education who was one of Minnesota's most-respected business leaders from one of its most respected companies — Lew Lehr, CEO of 3M Co.
In the early 1980s, Lehr saw the need for new thinking in the way Minnesota was overseeing its most important constitutional mission: educating its youngest citizens, most of whom become future workers in the state.
Using his position as a leader in the Minnesota Business Partnership, Lehr convened fellow CEOs from Minnesota-based companies — in addition to the best minds he could assemble — to come up with constructive ideas for Gov. Rudy Perpich and Minnesota policymakers. Key among Lehr's allies was Graco CEO David Koch.
Together they oversaw what became the largest privately funded education research project in the state's history, initially retaining a Stanford Research Institute consulting firm in California to independently assess Minnesota's situation and to make recommendations.
Beginning in December 1984, as I began as executive director of the Minnesota Business Partnership, we released a series of documents entitled "Educating Students for the 21st Century."