Strengthening Minnesota's classrooms, with nary a punitive thought

Through six terms, Rep. Dean Urdahl sat at what at times must have been a lonely spot — the intersection of Education Minnesota (the state's DFL-tilted teachers' union) and the House Republican Caucus.

Now in his seventh term, the Republican rep, author and retired 35-year New London-Spicer history and civics teacher is still at that crossroads. But Urdahl isn't just sitting. He's promoting a multipart education reform agenda of his own crafting, one intended to win the favor of both his GOP political allies and his union.

He may not succeed. But Urdahl's well-motivated effort is worth commending and watching in a session notable to date for two things — the yawning divide between its House Republican and Senate DFL majorities, and intensifying interest in educational improvement.

An unusually large number of education ideas are ricocheting around the Capitol. Some could be labeled "worth discussing but not politically feasible," and are likely to drop from sight by springtime. My hunch is that universal free preschool for 4-year-olds and free community college tuition, two big-ticket Senate DFL favorites, will suffer that fate.

The same goes for the House GOP headliner, teacher tenure changes that make consideration of seniority optional in layoff decisions and require that those decisions be based in part on performance evaluations. That so-called LIFO bill, for "last-in, first out," has been anathema to Education Minnesota. The union's opposition assured its veto by DFL Gov. Mark Dayton in 2012 and probably dooms it again this year — unless Education Minnesota gets clever and helps craft a version of LIFO that it can tolerate.

That's what Urdahl advises his union to do. He's not against the LIFO bill, but he's not a cosponsor, either. He says it's not worth the political capital being expended on it. "I'd call it a partial solution to what ails education, without addressing the real cause of the problem," he said.

What problem? Urdahl's diagnosis: Minnesota has an insufficient number of truly good teachers.

He had occasion a few years ago to visit schools in Finland, which ranks enviably high in school outcomes. Urdahl asked a Finnish school administrator the reason for his country's success. "He said it was three things: teachers, teachers, teachers."

Finnish teachers are drawn from the academic top 10 percent of college graduates, and they all have a master's degree in the content area they teach. "That's because, in a general sense, if know more about your topic, you'll be a better teacher," Urdahl said.

By comparison, Minnesota's teaching corps comes primarily from the top third of college graduating classes, and among the teachers who earn master's degrees, three out of five pertain to topics outside their teaching specialty, he said.

The obvious remedy would seem to be a boost in teacher licensure requirements and performance standards, accompanied by a pay raise to lure more gifted grads into the profession. Minnesota's average teacher's salary in 2012-13 was $56,286, $115 below the national average for that year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Those aren't the salaries one might expect in the "Brainpower State."

But Urdahl won't go there. Now is not the time to constrict the flow of people into the field by raising licensure standards, he says. A teacher shortage is already appearing in parts of the state, and is on the horizon statewide.

But for a cost to state taxpayers of only about $6 million over the next two years, Urdahl says, these things could be done to upgrade the teaching corps:

• Provide teachers who earn master's degrees in their teaching content area a one-time tax credit of $2,500.

• Require all districts to provide professional mentors to new teachers.

• Direct publicly funded teacher education programs to offer an option of a yearlong student-teaching practicum, in addition to the usual 10-week program.

• Evaluate the efficacy of Minnesota's teacher education programs and report the results to the public.

Notably, none of these ideas is punitive. None runs roughshod over hard-won benefits and protections that have become standard features of teachers' contracts. Nevertheless, they respond to the sense that runs deeper in GOP ranks than DFL ones that better teaching would fix what ails Minnesota public education.

That means they look feasible in a year when control of the Capitol is divided between two parties. "I'm trying to do things I think we can do this year," Urdahl said of his education package. "My goal is passage of a bill."

The first two months of a legislative session are a fine time for lawmakers to float the "worth discussing but not politically feasible" notions. It's well and good to show Minnesotans what might be done, but for those pesky people in the opposite party.

But beginning in March with the release of the governor's final budget proposal, legislators who take governing seriously will put aside their one-party notions and pursue ideas with bipartisan appeal. Not many legislators do that easily, as two state government shutdowns in the past decade attest. Urdahl is showing them how.