EdAction
Maple River Education Coalition PAC
105 Peavey Rd, St 116 
Chaska, MN  55318 
952-361-4931
http://www.EdAction.org
E-mail

MN House Votes to Protect Northstar Standard

March 22, 2000

Last week the House voted to allow the Northstar Standard as an option to the Profile of Learning. Yesterday they voted to not allow that decision to be reconsidered.

What was to have been a routine "procedural" vote yesterday afternoon turned into an all out attempt to remove the option for local schools to choose the Northstar Standards (NSS), genuine high academic achievement standards. The motion to delete the NSS option failed, 58-70, with support for the NSS gaining ground from last Thursday's vote to include it. The entire bill then went on to pass the House, 102 to 27!

Then it happened again! In the wee, wee hours when the House was still debating an education funding bill, they also amended the Profile bill into the education funding bill with the NSS as an option.

This is the third time in a week the full House has sent a clear message to the conference committee that the NSS must be an option for schools. The message from the House is strong and clear: Give local school districts an option; let them choose genuine high academic achievement as their standards.

The battle for a Northstar Standard option is a fully bipartisan effort. DFL'ers in the House are sending a message to their Senate colleagues: accept this NSS option as your compromise!

The Governor has pleaded with the public to pour out their calls to legislators for his pet bills on unicameral and light rail transit.  Well, let him know what you think of the Profile! The person to contact at the Governor's office is:

Wayne Hayes
Education Policy Advisor for the Governor
Phone: 651-296-0046

An intense disinformation campaign about the NSS is being waged across the state through the Department of Children, Families and Learning's school network. Be wary of it.  Remember, the NSS is true local control that does not control curriculum. It is freedom to teach with accountability through norm-referenced tests and remediation plans to avoid social promotion. It refreshingly allows teachers to develop their own course plan, something the state is currently not doing for teachers under all of the Profile mandates. Provide the bill to those who do not believe. Here is the current version of the Northstar Standard bill.

Will the House conferees hold their ground on the NSS option? Note the comment by Rep. Ness from this morning's Star Tribune article:

Whether its [Northstar Standard's] inclusion [as an option] were essential to House approval later would be another matter, Ness said, dependent on whether the current position represented efforts to take "political cover" or were "dug-in votes." "I'm of the persuasion that they are more political cover," he said.

Are we to understand Rep. Ness to mean that he believes the House votes were meant to mislead the public into believing they were supporting the NSS, when all along they intended to simply drop it?

How many times is enough before Rep. Ness believes that his colleagues, and the public, are serious? This is no time for game-playing, Rep. Ness.

It is clear that even many of those legislators who were not with us last year are now realizing the full impact of the Profile of Learning on our children. Your calls, emails, visits and letters are changing the course of education in this state. So don't stop! Whatever the compromise, the NSS must be an option for schools in the bill that comes out of conference committee, and we need the governor to sign a bill that provides that local option.

It is imperative that we call and ask leadership to appoint only conference committee members that are firmly committed to the Northstar Standard as an option for schools. Even one weak link on the House side, along with five strong Profile supporters in the Senate, would be the death of the Northstar Standard option. 

Conference Committee members will now be appointed by the leadership of both the House and the Senate. We will tell you who they are as soon as that information is available. 

House weighs Profile, education finance bills
Wednesday, March 22, 2000
Anthony Lonetree / Star Tribune

EdAction - 105 Peavey Rd, Ste 116, Chaska, MN  55318 
952-361-4931 - edaction@lakes.com - (c) EdAction - All rights reserved.