Speed Gibson

Previously: One Two

Continuing the interview by the NARN's Mitch Berg and Ed Morrissey with Dane Smith of the Growth & Justice "non-partisan" but certainly liberal think tank, the topic stayed fixed on public education. As before, this is my personal transcript, edited for clarity.

Mitch Berg: What is Growth & Justice proposing [for K-12] education here in Minnesota? [...]

Dane Smith: Well we think we need to put more money into it and we need to do it smarter. Ample investment, smarter investment.

Mitch Berg: Well, we can meet you halfway on that! Let's talk about the smarter first [...].

Dane Smith: I think there's a lot of evidence, mounting evidence, that if you really focus on the kids who are likely not to succeed and if you really work at helping them as early as possible and following them all the way through, that you're going to make a difference. The research really is pretty encouraging on this and that's why Art Rolnick, the Senior Vice President for the Federal Reserve, hardly a radical teachers union advocate, has been so impassioned about this. We're not quite done with it yet, but we've been working for more than a year now on a blueprint for investing in education. It's really focused very clearly on a single goal and that is increasing by half the number of kids who by the age of 25 in this state have some sort of higher ed. degree. Business knows that's important. They've flagged that as a worthy goal and we're on it.

Let me review this, how the experts say you can make a difference. If you really focus on the kids. If you really work at helping them as early as possible. If you follow them all the way through. Been there. Done that. I'm a parent. I'm not bragging; it's just part of the job, isn't it?

Sadly, it apparently isn't in some families. But who has given up on whom?

Mitch Berg: Education, let's be honest, Dane Smith. Education has not been starved for money in this state. Even during the worst of the Pawlenty years, the education budget really never did get cut in terms of actual dollars reaching classrooms in Minnesota. In fact, the cost per pupil has gone up, up, up the last eight years in Minnesota.

Dane Smith: We could argue all if it has kept up with inflation. I think it actually has been cut. For one thing, the costs for public education are a little higher than the CPI. We are asking schools to do more and more [...] other than education and it's an expensive proposition. I would say this. I haven't used this construct very often, but let's ask people for whom money is no object, how much money it costs them to educate their children. For the wealthiest people in Minnesota, many of them will put their child into one of the best private schools going, Blake and Breck. It's my understanding that from Junior High on and even earlier, those costs come to about $20,000 a year. That's the cost of a first rate education I guess if you're going to look at the market.

Mitch Berg: [After noting the $3,000 to $4000 annual cost of a private Catholic school education.] The blue chip education bit is something of a straw man. Not everyone wants to send their kid to Breck or Blake even if they could afford it. Second of all, that's not what we're talking about delivering to the hoi polloi in the Minnesota schools, even under [your] plan, is it?

Dane Smith: No. The point was that I don't think we're overspending on public education in this state.

How would we know? As I've posted several times, if my own district is any indication, such questions are presently unanswerable. We can't have a useful discussion on school finance until this is resolved.

I think I'll stop here but there's much more in the full interview on Townhall.com. Again, I appreciate Dane Smith's bravery in engaging us in the loyal opposition.