What works well in public schools?

• Partnerships with the community. There are a lot of good people who care about kids.
• Checking grades of child possible using new technology.
• Graduation rate in the state and high ACT scores. Students are getting a good education, and the public schools are giving all students a chance to learn. Students have such a variety as far as skills and interests. The schools give something to everyone to learn.
• Support of public for the future.
• Implementing NCLB and standards.
• Well-rounded education—arts, sports, academics. Learning is more than just books.
• The schools are teaching students to be good, productive members of society.
• High expectations of students beyond high school. Kids know they need to better themselves after school.
• High-quality teachers.
• Parental involvement. We’re seeing an upswing.
• There are some pretty darn good kids in our schools.
• If you have a learning community, that makes it easier for kids in K-12. Our education system in Minnesota is an asset that no other state duplicates. Maintaining that should be a priority.

What challenges do public schools face?

• The drug problem is a huge issue. Meth is becoming more and more an issue, especially in rural schools.
• Financial conditions of students is a real challenge.
• Declining enrollment and allocating funds – where to find the money to run the schools.
• Lack of time for teachers to plan or innovate. Time is taken up with paperwork and there’s less time for kids.
• More mental health issues with students. They’re coming to school with more baggage – wondering where they’re going to sleep at night, if their mom is coming home, if their dad has a job.
• We want all students to learn, but there’s a small population in each class that is very needful and very hard to reach.
• Class size. Stabilizing declining enrollment is tough, and it’s a concern up and down the valley.
• We need opportunities to create partnerships with people in other parts of the state. The challenge is making all state legislators understand the impact of funding on rural schools and urban schools.
• Special education funding. The lack of funding pulls money from other groups of students. We’re losing the capability in public schools to meet the needs of smart kids. They’re leaving to go to other educational institutions and we don’t have those kids to be role models for the kids who are there. The schools don’t have the funds to meet the needs of bottom-end students either.
• Mental health issues. More students are coming to school with issues, even in the preschool area. We need to turn that back around somehow.
• Apathy of students. We need to get kids to buy in to the concept of school as enhancing their lives, enhancing the quality of their lives. School is not just a place or a building. It’s something we really have to sell kids on.

What should public schools provide?

• Lower class sizes, all-day kindergarten. All schools need to prepare kids for college.
• We need a tax credit for all families with kids at grade level.
• Walking vs. busing. We need to ask what’s better for kids. I know a kindergartner who’s walking to school 11 blocks away. In this day and age, that’s dangerous.
• ECFE and positive parenting should be offered through the schools.
• High-quality education, low class sizes. Schools need to continue to provide that high-quality education.
• Opportunities for all students to be successful.
• Partnerships between the public and teachers in the classroom to make schools work. Schools need partnerships between the Legislature and our elected school board members.
• We have a lot of people migrating to the state who don’t identify with Minnesota’s education tradition. We have a commitment to education excellence. We need to remind everyone that, sure, taxes are higher here, but if you want quality schools, you have to pay for them.
• Schools need to provide quality teachers but to get them, there has to be a draw to keep them there. Schools are losing a lot of people to nonteaching jobs because they’re able to make more money. The profession is becoming less and less attractive to new people coming in.
• People want opportunities for their kids to be involved and engaged. With big schools, there’s not as much chance for them to be involved in things like the arts and sports.
• We need to raise kids with healthy values. Teach values to kids so they can be productive members of society.
• Schools need to change to keep pace with society.
• Younger teachers are getting burned out. It’s not the ideal, dream job they envisioned it to be. There are more tests, more paperwork, and they’re saying just let them teach. That’s what they want to be doing.
• Moorhead’s Health Community program. It’s an after-school program for kids to meet in. We have kids who want to be connected to school, they want a place to be, but where are the dollars to fund that? To have it be a safe place to be until 5 or 6 at night? The after-school programs are being cut.
• Many parents want school to be a safe place for their kids to be.
• Perhaps we need extended days for at-risk kids, but not an extended year. An extended day would let schools do some of those things they don’t get a chance to do. If you add an hour every day, that’s adding 20 days to the school year.
• Some schools run an extended school day now, but it’s tough on the elementary kids. By the end of the day, they’re worn out.

How can we all help schools provide the above?

• Partnerships. If you’re creating a curriculum, it’s the students, the parents, the administration, the teachers. We need a dialogue. Part of the purpose of tonight’s session is to create a dialogue.
• We really have to learn from history. Our quality of education didn’t happen over night. it’s truly been decades of investment. That needs to continue.
• Schools should be centers of investment. As the demographics change in Minnesota, even if you don’t have kids in schools, you do have grandchildren or nieces and nephews. Minnesota schools need you regardless of whether you have kids or not.
• We have to put our money on the line, especially as we age and grow grayer in the state.
• Schools need to draw in volunteers and activities involving the older generation. They need intergenerational programs involving people. Service learning should be instilled from schools on that. If that [intergenerational involvement] isn’t done, the nay-saying will continue.
• My daughter is a second-grader. Every other Thursday, her class goes to a nursing home. They’ve been doing that since September. They had sensitivity training on how to behave with people using a walker, a wheelchair, a hearing aid. She’s had wonderful stories about Gladyce and Hildred, and she sees her artwork posted there. You can never give a test to show what my daughter is learning. It’s a good example of a partnership.
• Schools need to get out publicity about what’s going on in schools – what their needs are, and their high points, and also include that there’s a price tag involved.

Other comments

• We need a governor and legislators who support public education, not just rhetoric, but fact. They seem to have other priorities right now. We need our legislators to make that commitment. They seem to feel that education is of less importance in our state.
• Since “A Nation at Risk,” public education has been under attack, but studies have shown that’s not how people feel about their school district. It’s “mine is OK; the other ones are bad.”  Locally, they support schools, but seem to have questions statewide. The Department of Education needs to be blowing the horn in support of public education. There are a lot of good things going on.
• School districts need to work together. They should collaborate and learn from each other. They should break out of the day-to-day routine and see the big picture.
• Schools should be encouraging more parental involvement. I have a son in hockey,and they get awards for good grades. Schools should be helping parents know how to help, and parents should know how their children are doing on a regular basis.
• Class budgets are strapped.