K12 EDUCATION

It's back to school day in MN, which means it's a great day to write about K-12 EDUCATION!

I went to private school for K-8, public for 9-12 (Go Eagles!). I attended community college, state college, and grad school; in class, through distance learning, and online. I worked for the Bureau of Indian Education at the regional office and now, I have two very smart middle schoolers who are very different learners - one is excelling in the current public school system, while the other struggles. But my views aren't just from my own wide array of experience, but also from listening to others and learning new ideas for how things CAN be. Here's where I want to start at the state level:

1) Promote school choice Don't buy into the rhetoric that "pro school choice = anti public schools." It means that even public schools could improve if they had students who truly wanted to be there and who fit best there, rather than taking all the defaults who have no other option. Whether it's a voucher system or a change in the current funding formula, imagine a single mom being able to afford to home (or un)school her kid who doesn't function well at 30 hours a week surrounded by 700 other people, or giving more dollars to online schools that have open enrollment borders, or supporting innovative charter school learning models that create hybrid classrooms that integrated real world learning, online resources, and in-school lessons. There are so many options, but the conversation gets shut down with us v. them too often. I'd like to open the door to more ideas on the future of ALL schools in America.

2) Change the funding formula. Currently, MN spends $12,000 per K-12 student per year, and less than half of that is on actual instruction. And the "guideline" for Legislators on how the dollars are to be allocated is 136 pages long. There has to be an easier way where we acknowledge that education costs DO vary by kid (ESL, SpEd, GT, etc.), area (longer bus routes = higher transport cost), or demographic (low income outside educational opportunities v. high income), but without incentivising fraud for ineligible free lunch applications, misdiagnosed learning disorders, or administrative level deceit. But then, I'm an advocate of letting private sources help - like Lebron's school in Cleveland or commercial ad space for sale within reason - so with a combination of creative funding sources, we can reduce the tax burden, while still giving every educator all the resources they need for all learners.

3) Give educators the dollars allocated, then go away. Whether it's Race to the Top or No Child Left Behind, or whatever they come up w next, government has gotten more in the business of deciding HOW to teach kids and force it to be the same from rural to city schools of every demographic. Standardization ensures mediocrity and we're stifling creativity - by the teachers and the students - at every turn. I do not believe it's government's job to decide how ANYone should learn, their only role should be to get the dollars from tax allocation to educator with as few stipulations or middlemen in between as possible.

I was going to include some post-secondary thoughts, but I'll save that for another post. As always, I love to learn and grow in my understanding, so feel free to comment and critique, or offer ideas I haven't even though of yet! TIl then, enjoy the Johnson kids' first day photo 2018 and try to guess who loves school and who is just showing up because of compulsory education laws :) #kirsten4house