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Come Back Next Season, Vikings Fans
The Vikings stadium debate brought to the capitol and public policy sphere many Minnesotans who otherwise aren’t engaged in day-to-day policy making.
In sports terminology, policy wonks might call these novices out for jumping on the bandwagon.
Hopefully the process, while grueling, contentious and time consuming, provided the general public a better picture on the complexities our elected leaders face when crafting policy. The decisions aren’t easy, and rarely do policymakers represent districts with homogenous perspectives on any issue.
These hard fought, drawn out debates expose policymakers to the myriad of policy options available. Open debates, which at times can be dry and technical (like a 6-3 football game), have helped build consensus and compromise. This process, over generations, produced outcomes catapulting Minnesota to nation-leading status in education, economic development and its abundance of strong prosperous communities.
With the clock at 00:00, I’d encourage legislative watching novices not to jump off the bandwagon. Remain engaged in our state’s policy debates long after the governor’s signature dries on the stadium bill. My pragmatic side says they won’t.
I’ll admit, for many, House and Senate debates aren’t as exciting as watching a 50-yard touchdown reception or last-second field goal. And, each of the two stadium floor debates lasted longer than any Sunday’s back-to-back noon and 3pm games. It's a commitment to stay engaged.
Just imagine if we had a fraction of the Vikings debate’s enthusiasm for health care funding, education investments, or infrastructure projects, maybe it would encourage more bi-partisan policy making.
Retreating from single-issue, single-vote attacks might also help. Twitter and Facebook were powerful tools informing citizens and fans on the debate’s details. However, such networks also fueled a do-it-or-else atmosphere on social media, mirroring a similar mentality in other community circles.
No legislator should be singled out and jeered for her or his vote on this issue. It was a tough decision with support and opposition in every legislative district.
Too often good policymakers suffer for one or two inconsistent votes. It’s a tactic that zaps independence and sacrifices smart initiatives that would move Minnesota forward.
A team typically won’t dismiss a kicker for one missed field goal, or a quarter back for one interception, even a season-ending interception. We expect a lot from players and tend to evaluate them on a full body of work.
Similarly in policy making, we put tremendous demand on otherwise ordinary citizens. Let’s give them space to establish a body of work. If we do, it's likely their compromises will produce better outcomes for students, workers, families and communities.
Posted in News & Notes | Related Topics: Minnesota Legislature Progressive Community
What Kinds of Education Do We Support?
Minnesota's 8th district Congressman Chip Cravaack recently got a bill through the House that would cut funding for climate change education going to places like Carleton College in Northfield and St. Paul's Como Zoo.
The nominal reason is “duplicative spending”—since other parts of the federal government also spend money on things classed as science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) education, the National Science Foundation (NSF) shouldn't be receiving money specifically for this purpose, especially since it has what Cravaack describes as an “inherent ability...to fund worthy proposals.” You'll pardon my skepticism about this explanation.
This strikes me as another example of legislative conservatives using the budget as an excuse to do whatever they want. As an exercise in logic, let's walk through the implications of Cravaack's actions and statements:
Premise 1): Other parts of government fund STEM education work.
Premise 2): The NSF can already allocate funds.
Conclusion: Therefore, $10 million targeted at climate change education in zoos and higher education should go away.
Premise 1 does not automatically imply the conclusion. A nationwide program helping zoos improve visitors' understanding of climate change isn't likely to make it into most STEM education initiatives. Nor does Cravaack propose increasing funding elsewhere so that the program can still exist; he just wants it gone.
That's what trips him up on Premise 2 as well. Unless he's planning on increasing the NSF's funding by $10 million (he's not), he again just wants the program gone.
In the grand scheme of the federal budget, $10 million is not a big amount. This is not, at its core, about the money. (If it were, I'd expect Rep. Cravaack to suggest we also cut the $10 million STEM education program at the Office of Naval Research.) This is about symbolism.
This is about congressional conservatives signaling once again their disdain for engaging on the issue of humanity's role in global climate change. It's about congressional conservatives picking which kinds of education are worthwhile, and which aren't. (For the record, I very much support the aforementioned STEM program at the Office of Naval Research.) It's just one more small example of national-level conservatives' dysfunction on education, and something progressives should be aware of and fight against.
Posted in Education | Related Topics: K-12 education Classroom Methods
Just when things were looking up …
JP Morgan Chase! You have to be kidding us.
We should have taken the keys to the economy away from Wall Street four years ago, and made them prove they were responsible economic drivers before giving back nearly unfettered driving privileges.
Like 17 year olds, investment bankers, with the help of their Eddie Haskell-like lobbying allies, begged for another chance. Our collective will relented like passive parents, with Congress enacting toothless Dodd-Frank regulations. As a society, we let the bakers off with a stern warning and weak set of restrictions.
What did they do? Snatched back the keys, rolled their eyes, hopped back in the economic driver's seat, and floored it. You hear that big, "I told you so."
It may take several days before government regulators and the investment community get a clear picture whether JP Morgan Chase's $2 billion loss was a single car collision caused by one irresponsible driver—to continue the metaphor—or if it set off a massive multi-vehicle pile up.
Concerned Minnesotans need to watch for two possible reactions (as the EMS crews respond to the scene).
Will this news derail the mortgage market? That would undermine recent reports of Twin Cities metropolitan housing market improvements after a long stalled recovery. The Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors tallied a 7.1 percent increased in closing during April, compared with a year ago, and the median sale price on single-family homes rose 12.4 percent to $163,000.
Realtors also report inventories are at the lowest level since 2004. This comes at a time when rising rents are making a mortgage payment a more economic advantageous option for some families.
The second question Minnesotans should be asking is what financial shape would our retirees and elderly be in if the financial institutions had succeeded in getting their hands on Social Security funds?
Proposals to “privatize” Social Security are still lingering in Congress. The 2008-2009 Wall Street meltdowns didn’t discourage efforts to turn retirement funds over to brokers and investment pools who might use Grandma’s nest egg to speculate on derivatives and other unsecured financial instruments.
This much is certain. The next month will be interesting for the Minnesota housing market and the world’s financial houses.
Posted in Fiscal Policy | Related Topics: Financial Industry Housing Market
Foggy in Duluth…and in St. Paul
It’s May and it’s fog season on Lake Superior's shores. The same warm, moist air that gets gardens greening up across Minnesota hits Duluth. Here the lake's cool waters cool that air below the dew point and—BOOM—we Duluthians are draped in fog.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoy the fog and the insistent monotone of the fog horn…for a while. I’m glad people elsewhere get to enjoy their lilacs now; we’ll enjoy ours in late June.
When you’re stuck in the fog, your world becomes tiny, just the few hundred yards you can see at a time. The fog can be really deceptive. I live near Duluth’s famous Canal Park and Aerial Lift Bridge, and many times I’ve seen the entire top half of the Lift Bridge completely disappear in the fog. “Hey,” I’d tell my kids, “Someone stole the top of the Lift Bridge!” The first few times I pulled that, they actually believed me. But rational minds and even six year olds understand that the bridge didn’t simply break in half.
Duluth’s fog is symbolic of a few things. One is the deep geographic differences between our harbor town and the rest of Minnesota's forests and prairies. What’s good for one part of the state (like warm, moist air in spring) is not necessarily good for every part.
Another is the foggy parochialism of any community: what we see before us is all we know, and like the resident’s of Plato’s cave, we don’t even know there’s a broader world…or a higher bridge.
This spring, the Minnesota legislature definitely had some foggy moments. The legislative process is meant to clear the fog away, to let the sunlight in on our government, to illuminate regional differences and find ways to navigate between them. Did that happened this session? I can’t quite see that far yet.
Posted in News & Notes | Related Topics: Minnesota Legislature
MSP Changes Limit Economic Growth
Minnesota Jobs Lost
In a strange and misguided way, too many still believe hosting a major airline hub at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) is economically advantageous—as it might have been in Northwest Airlines' heyday.
Industry pundits and some elected officials still tout MSP as an “economic engine” for Minnesota, vainly hoping the hub airline’s state business continues to offset the doubled cost of building and operating MSP.
The airline headquartered here, stationed many union aircrews in the Twin Cities, and employed Minnesota union mechanics. It purchased goods and services from a variety of Metropolitan suppliers (including lawyers and lobbyists).
Having paid off its state loan, Delta is no longer under obligation to maintain Northwest's 10,000-person minimum Minnesota workforce. Reports of hub-airline jobs migrating to Atlanta and other cities are appearing frequently, but the remaining job numbers are less often reported.
Since the MSP expansion and in the merger, Northwest's unions were busted and aircraft maintenance was outsourced. After the merger (2008), Delta soon moved the headquarters and closed other facilities. Last year, Delta relocated its pilot (simulator) training, and it appears their vacation planning unit is soon to follow. The promised maintenance base in Duluth and the reservations center in Hibbing were never built.
A Delta spokeswoman recently told the Star Tribune the airline has "about 9,000 Minnesota employees," a number that's "been constant for several years," the paper reported. However, when including the airline's affiliates, Delta says it's "responsible" for more Minnesota jobs.
The key difference is that Delta was expected to employ Minnesotans, not hire subcontractors, as agreed in the Northwest offset covenants. Now Pinnacle Airlines is the employer, but bankrupt. Also, non-union and subcontractor wages are no more than 70% of former Northwest or current Delta rates.
Air Service is Lagging Need and Expectations
Nearly 6 million of Delta's roughly 20 million 2011 passengers through MSP actually flew on Pinnacle, a recently bankrupt Delta subcontractor now trying to re-structure in Chapter 11. (Delta pays Pinnacle per flight.)
Pinnacle is the present owner of the remnants of Colgan Air, the small operator whose crash near Buffalo, NY, spurred a bi-partisan provision in Congress directing FAA to initiate regulations and programs to make regional operations safer. These much needed programs are still pending, but the major airlines—profitable—as well as the contract operators—not profitable—are protesting the cost.
Looking at MSP on the whole, there are far fewer flyers than in 2004-05, when the “New Runway,” R17-35, first became operational. Local passengers are paying more, have fewer carrier choices, and less comfort and convenience. Minnesotans and their visitors (business suppliers and customers, tourists, convention attendees) typically travel longer and farther to reach the same destinations frequented a decade ago.
Last year, the FAA changed runway operations, resulting in more noise exposure and more ground traffic at MSP, especially during peak hours.
Re-routed overflights caused a significant and justified increase in neighborhood complaints. So far, nothing has been done to improve MSP traffic management in the air or on the ground, beyond talking about options.
What's going to happen with traffic and noise if and when MSP hits its 2030 Long-Term Comprehensive Plan projections, which will add an additional 200 daily take offs and landings -- most during peak hours?
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Economic Growth Air Travel
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Progress on Our Doorstep: Green Space on the Rails
The Central Corridor Light Rail Transit (CCLRT) project has already altered the city landscape between downtown Minneapolis and downtown St Paul, as anyone who has tried to drive, bike or walk along Washington or University Avenues in recent months knows all too well. But when the trains start running sometime in 2014, one improvement to the cityscape in St Paul’s portion of the line that you may not expect is its greenness.
A joint effort between the City of St Paul, Ramsey County, Capitol Region Watershed District and the MET Council will bring significant green infrastructure to the 5.2 mile stretch of the light rail that runs down University Avenue from Highway 280 to the State Capitol.
Over 1,200 trees (up from the 200 currently in the same stretch) will dot both sides of the street, improving the visual appeal of the line and reducing the volume of stormwater hitting our drainage system during rainfalls. These trees will be installed in state-of-the-art trenches that utilize pervious pavers and structural soils to help trees grow and survive in extreme urban conditions. Strategically installed stormwater planters and rain gardens will help capture and filter contaminated water runoff that currently goes untreated into the Mississippi River.
But with a huge number of public agencies involved in the CCLRT, and issues ranging from transportation to urban development to business growth, getting these environmentally sound improvements into the plans of the state’s most significant transportation project since the interstate was not easy. Capitol Region Watershed District Administrator Mark Doneux, who was involved in the planning stages of the CCLRT, says the biggest challenges were balancing the needs and priorities of the many stakeholders involved in the project. For example, creating sustainable tree trenches in sidewalks that can withstand the weight of emergency vehicles.
This effort to green the CCLRT is a great example of how a diverse group of stakeholders with potentially competing interests can bring environmental consciousness and city landscape improvement into an incredibly complex transportation project in a dense urban setting. And it’s happening right here on our doorsteps.
Posted in Transportation | Related Topics: City Management Minneapolis / St Paul Central Corridor
Bipartisanship or Bust
Well, they finally did it. The Minnesota Legislature ended a slow, drawn-out session with a few major tasks accomplished. Unfortunately those accomplishments were preceded by months of partisan grandstanding, bickering, power grabs, and cheap shots. Why can't our leaders actually do the work we elect them to do?
We're in a bad place. Politicians at all levels have bemoaned the deepening partisan divide. Many moderate leaders with decades of respected service are retiring in frustration. In their place, we're electing extremists who make for good headlines but poor policies. The pressure to vote along partisan ideologies has become so intense that our legislators can't easily vote based on what is actually best for their constituency. Those who dare cross the party are often punished by their leaders or the voters.
Among the most recent victims is six-term Indiana Senator Richard Luger, who lost his party nomination to a more right-leaning opponent. Luger wrote in his concession statement, “One can be very conservative or very liberal and still have a bipartisan mindset. Such a mindset acknowledges that the other party is also patriotic and may have some good ideas. It acknowledges that national unity is important, and that aggressive partisanship deepens cynicism, sharpens political vendettas, and depletes the national reserve of good will that is critical to our survival in hard times.”
We are fortunate to live in a diverse country that must serve a terrific range of citizens' needs and viewpoints. Traditionally, this has provided healthful balance. We sought leaders who could prove their worth by cooperating, negotiating, listening, and accomplishing as much good for as many constituents as possible. Pragmatism mattered more than partisanship. Even those with whom we disagreed often earned our respect by being true to themselves while civil to others.
The fault lies with us voters, of course. When we elect people more concerned with attention-getting extremism than learning to compromise in the chamber, we are widening that chamber aisle all the more. When we reject moderate candidates as “soft” or “compromising” we are saying that we'd rather our Legislature accomplish nothing than do the work our taxes pay them to do. When we punish an leader for voting based on feedback from the community rather than solely on party pressure, we're setting ourselves up for another government shutdown with unsatisfying and unsustainable outcomes.
This fall we get to elect our entire Minnesota Legislature afresh. Rather than obsessing only over the R, D, or I next to their names, we should be asking every one of them to show their record of cooperation, pragmatism, and thoughtful voting. Moving Minnesota forward depends on us electing leaders who can move towards each other on the key issues--education, health care, economic development and transportation.
Posted in News & Notes | Related Topics: Government Policy Minnesota Legislature
Our Invisible Entitlement
My old colleague Dane Smith at Growth & Justice made a stirring contrarian tribute to American entitlements in Sunday's Star Tribune, praising them as "the actual secret to our economic strength and power."
This, of course, flies straight in the face of conservative dogma that rugged individualism and personal responsibility are the only tickets to freedom and prosperity. Never mind that some of the least governed, least entitled places in the world are also the most dreadful to inhabit. Think Somalia, which a consistent anti-government right would consider Paradise.
But, as the Great Dane points out, rural and exurban conservatives benefit from entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare, earned income tax credits and school lunch programs just as much as urban-dwellers. And some entitlements are practically invisible.
Take most Americans' attitudes about driving. We think we have a right to motor anywhere we want on good roads and safe bridges with cheap gasoline and negligible user fees. This mindset is so entrenched here that whenever pump prices approach $4 a gallon politicians across the spectrum start urging gas tax holidays, which would further bankrupt our cash-strapped infrastructure. And when the federal Highway Trust Fund runs dry—no surprise since its main revenue source, the federal fuel tax, hasn't been adjusted for inflation since 1993—there's a bipartisan rush to top it off with non-user general funds, $35 billion and counting.
Interestingly, the picture is very different in the supposed world capital of entitlement—western Europe. The average price of petrol in the 27 European Union countries was recently pegged at a record $8.44 per gallon, the bulk of it taxes that Americans would consider confiscatory. Only 11 percent of U.S. fuel prices are taxes, compared with 60 percent in the United Kingdom.
The European way squeezes drivers into tiny cars or off the road entirely, but it also finances roads that put ours to shame and world-class options for high-speed trains, urban transit, bicycling and walking. This gives people wide transportation choices that fit their needs and budgets.
Here, we're entitled to drive. But if you can't afford a car, you're probably on your own.
Posted in Transportation | Related Topics: Roads & Highways Automobiles Fuel Tax Infrastructure
37,000 Pill Bottles Can’t Be Wrong
On Sunday, May 6, 37,000 empty pill bottles arrived in 37,000 Minnesota mail boxes. It was a triumph of contemporary government, testing a postal service based emergency medicine distribution mechanism. Let’s not overlook the significance of this test. Minnesota is safer and healthier as a result.
The US Postal Service serves the public, moving mail. We take their work for granted, direct their activities and expect a high level of functionality. For the price, there’s no better deal than the US mail.
The Minnesota Department of Health’s mission is to protect our state’s health. It tends to only get press when something bad happens, like a salmonella scare or a concentrated flu outbreak. Otherwise, MDH employees labor in important but quiet obscurity.
![[photo of pill bottle: this is only a test]](/assets/uploads/article/test.jpg)
Over the weekend, these two service agencies tested an emergency medical distribution system. The idea, partnering direct home delivery with medicine distribution, isn’t new and works routinely. Nearly any pharmacy can arrange to have your prescription meds delivered to you through the USPS. The empty pill bottle distribution test ramped up that challenge, expanding it to a community level.
Let’s say that a community faces an anthrax scare. Everyone needs the same med. One mechanism is the long line feeding into a temporary medicine distribution center. You may remember this line from the movie, “Contagion.” Alternatively, the public health service can achieve the same end, particularly in densely populated areas, by mail carrier with less drama and public anxiety. We learned last Sunday that the system worked.
Got that? Government works. The test distribution wasn’t as colorful or media-friendly as the annual anti-tax rally in front of the State Capitol but it serves a far more important mission. Protecting the public’s health-our health- is a strongly-held shared value. We count on Minnesota’s and America’s public employees to do their job and to do it well. Sunday’s distribution test proved my faith in strong public systems.
In spite of regular conservative attacks, government carries out the public will. The USPS and the MDH didn’t need to drop an empty test pill bottle in every Minnesota mail box to prove that the system works. They only needed to test it on a handful of zip codes. But, that test reminds us that we’re safe because we work together to protect ourselves.
Posted in Health Care | Related Topics: City Management Community Safety Minneapolis / St Paul Public Health
Higher Performance Costs More, Even at Charters
Charter schools are a diverse and sometimes confusing group. In general, their students perform at about the same level as those in nearby traditional public schools, with a few high fliers and a few more bottom feeders. One of the claims of charter school advocates is that charter schools are able to get these results despite taking in less public money. That may be true in some cases, but for some of the top-performing charter management organizations, their per-pupil expenditures tend to be higher than nearby public schools, often thanks to significant private funding.
A new report by the National Education Policy Center (in conjunction with the Albert Shanker Institute and the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice) dives into the murky world of charter school finance. The available information on this is surprisingly skimpy and unreliable, so the authors focused on three areas that do better than most of the country: New York City, Texas, and Ohio. Of the three, the authors have the greatest confidence in the New York numbers as a reflection of the actual spending by three generally high-performing charter management organizations (CMOs).
A CMO is kind of like a regional or national chain of similarly-operated charter schools. One well-known example is the Knowledge is Power Program, most commonly referred to as KIPP. Of the CMOs studied in the report, KIPP is the only one with schools in all three locations.
The authors' major finding is that, at least in Texas and New York City (where, again, the authors have the greatest confidence in the accuracy of their numbers), higher-performing charter schools also spend substantially more money than their traditional public peers in the same area. In New York, the top CMOs run $2000-$4300 more per pupil than traditional publics, or 15-30% more. In Texas, some groups – including KIPP – ran around 50% higher.
This is generally money well spent, going into extended learning time and intensive tutoring programs more effective than the norm. The authors also point out early and often that they may not have accounted for all charter spending, as financial reporting for CMOs is very slipshod. Still, the core truth remains: if you want better student performance, plan on spending more money to get it.
Posted in Education | Related Topics: K-12 education Achievement Gap Charter Schools Student Assessment