By: Charlie Kyte
This audioblog is 9 minutes long.
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATH (STEM) CONFERENCE: This conference was organized by the Minnesota Citizens League and was held at the MN Science Museum. Governor Pawlenty was the keynote speaker and theafternoon was filled with small group discussion sessions to help us identify what we, as a state, need to do in order to compete with the emerging 2nd and 3rd world countries that are now investing so heavily in education.
This call to action is for our whole society and especially our parents to overcome complacency. The Governor asked businesses and community groups to take the lead in helping parents understand how important the study of science and math is going to be for our future.
The Governor emphasized the importance of educators and the need to focus on late MS and HS in Math & Science. We need a higher calibur of college student going into teaching and we need to pay a premium for math & science teachers.
The 2nd and 3rd world competition is fast approaching our skill and education level. In addition they are still hungry and are working at wages of 20 cents to our dollar of wage.
We can't be defeatist, just more creative and infuse more academic rigor. The Governor proposes for Minnesota to become the #1 state in this country in terms of educating our students in science and math. He proposes that we require Algebra II and Chemistry for graduation. Our top kids are doing as well as any students in the world. However we need to have more of our students academically involved and we need to include more of our disadvantaged kids.
We are going to see fewer 'strong back' jobs and we can't afford to leave too many of our students unable to work in our emerging jobs--75% of which require strong math and science skills.
THIS WEEK AT THE LEGISLATURE: Tuesday is the 2nd committee deadline for policy bills. Actually K-12 education has had most of the Bills with a chance of passage heard already. Most of our work will be in the Senate this week.
On Tuesday morning the Senate Ed Finance Committee will heara presentation by John Meyers on the Education Finance Study. At noon, the Senate Judiciary Committee will have a hearing on the Gay Marriage Constitutional Amendment. Attendance at this hearing is limited by passes, but we expect demonstrations and counter demonstrations all during the day.
The Senate Ed Policy committee will hold a hearing on the Senates Education Omnibus Bill late on Tuesday afternoon. We will see at that time what the Senate will actually propose in terms of policy initiatives. On Thursday, this same committee will hear the 'Legth of the School Year' Bill proposed by MASA. In attendance will be the Youth Advisory Committee for the Senate. We expect many interesting questions as we discuss the need for more time in school for students and more time to prepare for teachers.
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