"In good times and in bad, the single best investment we can make is in the people of Minnesota. The heart of our strategy for economic recovery begins with people, because if we have a talented, well-trained workforce, innovation flourishes and jobs will grow. Our next generation is our most valuable yet. We cannot fail to give them the education and training they need to succeed."
Record of Results
- R.T. helped create the Minneapolis Promise, which brings schools, foundations and businesses together to prepare high school students to move from school, to college and a good paying job. The Minneapolis Promise has put privately funded career centers in every high school, created a youth summer jobs program that has provided real-world job experience for 7,600 youth, and offered scholarships for college to nearly 1,000 Minneapolis students who need help paying for higher education.
Results:
Thanks to the hard work of everyone in Minneapolis, especially teachers
and students, graduation rates in Minneapolis have increased from a
dismal 53% in 2002 to 73% in 2008.
- When violent crime among youth began rising in Minneapolis and all across the country, R.T. pulled together mayors and police chiefs from across the country to find a solution. R.T. organized parents, kids, teachers, law enforcement and the community around groundbreaking strategies to prevent youth violence - strategies focused on tough enforcement and prevention, by treating youth violence as a public health epidemic. The Mayor's approach, in the Blueprint to Prevent Youth Violence, has received national attention and is the model for approaches in Crow Wing County, Minnesota and around the country.
Results: Violent crime among youth in Minneapolis has dropped by almost 40%.
Vision for the Future
R.T. understands that our great public education system has been the secret to Minnesota's success and it's the key to our future prosperity. Nothing is more important than preparing our next generation for success in a global economy.
We start with high-quality, affordable education in early childhood - the foundation for success and our best return on investment. These early investments in our kids will reduce achievement gaps down the road and prepare young students for school.
Once kids get to school, R.T. knows how to help them succeed. Great schools put students first, with strong teachers and support staff in classrooms that are small enough to teach effectively. Our first priority must be to make sure our kids can read by third grade.
R.T. won't let kids fall through the cracks. Minnesota students are some of the best in the country, but we also face unacceptable achievement gaps. Too many kids fail to graduate, or they finish high school unprepared for college or good-paying jobs. We need clear standards and high expectations for all kids. We need more learning, not more testing. Today teachers are forced into an endless loop of uncoordinated tests that are not serving our students well.
The University of Minnesota, our state and community college system, and Minnesota's many outstanding private colleges and universities are state treasures - and central to our future prosperity. Our prosperity depends on making higher education affordable. Minnesota's institutions of higher education are engines of innovation and job creation and they need to be supported as the cornerstone of our jobs strategy.
The biggest casualty of the state's terrible fiscal management has been Minnesota's public education system. Early childhood education is dramatically underfunded. The Pawlenty administration has relied on budgeting gimmicks and short-term cost shifts to pay for public education, and then shifted costs back onto local property-tax payers. R.T. knows this is a long-term recipe for disaster. The biggest question for the next Governor will be how to fix this mess. R.T. will reform education funding so that schools have predictable, stable resources to educate Minnesota children so they are prepared for life and career success. The quality of a child's education shouldn't depend on whether they live in a community with high property values or their neighbors have passed a property tax referendum.
