Commentary by Fred Zimmerman

The status, financial condition, needs and quality of Minnesota's education system is likely to keep the Legislature busy this session, examining proposals for vouchers, starting the school year after Labor Day, funding increases for higher education, merit pay and other important issues. These deliberations are of interest to those of us involved in education and everybody else.

Clearly, all citizens benefit from the competence and dedication of so many people in education. First-rate scholars like John Adams, Ed Schuh, Andrew Van de Ven and Ann Markusen, from the University of Minnesota, J.T. Black of Auburn, Dick Chase of the University of Southern California and many others all shoulder the solemn responsibility of educating, stimulating and revitalizing our entire nation.

Minnesota's private colleges, which supply nearly half of the state's science and math graduates, have dedicated and effective educators as well: Mike Naughton, Meg Karraker, Tom Ippoliti, Mike Mikolajczak and others.

There is much good in education at all levels; at universities, technical colleges, and in the K-12 system. Last spring, I was privileged to serve as "Principal for a Day" at North High School in Minneapolis, where I witnessed first-hand the dedication of students, faculty and staff.

Yet the dedication of some students, some faculty and some staff cannot be generalized to all of education. The disparity in effectiveness and efficiency is enormous; within schools, between schools, and at different levels -- quite often unrelated to the funding involved.

Educators cause some of this disparity because we too often consider what is good for us rather than what is good for students or the community. As educators, we have responsibilities. Our institutions were not built to serve us, but to serve students in as cost-effective a manner as possible.

In spite of some heroic efforts by individuals, education as a system is in need of much improvement. We have too much bureaucracy and too much time off. We often waste time with inconsequential meetings. Some administrators do little more than spawn busy work and consume resources.

Our best scholars are often not available to students. We rarely practice the cost vigilance that has been necessary for survival in industrial companies.

Indifferent parents who watch too much television, overzealous sports enthusiasts and citizens with competing priorities also detract. The motivation for this piece was in part provided by the proposal recently advanced in the Legislature to start school after Labor Day for the sake of the resort business. Given the fact that students who score at the median in science and math tests in Singapore would score at the 87th percentile in the United States, shortening Minnesota's already abbreviated school year does not seem like a good idea. If education is important to our future, it deserves serious consideration.

Although some argue the need for more funding, generally speaking, educators are well-paid -- especially on a per-hour basis. The annual compensation of K-12 educators is about twice the average for full-time workers who normally work 40 percent more days per year and retire about 10 years later. And, the defined-benefit plans provided to K-12 teachers are generous compared with the defined-contribution plans common in industry.

At the college level, we should remember that there are now eight college football coaches making more than $2 million dollars per year and many who make more than $1 million. The head coaches at the University of Iowa and Iowa State are among the highest-paid people in the state. Does this activity really have the earmarks of being underfunded?

We spend a lot of money on education, but much of it never reaches the classroom. The projected cost of the lucrative retirement programs for public employees is attracting more attention. By 2008, Michigan teacher retirement programs, though less lucrative than those in Minnesota, will annually cost $1,200 per pupil. Yet the costs for retirements and time off seem never to be considered as we evaluate "funding" for education.

There are many hard-working and dedicated teachers who earn every cent of their pay and we should appreciate them. Still, the world economic environment is highly competitive. It is not surprising that some of these pressures permeate education.

We could ignore both the pressures and the facts. We could ignore the fact that students in several competing countries experience longer school years, more rigorous instruction and receive significantly more homework than students receive here. We could avoid updating our retirement programs in the face of rapidly increasing life expectancies.

We could let gradual drift take its ultimate toll -- the infusion of greater cost and the compromising of results.

The governor or the Legislature are not the chief enemies of education. Most of the enemies are within; insufficient quality assurance, unenforced discipline, compensation systems excessively skewed toward older teachers, poor resource utilization, too much bureaucracy.

Nor are the perils facing education the result of union presence. The heavily unionized school district in Edmonton, Alberta, is one of the most innovative in the Western Hemisphere. Leading companies like Southwest Airlines, Deere and Ford have been unionized for many decades and still turn out quality products and make good returns. But, with these companies, the threat of capable competition has motivated labor and management to work productively together. This has not yet happened in education, but it should.

I sometimes wish the Legislature could do something practical like make provisions to fire the very few less-dedicated teachers, bring sanity to the emphasis on athletics, close costly operations that contribute little to the state's economy, allow the dedicated teachers to enforce their own discipline in the classroom, make the state's public retirement schedule similar to that of Social Security, and levy a modest tax on television sets and video games to provide additional funding for the quality education we will need to compete.

Were these things to happen, my belief is that the people in education would rally in support. People in education want to be part of a class act.

This commentary originally appeared in the Star Tribune on February 20, 2005.