Excellence in education is imperative to prepare our kids for the future. Minnesota must promise to deliver a good education to all children regardless of where they live or the wealth of their parents. We need to slow the growth of educational spending by getting back to the basics. We cannot continue to expect our schools to raise our children; parents must.

Education funding often does not make it into the classroom; instead, it is squandered through government bureaucracy. Education reform is not enough. We have to let our teachers teach and reward them for a job well done. Real rewards for success and true penalties for failure are needed to reform the system.

Our urban schools' inability to graduate students who are academically prepared to become productive members of society is clear. Minneapolis ranks second behind only Washington DC with 50% of the black males graduating from high school. This appalling statistic should never happen in Minnesota.

No longer can we teach to the lowest common denominator; no longer can we allow disruptive students to impede the teaching of our students who want to learn. School districts, teachers, parents, and students must be held accountable for the success and the failure of our school system.

vouchers or tax credits

School vouchers allow talented students to attend schools that challenge them and allow underperforming students to find schools that better meet their needs. Vouchers return control of children's educations to those who both know their needs best and are most likely to have their best interests at heart: their parents. school choice substantially improves the performance of public schools.

Choice in education will lead to smaller schools that can and will compete for our children. Schools will have to perform better to win students. Some will specialize in math and science and some will focus on art and literature. Satellite television and the internet to interactive media, the options will be endless. Gone will be the debates about sex education and religion that cannot be solved by a single curriculum.

Working to be part of the solution

Today bureaucrats decide when children will attend school, how long they will attend, who will teach them and what they will learn. Parents and teachers should make these decisions. I have the courage to stand up to the powerful special interest groups, to work with the unions, to eliminate over-regulated and wasteful bureaucracy so we can improve our schools.

Parents are the most likely to know their children's individual needs and have strong incentives to choose the right schools. Their voice must be heard. There is little doubt if parents had an affordable option they would not send their children to public school. Parents and teachers must be empowered with decisions that include curriculum, textbook selections, admissions, retention, and disciplinary policies.

How much is enough?

Currently 41% of the general fund goes toward our education budget. The answer this past legislative session was to throw even more money into a system that gets a failing grade. In Minnesota, per pupil expenditures are about $8,000 in government funded schools. Private schools spend about half. Many studies exist to show no consistent relationship between higher spending and improvement in academic achievement.

School districts and high schools can become too large for a single curriculum to be best for most students. Powerful teachers unions charge hefty dues used largely for political campaigns. These unions can and do protect incompetency; the students ultimately pay the price for this failure.

Drugs — legal and illegal

Too many of our children are over-diagnosed, over-treated and over-drugged. We have seen a 300% increase in psychotropic drug use in 2-4 year old children between 1991-1995 (JAMA, 2000). More money was spent on drugging our children than was spent on antibiotics or asthma medication. Thankfully, the schools can no longer force parents to drug their children, and passage of mental health screening in children under age 5 was defeated in the 2004 session. You can be sure this idea will return and it must be stopped.

Students who attend religious and secular private schools score higher on the NAEP (Clowes 2000), graduate at higher rates, and are twice as likely to attend and graduate from college than their public school peers in spite of spending half as much per student. Parents, teachers and students all report higher levels of satisfaction with private schools than with public schools. Unfortunately, middle and lower income parents cannot afford to pay tuition at private schools. Many magnet schools have long waiting lists.

There is not a simple solution to solve the problem of children being exposed to drugs, alcohol, tobacco, violence and sex. Old ideas do not work to protect our children or offer alternatives that include personal responsibility.

Sue Jeffers challenged incumbent Republican governor Tim Pawlenty in the 2006 primary election. This commentary originally appeared on Jeffers's campaign web site.