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| Date: | April 29, 2011 | | Contact Name: | Sandra Whalen | | Contact Phone: | 651-296-5238 | | Contact Email: | sandra.whalen@senate.mn | | For Immediate Release | |
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| SENATOR DALEY OFFERS BILL THAT WILL ALLOW SCHOOLS TO SHARE SERVICES TO INNOVATE |
(ST. PAUL) – Under a bill approved by the Senate Education committee Thursday, some Minnesota schools could be given a green light to break out of barriers to shared services and join together as “super-innovation zones,” according to author Sen. Ted Daley (R- Eagan).
The measure would establish six pilot projects across the state that would allow three or more school districts to work together with their leaders, teachers and parents to offer ideas to combine services within school districts, in exchange for the state lifting many mandates placed on local districts. Daley said his intent is to open doors to creativity that is currently discouraged under laws and administrative rules.
“As schools boards face scarce resources, partnering and sharing is not only a way to free up teachers to work more closely with individual students but it can help a school to expand to have curriculum that might not normally be available,” he said. “The possibilities are almost limitless.”
Charlie Kyte, executive director for Minnesota Association of School Administrators, spoke in favor of the bill at its first hearing last week. He said administrators statewide are discussing how to change instruction, including joint delivery of programming and personalized, “student-driven” instruction.
“What we are recognizing is that a single district has a difficult time creating significant change,” Kyte said. “When they collaborate they can break out of the box.”
District 197 (West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan) Superintendent Jay Haugen also testified in favor of the bill during an earlier hearing. “We need to move away from the factory model of education,” Haugen told the committee. “Every school cannot provide every service to every single child. That’s a very expensive model. We need to collaborate, because together we can be everything to everybody.”
The measure enjoyed strong bi-partisan support, including one DFL co-author who told the committee that, “While there is so much fear around change, what you’ve laid out here is a path to put the fear aside… (assuring schools) we don’t have to lose our autonomy.”
The measure advances to the full Senate.
