Education

Education is – and always has been – the key to our success in Edina and Minnesota. It provides opportunity, it fuels innovation, and it attracts and retains vibrant businesses. It must be among our highest priorities.

But we must also recognize, like the world around us, the way we approach education must change with the times. In this day and age, that means we must focus on life-long learning, not just K-12 and higher education. It also means we need to ensure our kids learn skills as well as content. And it means we need to be open to new and innovative ways of approaching education.

Early Childhood Education

• No one disputes the value of quality early childhood education in helping ensure kids come to kindergarten ready to learn. According to the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, each dollar we invest in early childhood education provides up to $17 in return.

• According to the Minnesota Department of Education, half of our kids enter kindergarten without the skills they need. This is where the achievement gap starts: Those who enter kindergarten behind their peers often do not catch up.

• It is in our best interest to ensure all of our kids are ready for kindergarten. As we develop systems to meet that goal, we need to develop the kind of transparency that allows parents to choose the development resources best for their kids and permits flexibility in the way such resources are delivered.

Grades K-12

• To succeed in the 21st century marketplace, our learners must develop critical-thinking, creativity, teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills. Our current focus on teaching content should be balanced by an emphasis on development of these skills.

• Most of us agree that it is important to measure the performance of our schools, teachers, and students. But the importance of measuring performance shouldn’t drive us to teach solely that which is easy to measure or evaluate performance solely on the basis of test scores.

• Funding for K-12 education needs to be sufficient, stable, fair, and transparent.

• We must have the courage to be innovative in the ways we teach our kids. Technology has given us the opportunity to personalize learning so each child can achieve his or her greatest potential. While school buildings will always provide valuable venues for education, we need to be open to new ideas for learning outside the physical classroom.

Higher Education

• World-class colleges and universities are incubators of innovation and they attract and retain innovative and creative people. We must invest in them and do a better job of leveraging their discoveries.

• The cost of higher education has skyrocketed in recent years. We need to make sure higher education is affordable for Minnesota students by making resources available for those who need them and by challenging our higher education institutions to contain costs.

• We need to support a range of workforce preparation options that includes both college and technical skills training. Twenty-first century manufacturing jobs are high-tech and high-skill. A talented and well-trained workforce is necessary to attract and retain those jobs.