Every serious student of public policy In Minnesota needs to see at least the executive summary of an important new study out this week by the highly respected Itasca Project. The IP is a group of corporate and community leaders that has led the way in the past with consensus-seeking studies on transportation investment, early childhood education needs, and the education achievement gap. The Itasca Project's latest report elevates higher education improvement and attainment as the key to sustained economic growth in Minnesota. Among the findings and recommendations in Higher Education Partnerships for Prosperity:
- Future growth will require "deeper and more relevant skills from the workforce and increased innovation from researchers, entrepreneurs and businesses." By 2018, 70 percent of Minnesota jobs will require postsecondary education.
- Pressure on state budgets during the decade from 2000 to 2010 drove a 35% reduction in public funding per student in Minnesota, which drove up tuition and raised barriers to completion. (My editorial comment: these cuts were driven by an anti-government, anti-tax pledge that was unconscionable, and cutting higher education was dumber than eating seed corn).
- Minnesota strategically needs to: align academic offerings with workforce needs, foster an "ecosystem of research and innovation," form "new collaborations" to "optimize system-wide intellectual assets and efficiency," and (duh, editorial comment again) "graduate more students."
At Growth & Justice, we've been urging for several years now that policymakers set a clear goal for the state for postsecondary completion of 75 percent for all young adults by 2020. Put another way, the best route to sustained prosperity in Minnesota is to ensure that at least three out of four young adults have some sort of post high-school certificate or credential that enables them to enjoy a more productive career and realize their fuller human potential. And this imperative is particularly important for our kids of color, who currently are lagging far behind in academic achievement and attainment. Developing their potential is our best opportunity for business growth and productivity.
--Dane Smith
Two issues that Itasca did not consider: the silos at the Legisalture that divide education into three categories: Early Childhood, K-12, and Higher Ed. They scratch and claw for their share of funds and priorities but there is no comprehensive review or deliberation about education needs, priorities or funding in a the whole context,in one single committee. They (early Childhood, K-12, Higher Ed)are three components of a single process but for all intents and puposes, are divided into three distinct, unique entities. They are in fact three stages of one hugely important process and at some point, the Legislature ought to look at them that way.
The other question is one of higher education governance. MnSCU is a vast system that governs all public two and four year colleges not part of the University of Minnesota. MnSCU is charged with trying to balance the needs and interests of colleges offering a huge array of programming from basic certificates to doctorates. Aligning "workforce needs with academic offerings" as the Itasca Report recommends will never be achieved in a one-size-fits- all governance system that is as stuffed, padded, and stretched as MnSCU is.
One obvious solution is to align missions and reduce higher ed costs: either take the state universities out of MnSCU and reconfigure them as campuses of the University of Minnesota or create a new institution, Minnesota State University with campuses at St. Cloud, Mankato, Moorhead, Winona, Marshall (Southwest State), Bemidji, and St. Paul (Metro State).
The two year community and technical colleges could then become one system with an acute focus on technical workforce needs - which they already do for the most part - without having to compete with four year colleges which have an entirely different mission and function.
Our four year state universities began life (excluding Metro and Southwest State) primarily as teacher colleges. Their scope and mission have necessarily expanded well past that and are now in fact, much more like smaller versions of the University of Minnesota offering PhD and Masters level programs in addition to Bachelor's degrees.
Professional education is also a critical need in Minnesota just as is technical education; squeezing them into the same MnSCU box 12 years ago was a useful experiment but we can do better.
Posted by: Jim Bernstein | July 11, 2012 at 02:29 PM