Other Rural Issues

President Obama announced his plans to reduce gun violence and protect children. In the president’s plan to reduce gun violence and ensure safe schools, there are several proposed funds for education, including the following: A new Comprehensive School Safety program that will give $150 million to school districts and law enforcement agencies to hire school resource officers, school psychologists, social … Read More

MREA is seeking proposals for its Annual Conference in November. If you have an effective practice you want to share with MREA members on Nov. 17-19, please complete this form by Monday April 22. Learn more.

Senator Al Franken held meetings on school safety and the BWCA land swap issue this week and invited MREA to both meetings. Here are reports on each of these meetings: School Safety The primary focus of the school safety meeting was how best to provide early mental health interventions and support for students. Sen. Franken cited a statistic that 50 … Read More

StudentsFirst, a national ‘education reform’ organization founded by Michelle Rhee, formerly Superintendent of Washington DC Public Schools, has issued report cards on all 50 states. StudentsFirst gave Minnesota a D in educational policies. MREA profiled StudentsFirst this past summer. Joe Nathan, a long time Minnesota education reformer and charter advocate, described Rhee as “blunt, controversial, and … sometimes wrong” in … Read More

A new report from the Center for Rural Policy and Development argues that rural Minnesota is losing its voice in the public policy decision making process. While the report is focused primarily on economic development rather than education, its analysis of the issues facing rural Minnesota and advocacy for rural Minnesota (pp. 4-8) have parallels for K-12 and post-secondary education. The following … Read More

From the MSBA Boardcaster 12-28-2012: Referenda roundup: Hancock, Hills-Beaver Creek pass; three other districts come up short School districts went two-for-five in school bond referendum voting this week. Hancock and Hills-Beaver Creek voters approved their district’s referenda, while voters rejected measures in Mountain Lake, Rothsay and Rushford-Peterson. ■ Hancock: Voters approved a $5.4 million bond referendum by a 196-36 vote … Read More

Our hearts stopped on Friday with the senseless killing of innocent children in Connecticut. We immediately thought of the safety of all children. Words don’t come easy during this time, but as school leaders we’re looked to by staff, parents and students. Commissioner Cassellius sent a message on Friday with some good resources on talking about the news with staff and communicating with … Read More

The Minnesota Educators of Gifted and Talented will hold its annual conference,  “Integrating Differentiation Across the Curriculum”, February 3-5 at Cragun’s Resort in Brainerd. Keynote speakers will be noted literacy expert, Susannah Richards, and differentiation specialist, Carolyn Coil. Many breakout sessions will be focusing on the needs of the gifted learner. For details and registration form, go to www.megt.org.

AASA released a new report entitled Federal Public Education Revenues and the Sequester. In conjunction with the release of the report, AASA released its Fiscal Cliff Toolkit, a comprehensive set of resources that utilize this report and dataset to give educators and community leaders everything they need to make urge Congress to action, including background information on sequestration and the … Read More

November’s election brought significant changes for the state legislature that will convene on Jan. 8.  After a two-year stint in the majority, the GOP caucuses were returned to minority status by the voters. Senate DFLers will enter session with a 39-28 majority. The House DFL returns with a 73-61 majority. A number of factors contributed to the DFL takeover of the … Read More