The United States ranks below the world average in reading, science and math. We need to improve public education.
Bill and Melinda Gates recommend online education as cost effective for public schools. Rochester students receiving iPads do not study any fully online courses on their iPads. I recommend the school board aggressively pursue effective use of tax dollars for full appropriate use of online education, which the Education Minnesota union does not support.
A group of nine California students filed a lawsuit indicating teacher firing and layoff protections violate California's constitution. California will have to craft new rules to protect low-performing tenured teachers. Education Minnesota's union protections are the same as California's. I recommend the school board take the Minnesota lead and aggressively pursue constitutional student education protection.
Also, when I vote for a Rochester School Board member, I focus on integrity, responsibility, punctuality and the assumption the member will attend board meetings. When critical tax levy votes are held, my assumption is not that only five of seven board members would be present. School board Chairwoman Ann Becker and member Richard Hinds were not present. If they are not interested in attending tax levy meetings, maybe we should give them the opportunity to miss other meetings they were elected to attend. The tax rate is now increased by 9.88 percent and handles free iPads.
Craig Martens
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Rochester
