Science Museum workers appeal to public as cuts threaten programs, access

August 21, 2025 by

Paleontologist Nicole Dzenowski says the Science Museum backtracked after eliminating her position in violation of her union contract.

Nicole Dzenowski, a paleontologist with the Science Museum of Minnesota, was on a field expedition in Montana when she received the news that her position managing Minnesota’s only active fossil-preparation lab was being eliminated.

In a virtual staff meeting that followed, Dzenowski learned her lab, which maintains a collection of hundreds of thousands of fossils, would remain open with support from volunteers – in direct violation of the newly negotiated contract covering over 200 Science Museum workers, members of AFSCME Council 5.

Within weeks, management had offered Dzenowski the position back on a part-time basis, but she and other union members say that her experience epitomizes the museum’s indifference to frontline workers and their union contract – and to the organization’s mission – as it plows ahead with a plan to eliminate 43 full-time positions.

“I am grateful that I will, in part, get to keep my job,” Dzenowski said. “I am grateful that the scientifically significant fossils that our collection houses will get taken care of…

“I can be grateful for all of those things while also still recognizing that the way these layoffs have unfolded does not feel like management has followed our contract and considered any alternatives to these layoffs – let alone any and all.”

Dzenowski and other Science Museum workers – some impacted by the layoffs, some not – laid bare their frustration with the process and their concerns about the institution’s future during a press conference July 29 outside the museum’s Kellogg Boulevard entrance.

Museum management announced plans to shrink its operating budget from $38 million to $31 million July 9, pointing to “fundamental shifts in consumer behavior following the pandemic” that have resulted in lower attendance at museum’s across the U.S. The Science Museum also saw federal grant funding pulled back by the Trump administration earlier this year.

But rather than taking a collaborative approach to navigating the new industry landscape, Science Museum union members said, management has shut them out of the planning process.

“We wouldn’t be here today if Science Museum management wasn’t too afraid to actually listen to their workers, who have brought forward ideas of building a better Science Museum but have been ignored,” Council 5 Director Bart Andersen said.

Decisions behind closed doors

Workers’ requests for information about how leadership arrived at decisions, like eliminating programs or consolidating departments, have gone mostly unanswered.

Sheridan Small, a program specialist, questioned the museum’s plans to discontinue camps – her area of focus – after this season. Small, who accepted the year-round position last March and will be laid off effective Aug. 22, said the move will eliminate a program that brings families – and revenue – to the museum.

“This is one of the museum’s strongest membership drivers,” she said. “Families join to get early access and discounts (on camp registration). Even with the materials and staffing costs, this program pays for itself. It doesn’t drain resources, it generates them.”

Jennings Mergenthal questions the organization’s decision to eliminate every position dedicated to its access and equity program.

Small isn’t the only one struggling to understand management’s reasoning. Grace Richter, who works on the museum floor, said union members in her department have asked how this round of layoffs will be different from last year’s, which eventually forced management to address staffing shortages.

“They have refused to be transparent with my team or grant information requests from the union, and have not engaged in any dialogue,” she said.

“In the 2023-24 fiscal year, our CEO Alison Brown made $572,000 – a huge jump from the previous year,” Richter added. “If our leaders are going to make that much money while I barely make $35,000 a year, shouldn’t they be able to provide us with a bare minimum of transparency on why crucial museum staff are losing their jobs?”

Betrayal of values

Other workers worried the layoffs signal the Science Museum is walking away from its commitment to inclusion and community access.

Ashley Hausch said her entire department dedicated to evaluation and research will be eliminated, and so will the museum’s ability to track visitors by zip code – a critical piece of determining how diverse the museum’s visitor population is.

Jennings Mergenthal, a community engagement specialist, said his department, which seeks to build relevant connections between community members and the museum’s offerings, had been eliminated, too. The move, he said, will increase the distance between museum leaders and the communities the Science Museum claims to serve.

“If the museum wants to act like a business, it should be honest about that,” Mergenthal added. “But if it wants to keep saying that it’s a public good and receive state grants and appropriations in service of the public, then it needs to listen to the community feedback it receives.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , ,

To stop cycle of cuts, St. Paul educators back levy referendum

October 25, 2018 by

spps-levy-logoJust months after emerging from a fractious round of contract negotiations, St. Paul educators, board members and administrators are pulling in the same direction this fall, urging voters to approve an operating levy worth an additional $18.6 million in annual school funding for the district.

The new funds would help the St. Paul Public Schools address revenue shortfalls that have forced over $50 million in programming, staff and other budget cuts over the last three years. This school year, the district shaved an additional $17.2 million from its budget.

A number of factors outside the district’s control have contributed to the budget woes, but the biggest factor, district leaders say, is the state government’s per-pupil funding formula hasn’t kept pace with rising education costs. Mandated special education services, for example, cost the district $42 million more annually than the funding it receives to provide those services.

With so much uncertainty, SPPS Superintendent Joe Gothard said the levy increase would provide the district with greater budget stability, freeing schools and educators to focus less on where to cut and more on the students they serve.

“We have great work happening every day in our schools, but it is a challenge to sustain our efforts,” Gothard said. “We see this levy as a investment in making sure St. Paul continues to be a great place to live, work and learn.”

Members of the St. Paul educators’ union began mobilizing in support of the levy as the new school year began, pursuing an ambitious plan to knock the door of every educator living in the district. Beth Swanberg, a music teacher at Highland Park Middle School, said her conversations at the doors have been positive.

“People in St. Paul are supportive of public schools,” Swanberg said. “There is a history of quality education here, and people have told me they want to continue that.”

A game of ‘what if?’

Indeed, the stakes are high for students, parents and educators. Long gone are the days when districts like St. Paul went to voters with levy requests to fund the extras that might enrich their schools’ programming.

“Now we’re trying to do a levy referendum to make up for the cuts that have come down from our state Legislature,” union president Nick Faber said.

Last month the North Star Policy Institute unveiled a new report, “Minnesota Backslide,” that charts the decline in state funding to local school districts. Researchers found 93 percent of school districts statewide are receiving less aid today, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than in 2003, when state lawmakers overhauled the school funding system. In half of districts statewide, state funding has dropped by more than 10 percent.

The state’s failure to keep school funding steady has forced most school districts to seek property-tax levies to bridge the gap.

St. Paul is no exception. If state funding had kept up with inflation over the past 15 years, SPPS would have received nearly $620 more per student this year. That’s a total of $21.6 million in lost funds – a number that leaves a lot of educators wondering “what if?”

“If we could actually start to recoup the funding that we’ve lost over the last 20 years and have that referendum on top of it, imagine the things that we could do,” Faber said. “With the knowledge that our educators have here in St. Paul, with their willingness to tackle racial equity head on, we could accomplish so much with that kind of funding.”

“I often wonder what I would request for my students if we had more funds, and it’s hard to even imagine because I’m so used to not having any extras,” Highland Park Middle School teacher Leah VanDassor said. “It’s been so many years of cuts, cuts, cuts at every level.”

VanDassor, Swanberg and other St. Paul educators aren’t just talking with voters about the levy. They are also trying to paint the bigger picture, urging support for labor-endorsed candidates at the top of the ballot who will reinvest in public schools. That includes Tim Walz, the labor-endorsed candidate for governor.

But VanDassor acknowledged “any fundamental change will not be fast,” and the immediate needs of her students are great.

Trusting the voters

The levy campaign has broad support from the community. The St. Paul Regional Labor Federation has endorsed it, and so has St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, who called SPPS the “lifeblood” of his community.

Only a year removed from campaigning citywide for the mayor’s office, Carter said he has faith people living in the school district will join him in voting “yes.” The investment, Carter added, goes hand in hand with his administration’s work to realign city programming to meet the needs of St. Paul’s changing population – and include more voices.

“We’re not just going to say we can do more for our children,” he said. “We’re actually going to do more for our children.

“I’m confident the city will step forward.”

Filed Under: Community, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

St. Paul Federation of Teachers schedules strike vote

January 24, 2018 by

SPFT members called on corporations like Securian to pay their fair share toward the schools St. Paul children deserve during a march through St. Paul’s skyways last month.

Frustrated by the St. Paul Public Schools’ refusal to take up their top priorities in contract negotiations, members of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers will take a strike authorization vote Jan. 31, the union announced today.

Members of three bargaining units in negotiations with the district will participate in voting next Wednesday. SPFT represents over 3,400 teachers, educational assistants and community service professionals working in 65-plus St. Paul school district buildings.

“Our members are incredibly disappointed that the school district has so far refused to work with us, but as educators, we remain committed to creating the schools Saint Paul children deserves,” said SPFT President Nick Faber, an elementary science specialist.

SPFT members took an ambitious and groundbreaking approach into negotiations with the district that began last summer.

Union members proposed partnering with the district to seek new revenue from large non-profits and corporations that enjoy property-tax exemptions in St. Paul. The district has so far refused that partnership, leaving SPFT members to meet independently with Ecolab, Allina Health, Macalaster College and other potential targets.

Additionally, union negotiators say they continue to wait for management’s response to proposals that would strengthen St. Paul schools and address the district’s racial disparities, from lowering class sizes to staffing each school with a nurse and librarian.

Rather than respond, district negotiators have pushed for teachers to work longer hours with more students at no additional pay. And the union alleges negotiators “continue to dismiss the contributions of our Educational Assistants and School and Community Service Professionals in SPPS.”

Members of SPFT’s executive board voted Monday to call the strike vote. Mediated talks with the district will continue this week.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Labor-endorsed candidates back investments in public education, from pre-K to higher ed

November 4, 2016 by

Supporters line the sidewalk outside St. Paul Public Schools headquarters during a rally in support of the teachers' contract campaign.

Bold investments in public schools and early learners. Higher education that’s affordable for working families. An aggressive approach to narrowing the achievement gap between white students and students of color.

Labor-endorsed candidates have high hopes when it comes to education in Minnesota, but they will need to win a majority in the House – and maintain one in the Senate – to see their hopes turn into results.

“With a DFL majority in the House and Senate we can continue our work to build a positive future for Minnesota working families by investing in education at all levels,” labor-endorsed Sen. Greg Clausen, a longtime administrator in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district, said.

Clausen speaks from experience. With DFL majorities during his first two years in office, 2013-14, lawmakers expanded all-day kindergarten statewide and paid back money borrowed from school districts – over Gov. Mark Dayton’s objections – during a budget shortfall in 2011.

But efforts to think big during the last session, including Dayton’s push for a major investment in pre-kindergarten, fell flat. In a compromise, lawmakers settled on 2 percent annual increases in state funding and a modest pilot program for pre-K.

Don Slaten, a union retiree from Hastings seeking office in House District 54B, said he was disappointed to see school funding fail to keep up with inflation. “Republicans offered six-tenths of a percent, and they finally settled on 2 percent,” Slaten said. “We can do better.”

Slaten and other labor-endorsed candidates want to expand the $25 million pre-K program to meet existing demand. Nearly 7,000 four-year-olds missed out on pre-K because the pilot project lacked sufficient funding.

They also want to make investments in higher education, where state funding dipped by 55.8 percent from 1980 to 2011.

“By defunding higher education, we have essentially imposed a tax on behavior that we absolutely want to encourage – obtaining a secondary degree,” Matt Klein, the labor-endorsed candidate in Senate District 52, said. “Our state is a top draw for employers because we have an educated workforce. If we create barriers to higher education, our state economy will suffer.”

Education Minnesota President Denise Specht said legislative horse trading and last-minute compromises haven’t served students well.

“Gridlock doesn’t hurt the people at the top, but the rest of us need the Legislature to do its job and give a hand up to working families,” she said. “In education, that means investing in our state’s future by giving every child access to high-quality pre-K and taking on the teacher shortage so every student has the opportunity to learn from an experienced, well-qualified teacher.

“Preparing young people for successful lives has never been more challenging. Educators and parents need more partners at the Capitol.”

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Unions praise Dayton’s approach to building a ‘state that works for everyone’

March 10, 2016 by

MNSTOSIn his State of the State Address last night, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton called on legislators to join him in addressing the state’s racial and geographic disparities, and in making needed investments in public education, transportation and infrastructure.

Afterward, union leaders from across the state praised Dayton’s speech.

Education Minnesota President Denise Specht called Dayton the “Education Governor.” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy said he “demonstrated his commitment to ensuring that Minnesota is a state that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.”

“Hardworking Minnesotans have always formed the backbone of our economy,” AFSCME Council 5 Director Eliot Seide added. “We applaud Gov. Dayton’s focus on infrastructure, transportation, and expanding economic opportunity for all Minnesotans. Those smart investments will help build a better Minnesota that works for all of us.”

Supporting workers left behind

Early in the address, Dayton reiterated his support for extending aid to Iron Range workers suffering from a slowdown in the mining industry and to minority communities that have yet to reap the benefits of Minnesota’s economic recovery.

Illegally dumped foreign steel has flooded the U.S. market, leading Iron Range mining companies to lay off an estimated 2,000 workers in the last year. The slowdown has impacted an additional 4,700 workers in mining-related jobs.

A relief package would extend unemployment benefits for about 2,750 workers, but Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, insist on pairing the relief package with tax breaks for businesses.

“To hold $29 million of desperately needed unemployment benefits hostage to $272 million in fund cuts is unnecessary,” Dayton told Republicans. “And it’s cruel.”

Dayton also cited several sobering statistics regarding racial and ethnic disparities in the state. Compared with Minnesota’s white families, he said, U.S.-born African American families’ annual income is 55 percent less, and their poverty rate is more than 4 times greater. Mexican-American, Ojibwe and Somali families also have fallen behind.

“We cannot resolve these disparities in one legislative session, but we must begin now,” Dayton said, pledging a “significant initiative” to increase economic opportunities for Minnesotans of color.

He also called on the state’s businesses to increase its outreach into minority communities and set a goal of doubling the percentage of minorities working in state government by the time he leaves office.

Modest investments, targeted tax cuts

As for how to approach Minnesota’s $900 million budget surplus for the next two years, Dayton said he would support pairing “modest spending increases” with tax cuts targeted for middle-class families, like an increase in the child-care tax credit.

But the governor, who faced a $6 billion budget shortfall when he took office in 2011, emphasized the importance of keeping the state on firm financial footing.

“Some people are proposing permanent tax cuts, which would put our state’s budget, once again, on a fiscal precipice,” he said.

“What we have been doing is working,” Dayton added. “Minnesotans are working. Minnesota is working. How could we stop now, when there is more work left to do?”

Investments in statewide broadband access, clean energy, rural water-treatment facilities, infrastructure, roads and bridges would create jobs and expand economic opportunities statewide, Dayton said. And he renewed his call for greater investment in early education to “prevent achievement gaps before they appear.”

Specht, president of the statewide educators’ union, praised Dayton’s support for learners at all levels.

“Gov. Dayton understands the foundation of our state is a great system of public education that prepares all students for successful lives,” she said. “His commitment to expand access to high-quality preschool and to support public colleges and universities will reduce the opportunity gaps which hold back too many of our students.”

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Students, teachers, unions urge lawmakers to invest state budget surplus

December 3, 2015 by
U of M grad student Courtney Gildersleeve speaks at a town hall meeting on how to use the state's $1.2 billion budget surplus.

U of M grad student Courtney Gildersleeve speaks at a town hall meeting on how to use the state’s $1.2 billion budget surplus.

 

The projected $1.2 billion state budget surplus, announced by state officials today, creates an opportunity for lawmakers to strengthen communities and continue growing Minnesota’s middle class in the 2016 legislative session, union members and allies said.

And the first place lawmakers should look to invest is education.

That’s the message three Metro-area legislators heard from students, teachers, academics and religious leaders during a town hall meeting in Dinkytown today, as stakeholders from across the education spectrum offered a united front in support of investing surplus funds in education “from cradle to career.”

Sen. Greg Clausen talks with participants in a town hall forum on the state budget surplus in Dinkytown.

Sen. Greg Clausen talks with participants in a town hall forum on the state budget surplus in Dinkytown.

“The Legislature is listening,” Sen. Greg Clausen (DFL-Apple Valley) assured participants in the meeting at University Baptist Church. “We need to invest in education. There’s no question about it.”

Rep. Carlos Mariani, a DFLer from St. Paul, said the healthy surplus is a positive indicator for Minnesota’s economy. “It means our state is working,” he said. “It means our tax structure makes sense.

But lawmakers and labor leaders, including Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy, warned against the inevitable calls to squander the surplus on election-year tax cuts.

“Instead of giveaways to corporate CEOs and employers who choose to pay low wages, lawmakers should embrace policies and investments that support working people,” McCarthy said. “We can ensure all Minnesotans are paid fairly for the work they do and have time for family. We can invest in schools so that every child can attend pre-K. We can improve our state’s infrastructure, boost our job creation tools, and strengthen the public services that vulnerable Minnesotans depend on.”

Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5, added: “The Legislature shouldn’t raid workers’ wallets to give unneeded tax breaks to billionaires and big businesses.  Those tax giveaways create income inequality, budget deficits and government shutdowns.”

At the town hall meeting, educators urged investments in pre-kindergarten and per-pupil funding for public school districts, as well as targeted investments to address the achievement gap between white students and students of color.

“A lot of people are losing hope because they don’t have a decent education, because they don’t have a decent job,” said Chase Elliott, a parent and a member of the Minneapolis-based community group Neighborhoods Organizing for Change.

The need for investment extends into suburban communities, too. Farmington fourth-grade teacher Jennifer York, a member of Education Minnesota, said cutbacks in recent years have forced her school district and others to lay off support staff, like school counselors, nurses and family-support workers.

Farmington teacher Jennifer York urges lawmakers to invest "every dollar" of the surplus in education.

Farmington teacher Jennifer York urges lawmakers to invest “every dollar” of the surplus in education.

Pre-kindergarten teacher Amanda Reineck, meanwhile, said professionals in her field remain among the lowest-paid in the country. “Many excellent teachers have left the profession because the pay was not enough for them to support their families,” she said.

Local 284 of the Service Employees International Union organized the town hall meeting with its affiliate group MN Academics United, which represents faculty at the U of M’s Twin Cities campus who are working to form a union.

Academics and graduate students supportive of the organizing drive called for investments in higher education that would lower tuition, provide relief from student debt and guarantee living wages for faculty, teaching assistants and frontline workers at the U.

“The working conditions of instructors are the learning conditions of students,” physics grad student Jarrett Brown said.

Speakers acknowledged their priorities are likely to be pit against each other at the Capitol next year, but remained hopeful that listening to each other was a first step toward winning together in 2016.

“I hope we’ll be holding these town hall meetings in other parts of the state,” said Rep. Phyllis Kahn (DFL-Minneapolis).

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Union members look to make difference on White Bear Lake school board

October 27, 2015 by
Marge Newmaster (L) and Ellen Fahey

Marge Newmaster (L) and Ellen Fahey

Ellen Fahey and Marge Newmaster, two of three labor-endorsed candidates for White Bear Lake school board, understand the challenges working families face, value public education and appreciate the collective bargaining process.

It’s no coincidence Fahey and Newmaster also are union members.

Minnesota unions have put a focus in recent years on training and equipping members, retirees and community allies with the skills they need to run successfully for public office, believing the best advocates for labor’s priorities – like strong schools, good jobs, fair taxes and collective bargaining – are union members themselves.

Fahey and Newmaster are proving that theory true on the campaign trail this fall.

“My commitment has always been to kids, to education, but also to a union,” said Fahey, who retired in June after 39 years of teaching, including the last 22 in the White Bear Lake Area Schools.

Newmaster, a media specialist who’s worked in the district since 1971, said she “would hate to see happen here what happened in Wisconsin,” referring to Gov. Scott Walker’s move to strip teachers and most other public employees of most collective bargaining rights.

The third labor-endorsed candidate in White Bear Lake, Scott Nelson, also is a member of Education Minnesota.

Kris Fredson, political director for the Minnesota AFL-CIO, said it’s always encouraging to see union members step into the political arena.

“Working families are under attack more, and it’s great to see union members choosing to do something about,” Fredson said. “More and more union members are volunteering, and more and more union members are running for office, whether it’s school board or city council or the state Legislature. And that’s how we’re going to move a working families agenda forward.”

Saint Paul Union AdvocateWhat makes union members good advocates for working families?

• Unique perspectives. In White Bear Lake, the experience of working inside a classroom gives all three labor-endorsed candidates a deep appreciation for the need to keep class sizes small. Fahey taught a middle school science class several years ago with 37 students.

“You can still do your job, but it’s crowded, and there’s no room to give anyone any space,” she said. “We need to work with the Legislature to address school funding so all schools are funded on an equal level.”

Newmaster, meanwhile, pointed to her experience working as a media specialist, helping students access the information they need to plan their life after graduation.

“We really need to provide our kids with a wide variety of experiences so that they’re ready to go on to postsecondary education or begin new jobs,” she said. “We need to make sure we’re connecting with employers, colleges, other training centers to see what their expectations are.”

• Collaborative approach. Newmaster pledged to make the district’s decision-making process more inclusive and to take seriously the input of all stakeholders – students, parents, staff and community members.

“We haven’t had a lot of that lately,” Newmaster said. “We also need to respect everybody’s culture. We can’t just talk about closing the (achievement) gap without talking about cultural competence, where we try to understand everybody’s viewpoints and respect them.”

• Respect for collective bargaining. Both Fahey and Newmaster were active union members, and both value the power and voice their union provided them. When Newmaster started her career in the White Bear Lake schools, she was ineligible for family health insurance coverage because she wasn’t considered a head of her household.

“Our union supported us when it looked like we were going to take it to court, and we won family coverage,” she said.

Fahey has a track record of leadership in the White Bear Lake Teachers’ Association, serving on negotiations teams and volunteering as a members-rights representative for 11 years. She’s pushed back against administrators who accused her union of trying to “bulldoze” policies or initiatives during negotiations.

“Who is this union?” she told management. “Look at all these people in your classrooms. A union is a group of people working for a common purpose.”

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

As lawmakers haggle, faces behind education budget speak out in St. Paul

June 2, 2015 by

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As Minnesota lawmakers announced a breakthrough in negotiations over the state’s E-12 education budget yesterday, the faces behind the financial figures – students, parents and teachers – rallied against staff and programming cuts in St. Paul.

“We cannot nickle and dime our kids’ future,” school board candidate Zuki Ellis, the parent of a first-grader in the St. Paul Public Schools, said. “There is no excuse for that when we’re talking about a $2 billion state budget surplus.”

St. Paul Federation of Teachers Local 28 organized the rally at St. Paul Central High School after the school district, like many across Minnesota, sent out pink slips to some teachers and paraprofessionals. Districts are stuck in the difficult position of planning for 2015-16 with limited information, as lawmakers continue to haggle over the education budget.

“Budget cuts mean less people to do the work, but it doesn’t reduce the work,” Obama Elementary Principal Adrain Pendleton said. “Already, budget cuts have resulted in difficult discussions with staff.”

Parents and students at the rally worried cuts would fall mostly on support staff who “help make learning easier and who love kids,” Central freshman Kadeane Smith said. “Teachers can’t be everywhere at once.”

Kirinda Anderson talked about the progress her child, a student at Wellstone Elementary, made after working with reading and math coaches – positions that are on potentially on the chopping block. “Why are programs being taken away that are proven to work for our children?” she asked.

Rep. John Lesch (speaking) was among the St. Paul DFLers who attended SPFT's rally. Seated are Reps. Carlos Mariani, Sheldon Johnson and Rena Moran.

Rep. John Lesch (speaking) was among the St. Paul DFLers who attended SPFT’s rally. Seated are Reps. Carlos Mariani, Sheldon Johnson and Rena Moran.

Anger-intervention counselors, English Language Learners teachers and other specialists also received pink slips, speakers at the rally said, and administrators warned that class sizes could go up without a meaningful increase in the school-funding formula. That news didn’t sit well with parents like Neha Lang.

“We wouldn’t ask a baker to make a cake without providing her with the necessary ingredients,” Lang said. “Yet every year public schools are asked to do more with less funding.”

With a $2 billion surplus, Lang added, “this is the moment we do not have to compromise on public school funding. We can invest in our kids.”

Several state lawmakers from St. Paul enjoyed a front-row seat at the rally inside Central’s auditorium. All pledged to sign onto a letter urging Gov. Mark Dayton to stand strong in his fight to fund universal pre-kindergarten programming and provide adequate funding for the state’s school districts.

“Not only do I stand with the governor,” Rep. Rena Moran told parents, teachers and students, “I stand with you.”

The tentative agreement reached by Gov. Dayton and legislative leaders – which likely will result in a special session in the coming days – will not fully fund statewide pre-K programming, Dayton’s top priority in 2015. The agreement does boost new E-12 spending by about $370 million, allowing for a 2 percent increase in the state’s per-pupil funding formula in each of the next two school years.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

‘Freedom Writers’ screening at East Side Freedom Library

January 8, 2015 by

hilary_swank_in_freedom_writers_wallpaper_1_800“Freedom Writers,” a feature-length dramatic film based on the real-life story of Los Angeles students labeled “low achievers” during the mid-1990s, is next up in the East Side Freedom Library’s film and discussion series.

Inspired by a creative teacher, the students learned to support each other as a community and commit themselves to changing both public education and society.

The screening, co-sponsored by St. Paul Federation of Teachers Local 28, is free and open to the public. It begins at 6 p.m. Jan. 13 at 1105 Greenbrier St., St. Paul. For more information, go to eastsidefreedomlibrary.org.

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , , ,

Dayton, DFL legislators reversed trend of dwindling support for schools

October 29, 2014 by

UA layout_UA layoutJeff Johnson, the Republican nominee for governor, provided a glimpse of his leadership style May 15, telling a Tea Party group he would “go all Scott Walker on Minnesota” if elected Nov. 4. So what is it about Walker’s Wisconsin that Johnson believes is worth replicating?

To answer that question – and to get a sense of what a Johnson administration might mean for union families – we’re analyzing the different approaches taken by Walker and labor-endorsed Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton on four key issues over the last four years:

[Related: A governor who will ‘go all Scott Walker’ on Minnesota? No thanks, unions say.]

Education. In addition to slashing teachers’ benefits and bargaining rights, Walker cut state funding for public school districts in Wisconsin by $834 million in his first year in office. That’s roughly the amount of new funding the state has funneled into public schools during Dayton’s four years in office.

Stephanie Bloomingdale, secretary-treasurer of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, called Walker’s first education budget “the largest cut to schools in state history.” With 73 percent school districts in Wisconsin cutting staff or programming as a result of the budget cuts, she added, “our children are paying the price.”

Education Minnesota President Denise Specht, who leads the state’s largest union of school employees, warned that Johnson would lead Minnesota down a similar path.

“Walker has been a disaster for Wisconsin students, so it’s baffling why someone running for office in Minnesota would choose him as a role model,” she said. “Wisconsin is now investing $1,000 less per student than in 2008, which means the Wisconsin workforce will be at a competitive disadvantage for decades.”

Walker also has expanded Wisconsin’s private-school voucher program, which Specht called “out of control.” According to published reports, the voucher program has funneled $139 million from state coffers into failing private schools over the last 10 years – funds that could otherwise have supported public school districts.

Minnesota, meanwhile, is on the opposite path.

As a candidate, Dayton pledged to reverse a decade-long trend of dwindling support for Minnesota’s public schools. With help from pro-worker majorities elected to the Legislature two years ago, he signed bills to repay more than $2 billion borrowed from school districts, reduce class sizes and guarantee statewide access to all-day kindergarten.

That progress is at risk if Johnson is elected governor, Specht said

“If you’re in a working family that cares about the education of your children, there’s something you should know when you hear someone say he wants ‘go all Scott Walker’ on your state,” Specht said. “You should know that is a threat you can’t ignore.”

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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