![\"\"](\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4108\/4952020177_a626ccd1ff_m.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIf you are a K-12 student, you will see a $230 million cut in funding for your schools because Dayton plans to eliminate testing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now, I personally am ambivalent about testing as a goal, an end in and of itself, as happens all too often in our current educational system.<\/p>\n
But like it or not, the Fed requires this testing to\u00a0make sure students are actually learning things at school – a putative goal of education, somewhere down there under ” prevent union teacher layoffs” even in the Minnesota Federation of Teachers’ canon of goals.<\/p>\n
A state that doesn\u2019t have an accountability system in place will not receive federal funding.<\/p>\n
Now, debate if you will the wisdom of focusing on testing. \u00a0I certainly do.<\/p>\n
But remember – in the last week in August, the DFL was spitting tacks<\/a> because Tim Pawlenty “left federal money on the table” for various “health aid” programs.<\/p>\n Now, they’re proposing leaving more federal money on the table – and not a word.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Other than the fact that that money would hold Education Minnesota accountable for its ongoing failure, I mean?<\/p>\n