The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition -- July 3, 1997

Review & Outlook - School Lesson

Education reformers of the world take heart: Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson, a moderate Republican, has just taken on the teachers unions and won. Last week, he arm-wrestled his Democratic legislature into giving every family in the state either a tax deduction or a tax credit that can be used for expenses at any public, private or parochial school of their choice. Both the new law and the way he made it happen could become a model for the rest of the country.

A major supporter of public schools, Governor Carlson became frustrated when the legislature wouldn't lift a cap on the number of deregulated charter schools. More than half the high school students in Minneapolis don't graduate. He proposed a scholarship program for low-income students, but it was shot down by the legislature last year. This year he proposed to expand a modest tax deduction that Minnesota residents have been able to take for 20 years to defray expenses at either private or public schools. He then stunned legislators by announcing he wouldn't sign any bill that didn't expand school choice to all Minnesota parents.

Democratic legislators didn't believe he was serious. They passed a $6.7 billion public education bill in May and ignored the governor's plan. He promptly vetoed it and began a month-long stalemate. Teachers unions flooded legislators with calls and faxes opposing any tax credits. Black and Hispanic community leaders responded by endorsing the plan, which garnered 60% to 80% support in polls. Mr. Carlson noted with irony that several legislators sent their own children to private school while they blocked a chance for low-income parents to exercise the same option.

In the end, his stubbornness largely paid off (Beltway Republicans take note). Legislators agreed to allow an unlimited number of charter schools and also increase the annual tax deduction to $2,500 from $1,000 per junior and senior high school student. Parents of grade schoolers will be allowed a $1,625 deduction. A new refundable educational tax credit of $1,000 per child was created for families earning under $33,500 a year. In a fig leaf to appease the unions, the credit can be used only for expenses outside of tuition such as supplies, transportation and tutoring. Schools are already breaking down their tuition charges so parents can take advantage of the credit.

Teachers unions denounced the bill and claimed it "added nothing for public education." Governor Carlson responded that what the public wants is public education that serves students, not bureaucrats. "A governor went toe-to-toe with the teachers unions and choice prevailed. It can be done," he told us.

Indeed, if choice can come to progressive Minnesota it is politically viable anywhere. Gordon St. Angelo of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice notes that Governor Carlson faced a largely unfriendly news media, hostile education committees and a legislature not of his party. What he had in abundance was a real commitment to change and the desire to convince voters he was right. In the end the teachers unions were left to grouse, as legislators passed the bill by 50 to 9 in the Senate and 108 to 21 in the House.

Governor Carlson has uncovered one of the hidden secrets of American politics: The political clout of the teachers unions is more perception than reality. "They claim to be able to defeat choice supporters at elections, but they never do," says Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform.

Indeed, a new report prepared at the direction of the 2.2 million member National Education Association candidly admits the union's weaknesses. Written by the Kamber Group, a Washington-based consulting firm, the analysis warns that the union's "very existence" is in doubt, and that absent bold moves it risks "further marginalization and possibly even organizational death." It concludes by urging the NEA to embrace educational reforms that are "tangible and measurable" and downplay its emphasis on politics.

This week, the NEA is holding its annual convention in Atlanta. Its president, Bob Chase, has said it must "reinvent" itself by, for example, assisting in the removal of incompetent teachers. Such moves are to be applauded, but reformers should also look at what lessons the NEA absorbs from its political defeat in Minnesota. Let's hope a more nuanced and less confrontational attitude toward such "tangible and measurable" reforms as choice and charter schools are among them.

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