Few investments are more important than education. About half of all Minnesota students – students from every community and from every background – are entering kindergarten unprepared to learn. Meanwhile, high school graduation rates among many of our fastest growing populations are dropping below 60 percent. At a time when our economy demands more college graduates, a falling high school graduation rate is an economic crisis that will affect everyone.

We can’t keep asking school districts to do more with less. But that doesn’t mean that education deserves a blank check. Minnesota deserves leadership that focuses on keys to successful education – a supportive family and community and teachers. For too long, policy leaders have sat silent while the value of education is denigrated. We need to make investments in making sure that all parents have the tools to help their children succeed in school, then hold families and students accountable.

We should pay good teachers salaries that compete with jobs in private business. Any parent who has had their child opened to the excitement of learning knows the value of a good teacher. But we shouldn’t pay bad teachers a cent. Any amount of money is too much for a bad teacher. We need parents, teachers, superintendents and policy makers to come to the table and create an honest and fair plan to identify the good teachers and get rid of the bad ones.

And, we need to hold school districts accountable. Resources need to go first and foremost into the classroom. We need to work with the innovative programs that are adapting new ways of learning to today’s students. And, we need to invest in technology, not as a replacement for face-to-face interaction with classroom teachers, but as a complement.