text: Horner On Emmer Education Votes: "A Motion Picture" Not A "Snapshot" (CC) By Michael McIntee | September 23, 2010 LikeTweet EmailPrint More More on MN Governor Debates Live Subscribe to MN Governor Debates Live Follow this author Video courtesy of TPT One notable interchange tonight between Independence Party candidate for Governor Tom Horner and Republican candidate Tom Emmer. It's about Representative Emmer's vote against an Minnesota State House amendment in 2009 that would have put more money into early childhood education, a program that all three candidates including DFLer Mark Dayton agreed is a priority. Cathy Wurzer: We're going to talk about K-12 and early childhood funding later on in the debate, but actually Tom Horner opened the door a little bit to something I kind of want to explore with Mr. Emmer. You are supportive of early childhood education programs right? Tom Emmer: Yes. Cathy Wurzer: So why did you vote against, you voted against the omnibus education funding bill in 09 which included money for early childhood and just this past spring in in May you voted the omnibus early childhood bill. So if you're supportive, you you're saying one thing but you're doing something else. Tom Emmer: Well that's not necessarily true Cathy. If you want to take something with a snapshot, then go ahead. I mean we're talking about an omnibus bill, which by the way … Cathy Wurzer: There's a lot of stuff in it. Tom Emmer: includes a lot more than what you're talking about. Cathy Wurzer: I know. I know. But the omnibus early childhood bill is something different. Tom Emmer: Here's the other piece. It's about living within your means, If you think that government is just going to be growing every biennium by double digit percentages we're not going to be able to sustain this type of growth. And why would you vote against something like that? Because government's got to start to set its priorities and live within its means and fund those priorities. That those bills that you're talking about not only did they include ah what I would consider extraneous issues, which certainly could be subject to negotiation, but they assumed the government needs to grow beyond its revenues. And that's simply not acceptable any longer. We cannot start, we' can't keep spending what we want to spend. We got to spend what we have to spend. And more importantly we have to start allocating the existing resources more appropriately. Tom Horner: Well let me just say a six-year record isn't a snapshot, it's a motion picture. And when that six-year record is consistent, it's a very clear, in color, technicolor motion picture. And the fact is in 2009, it was a very specific amendment and you were one of seven representatives to vote against not an omnibus bill but money for early childhood learning. So again, I respect your principles, but I think you have to be consistent with them. And I think you have to be honest with audiences and I think you have to say the same thing to every audience, not just tailor messages to different audiences. And my position is very clear. I think early childhood learning should be a priority. I think it should be a priority and I've put money in my proposed budget to make it a priority. Because I think it is where we start. I think when you have 50 percent of Minnesota children coming in to kindergarten, not fully prepared for success, it is no wonder that we are struggling with sinking graduation rates from high school. And we can't afford to do that. We will pay for that cost. We can pay for it now with smart investments with good programs, or we can pay for it later in much higher social services costs Cathy Wurzer: Do you want a quick rebuttal here Mr. Emmer? Tom Emmer: Well I just point out first that I'd appreciate it if I, we wouldn't challenge someone's integrity. I have been very consistent from day one. Since I got in the legislature as a guy who actually hasn't been a professional public relations guy growing up in government or somebody who has been running for public office since 1982. I've been very consistent, people in government and people who are making their living off of government need to understand that in order for us to pay for what we expect for out of government we gotta grow jobs in the private sector. You can't keep talking as politicians do about we know how to invest your money better. And you know what? When I vote against something like that, yeah its tough because I'm the only one sitting up here right now who's got seven kids and I've got five of them in school still. Alright? This is a big deal to somebody like me Tom and I'll tell you, when I vote against something like that, it's difficult but you've got to look at the big picture. You can't do what everybody in government has been doing for years which is well, you know, it's just gonna have to grow. You gotta be responsible. And the message we're sending is the government's got to live within your means. A consistent message that you, my colleagues are sending, is we just got to tax people more and allow government to grow unrestrained and it is simply not sustainable, nor is it responsible. To see the rest of the transcription keep reading. Related links Horner on Emmer Education Votes/Education Debate – Captioned video Horner on Emmer Education Votes/Education Debate-Interactive transcript View live blog of Minnesota Governor Candidates debate education here. To view live blog in a pop-up window Click Here Transcript: Cathy Wurzer: We're going to focus this Gubernatorial debate on education. Specifically early childhood through 12th grade and some of the issues in Minnesota's education system. We want viewers to come away with a clear understanding of where these gentlemen stand on education and how they'll make some of their decisions. We have some really great questions from the studio audience and also from a special non-partisan advisory panel representing a wide-range of educational perspectives convened by the Minneapolis Foundation. I'm going to toss in along the way of my own and we're going to start with brief remarks from all three of the candidates. About a minute each gentlemen. You'll give opening statements and then a closing statement, again about a minute each. In between, the goal is to have a lively debate gentlemen. So I'm going to start with the DFL candidate for Governor Mark Dayton. Go ahead. Mark Dayton: Thank you Cathy. Thank you Minneapolis Foundation and all of you for being here tonight. My first job out of college I taught a ninth grade general in a New York public school. And I've always said it is the toughest job I ever had. And I learned two things very quickly. First it takes a lot of skill and dedication to become an effective teacher. And secondly, I had a class of 32 children, four different languages, many of them couldn't read or write beyond the second or third grade level and I found that I could not reach individual 32 kids in a classroom. So when I go to Rochester Minnesota and I see 35 children in a fifth grade classroom with one teacher and I see those kind of overcrowded conditions all over the state, and I see school districts going to four-day school weeks and 90 percent of our school districts in Minnesota having to go to the property tax payers for operating referenda, I know that we're going in the wrong direction and we're underfunding public education. Because the challenges teachers face throughout the state today are even more challenging than the ones I faced in New York City with schools that sometimes have 10, 20 sometimes 60, 70 different languages and dialects. So the challenges are enormous. The needs are great. Cathy Wurzer: All right, thank you. GOP candidate for Governor Tom Emmer. Your turn. Tom Emmer: I too would like to thank the Minneapolis Foundation and all of you for showing up today and everybody who's watching and Cathy, you, for doing this. And my two colleagues for being here as well. I have been traveling this state for 15 months talking about how we have to bring our government, our state government into the 21st Century. We need to redesign it from the bottom up so it delivers services people expect in an efficient, affordable, sustainable manner. It will be smaller if it is going to be more efficient. Then at the same time we've been talking about creating a business environment that will drive jobs, new jobs in the state of Minnesota. You can redesign government all you want to be the most efficient delivery system of services and you can create the best business environment in the world and if we don't have the next generation ready to drive the economic engine, it's all for nought. So the issues we're going to talk about here today when it comes to K-12 education and pre-K are very important to the future of this state and I think you'll find interesting difference of opinion. I don't believe it is all about throwing more money. Government has to live within the resources it has. It's about looking at how those resources are being utilized and empowering our great administrators and our teachers, our professionals, to put those resources where they believe they can be most effective. Cathy Wurzer: Alright, thank you. Independence Party candidate Tom Horner. Tom Horner: Thank you. And let me echo my appreciation for the host and all of you being here. I agree with my two colleagues. I do think, like everybody in this room and I think everybody in Minnesota that education is an essential part of who we are. It is the the element that defines Minnesota in so many ways. But we have to go beyond the rhetoric. We have to go beyond the language. We really need to say that we want to make Minnesota the knowledge state. If we really want to maintain our our talent pool as our distinctive, competitive economic advantage, then we'd better be prepared to make the tough decisions. We truly have to start looking at education as a seamless system — from early childhood all the way through life-long learning. We can't say that we will abandon children and hope that they somehow on their own get ready for kindergarten any more than we can turn to that 50 year old who has done everything that we have asked of that person and yet had the rug pulled out from under by the economy. We need to prepare everyone for with the kinds of skills that they will need to be not just productive workers but good citizens. Because part of the fabric of Minnesota is our civic engagement. Part of the fabric of Minnesota is how we come together as citizens. That's really what we talk about when we're talking about education. How to prepare people to live successful lives. Cathy Wurzer: OK Tom Horner: And I think that's what education needs to accomplish. That's why I'm happy to have this conversation. Cathy Wurzer: Thanks. Since this is a debate about education, let's start with this question. It comes from the audience. Now actually we'll start with Tom Horner. Who or what most strongly influences your thinking on education policies matters? Tom Horner: I've had great opportunities to have conversations with a variety of people who I think are great leaders on education. People like Curt Johnson and Ted Kaldry and Todd Otis. People who have been very invested in early childhood education, in reforming eduction, in thinking about how we deliver education directly. But I've also had the opportunity to sit down with some of our great superintendents, teachers, school board members, those people who are on the front lines of actually delivering eduction and so it's all of those people along with we need to keep in mind that often times the forgotten part of this equation are the students. And so I've also sat down and talked to a lot of the students about what they need out of education. And so all of those folks have influenced me. Cathy Wurzer: Senator Dayton, same question. Mark Dayton: Well, I will, whenever I'm asked who are my heros I mention Betty Jo Overen who was my teacher in both third and fourth grade. And took a new boy in the school, struggling and literally saved my life. And that's my role model for an effective teacher. I I visited in the last decade as United States Senator and thereafter, I've been in a couple hundred schools in Minnesota. A couple thousand classrooms . So I've had great instructors, those that are actually involved in teaching. I've had 110 community meetings so school board members, superintendents, who've talked to me about the disastrous situations they're facing with the underfunding of their schools, the cutbacks, the layoffs, the overcrowded classrooms . So I I had a whole spectrum of Minnesotans, the educators, the people who really deliver educational services every day and under extremely adverse conditions …. and the students. I would visit an (inaudible ) elementary school and I'd turn to my staff and say 'you know if we could just lower the voting age to five, I might win another election.' (laughter) And she smiled and said 'it would be close.' Cathy Wurzer: Representative Emmer. Tom Emmer: Well, I I think it is a… I listen to parents. I actually interact with students so I get to see them on a regular basis through ah my community activities. And then there's another group, that I listen too. It's just not the teachers and the administrators who are at the ground level delivering this service. I listen to people in the business community who are talking about what their needs are for the future. You know are we going to be producing, we getting the performance, we getting the results out of our K-12 education system that we expect. And then lastly or I guess it would even be before business, would be our higher ed folks. Because the cost of remedial education is a big issue. When we're not producing what we need to out of our K-12 system and we have to invest all the more resources to try and get them up to speed, to get them the experience we expect them to have in the higher education system, there, that's what I'm listening to. Cathy Wurzer: Now when we talk about education gentlemen, there's one subject that concerns educators and lawmakers and parents. It's the wide gap in student achievement between white students and students of color. And Minnesota as you know has one of the largest and most persistent achievement gaps in the nation. Now this question comes from Minnesota Minority Education Partnership. Given that it's not unusual to have students of color being measured at rates up to 50 percent lower than their white peers on achievement measures, will your administration set aggressive goals that are clear and measurable to reduce and eliminate these disparities? Tom Emmer, I'm going to start with you first. Tom Emmer: Absolutely. I , this is probably one of the greatest tragedies in Minnesota right now. Ah to for Minnesota to have this big of an achievement gap based on race is inexcusable in this state. Hey, ah ah, I was looking in preparation for this , it it, it's almost a 700 million dollars we can talk about for the next biennium is supposed to be going to close the achievement gap. We need to focus more attention on the pre-K years. We need to make sure those programs have approved curricula that prepare these kids, literacy should be the goal. So that when they get into the K-12 system they have an opportunity to succeed. And then we've talked about some very aggressive things creating, ah, empowerment zones which would allow, for instance, the Minneapolis and the St. Paul school districts to opt out of certain mandates that might be tying their hands from allocating resources in a manner that they think would be more acceptable. We should also be grading schools on the outcomes. It's based on performance. We should demand excellence and we should never assume any child wants to achieve anything less but the best they can be and we need to give them the opportunity to do that. Cathy Wurzer: Tom Horner, would you agree with what Representative Emmer just said? Tom Horner: Well, in part. But I think this is also an area action has to match the rhetoric and the fact is in 2009, Representative Emmer, you were one of I think seven legislators to vote against significant funding for early childhood education. And so I think we have to be consistent and you have your principles and I think you have to stick with them and they're not the same principles that I have. Because I do believe that we ought to invest in early childhood education. I think that is, however, going to close the achievement gap. And so I put money, new money, into my budget to to fund early childhood learning. Make sure that we have the resources. Cathy Wurzer: About 120 million dollars is that right? Tom Horner: Right. But I think we have to go beyond that and really look at how we restructure schools. You know, one of the good things and there's a lot to criticize about No Child Left Behind, but one of the positives is that it has highlighted the achievement gap. I don't think we'd be having this conversation in quite the same detail if it weren't for the the data produced by No Child Left Behind. Now I think we have to to work with NCLB, eliminate some of the rigidity, allow teachers to teach, make sure we have good principals in schools. But we also have to make sure that we're working with the communities, that we're making sure that we're dealing with issues, not just in the schools, but that we're dealing with issues such as health care, that children are coming to school healthy and prepare to learn. It's all of those issues. Cathy Wurzer: Senator Dayton, go ahead. Jump right in. Mark Dayton: Well I started with a yes. The answer to the question is absolutely yes. Now we need the strategies at the beginning with early childhood education. We lag behind the most other states and the percentage of our children who have opportunities to take part in early childhood education. We have less than a third, less than half of the children in Minnesota compared to the national average in all day kindergarten and one of my proposals is to provide state funding for optional all-day kindergarten. Cathy Wurzer: That's expensive. That's a lot of money. Mark Dayton: Well, some people say we can't afford to do it. I say we can't afford not to do it. Because we're talking here about having children from the very early age, before this achievement gap develops, have develop the skills and have the opportunities that are absolutely necessary. So that when they do start the first grade, that that gap has been narrowed. And then we follow the examples as in ah Lakeville, St. Croix, where they do a one-minute reading out loud diagnostic test in the first week of second, third, fourth grade, determine which children are reading below grade level, if there's funding available and there needs to be, for either individual or small group remedial assistance, they say that children stay with that school the entire year, 85 percent are reading above grade level by the end of the year. That's life transforming. Cathy Wurzer: Would you… Mark Dayton: Those are the kind of strategies we need to develop from the very beginning, carry all the way through to close this achievement gap. Cathy Wurzer: Would you have clear concise measurable goals to close this gap? Mark Dayton: Yes based on the progress of individual students. But not…we we administer I'm told, 61 tests between third grade and 11th grade, the state and federal mandates, most of the results are not available to the schools until after the school year. So you know there are some test that valuable to determine the accountability and to determine these measures as Mr. Horner said, of student achievement. But the real focus ought to be on testing that improves individual children's progress in academics and their social development. Cathy Wurzer: Tom Emmer, would you agree with that? Tom Emmer: Well, I'm not sure what he just said. You're talking about ah… you're going to have measurements but ah I don't understand what the measurements are. You got to set a baseline. And I know there's some disagreement within the education community about testing. But right now that's the best thing have. We need to have testing that is designed to set a baseline and then we need to be able to do testing after the year is over and after the course is over, that determine whether on not we've accomplished the outcome that we expected. It's about being competent in whatever subject area we're talking about. But I think that is a measurement that must be put in place in order to know that we're getting value for the dollars that we're putting in. Or in order to know we have effective teachers in the classroom and we need to make sure that we have a system rewards that as well. Cathy Wurzer: You …you brought up effective teachers and let me throw this out here. Not enough is said about the parents in some of these equations here. Um you're only as strong as your weakest link. And a lot of these kids need support at home. Really, what's the government role in trying to get parents into this equation too, Tom Horner. Tom Horner: Well, the other day I was out at at Fair Oakes Elementary in in the Osseo school district, a terrific program that starts engaging kids using some early learning dollars, so leveraging those dollars, at three years old. Now these are kids that that are coming largely from low-income families and and this is a program that that takes these kids, involves them in early learning, makes them ready for kindergarten, and then tracks them up to third grade. So the first response I wanted to to make is that we can measure and we ought to measure. Not with with the heavy load of testing we have, but at critical junctures. We need to know that children are reading at grade level by third grade. That's critical. So we ought to measure that. And we ought to make sure that they get there. But the other neat part about this program is that it is also geared to bring the parents into the school. To get them involved. And what we see time and again, what all the evidence shows, is that when you have schools with site based control, when you allow teachers to teach, when you give them some autonomy, and when you create innovative programs that deals with kids and moves them along, you get the parents involved. So Fair Oakes is one of many schools that does bring the parents in. Gets them involved. Not only gets them involved, but says 'here's what we're working on with your child' and then says 'here's a package of materials that you can take home and work with your kids.' They're having tremendous success. That's the way we ought to go. Cathy Wurzer: We brought up early childhood and this is the focus, obviously, of the Minneapolis Foundation and others who are concerned about education and of course many experts look to quality pre-school programs as a way to get the littlest learners ready for school. That of course as they go on in school, they're better prepared and there, they get good jobs and all of that. Um. Representative Emmer, as you know about one percent of the state's budget goes right now to early childhood education programs. And if I'm not mistaken, you suggest a reallocation of current moneys for early childhood. How much you talking about here? Tom Emmer: Well I'm not. I think that would be disrespectful to the process. I I absolutely do believe, contrary to what some might suggest that it's not about throwing more money, it's about putting the money we have where the professionals believe it needs to go. Cathy Wurzer: But this is a reallocation of money you are talking about. Tom Emmer: Right. But you're asking me now 'how much' Cathy Wurzer: Well? Tom Emmer: That's going to be determined when you get to the legislative process. We put a number on what we believe the state has to spend in K-12 next year and the education sector. We're talking about ah, I think it was 13.8 billion dollars. Ah I just told you we spent about 700 million, right now, arguably, in this biennium to attack the achievement gap and we're not getting anywhere with it. So when you talk about reallocating dollars, there are plenty of dollars right now that have been used to address the problem eh of the achievement gap that perhaps they can be better utilized elsewhere. But you got to talk about the people that are in this room, I suspect, some of the professional educators, who will participate in that process. I I I think about ah early childhood learning and the question earlier, that you asked Cathy that came from the audience was 'what's the state's ah involvement in getting parents involved.' And as I I was listening to the answer it just suddenly occurred to me that, you know, one of the problems we have is we create situations, I believe where parents feel their child has been put in a situation where they're not going to succeed. Ah Ah I think every parent, and there are probably a lot of folks in this room that have come from backgrounds that are are challenging environments ah where they have achieved, they have ah managed to pull themselves up because they took advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves and they made it through. We should do the same thing ah with early childhood. We need to empower parents to give their child the opportunity to be successful. And I believe there's a great example, I used it recently at the New Horizon Academy. Cathy Wurzer: Briefly. Tom Emmer: New Horizon Academy opened up an academy on Rice Street in partnership with some businesses. They tell me that it takes three years typically to fill up one of their academies. On Rice street it took, ah , six-months and they had a waiting list. And I believe that's because parents, when given the opportunity to put their child in a position to have a better life, to get a better outcome, they're going to take it and they're going to get involved. So it's trying to give them the incentive to become involved. Cathy Wurzer: Senator, how much money do you want to spend on early childhood? Mark Dayton: We'll I'm not ready to put a price tag on it, Cathy, because I will go to the experts, and I met with some of them and …. Cathy Wurzer: But by and large you must have some idea. Mark Dayton: I don't. Because I I do have to ask them what is necessary. I I think we, as I said earlier, can afford to do what's necessary. I agree with Representative Emmer, we want to make sure the dollars are most effectively spent. Here's the perfect place for public-private partnership. Because there are many organizations, The Minnesota Business Partnership and in collaboration with former Republican leader of the Senate Wayne Benson's involved there to his credit and their credit and the McKnight foundation and others are here the Minneapolis Foundation. And you there there's so much going on now ah that's necessary and and I would bring that group together, if I'm elected in November, and say, you know, 'you help set a budget. You tell us and tell the people of Minnesota what we need to do'. Because this is an investment in the future of our state for the next ah 70, 80, 90 years, the lifetimes of these young people who become our citizens and our entrepreneurs and our successful contributors to a better society. So that to me is the perfect environment for a collaborative effort between the private and non-profit and public sectors. Cathy Wurzer: We're going to talk about K-12 and early childhood funding later on in the debate, but actually Tom Horner opened the door a little bit to something I kind of want to explore with Mr. Emmer. You are supportive of early childhood education programs right? Tom Emmer: Yes. Cathy Wurzer: So why did you vote against, you voted against the omnibus education funding bill in 09 which included money for early childhood and just this past spring in in May you voted the omnibus early childhood bill. So if you're supportive, you you're saying one thing but you're doing something else. Tom Emmer: Well that's not necessarily true Cathy. If you want to take something with a snapshot, then go ahead. I mean we're talking about an omnibus bill, which by the way … Cathy Wurzer: There's a lot of stuff in it. Tom Emmer: includes a lot more than what you're talking about. Cathy Wurzer: I know. I know. But the omnibus early childhood bill is something different. Tom Emmer: Here's the other piece. It's about living within your means, If you think that government is just going to be growing every biennium by double digit percentages we're not going to be able to sustain this type of growth. And why would you vote against something like that? Because government's got to start to set its priorities and live within its means and fund those priorities. That those bills that you're talking about not only did they include ah what I would consider extraneous issues, which certainly could be subject to negotiation, but they assumed the government needs to grow beyond its revenues. And that's simply not acceptable any longer. We cannot start, we' can't keep spending what we want to spend. We got to spend what we have to spend. And more importantly we have to start allocating the existing resources more appropriately. Tom Horner: Well let me just say a six-year record isn't a snapshot, it's a motion picture. And when that six-year record is consistent, it's a very clear, in color, technicolor motion picture. And the fact is in 2009, it was a very specific amendment and you were one of seven representatives to vote against not an omnibus bill but money for early childhood learning. So again, I respect your principles, but I think you have to be consistent with them. And I think you have to be honest with audiences and I think you have to say the same thing to every audience, not just tailor messages to different audiences. And my position is very clear. I think early childhood learning should be a priority. I think it should be a priority and I've put money in my proposed budget to make it a priority. Because I think it is where we start. I think when you have 50 percent of Minnesota children coming in to kindergarten, not fully prepared for success, it is no wonder that we are struggling with sinking graduation rates from high school. And we can't afford to do that. We will pay for that cost. We can pay for it now with smart investments with good programs, or we can pay for it later in much higher social services costs Cathy Wurzer: Do you want a quick rebuttal here Mr. Emmer? Tom Emmer: Well I just point out first that I'd appreciate it if I, we wouldn't challenge someone's integrity. I have been very consistent from day one. Since I got in the legislature as a guy who actually hasn't been a professional public relations guy growing up in government or somebody who has been running for public office since 1982. I've been very consistent, people in government and people who are making their living off of government need to understand that in order for us to pay for what we expect for out of government we gotta grow jobs in the private sector. You can't keep talking as politicians do about we know how to invest your money better. And you know what? When I vote against something like that, yeah its tough because I'm the only one sitting up here right now who's got seven kids and I've got five of them in school still. Alright? This is a big deal to somebody like me Tom and I'll tell you, when I vote against something like that, it's difficult but you've got to look at the big picture. You can't do what everybody in government has been doing for years which is well, you know, it's just gonna have to grow. You gotta be responsible. And the message we're sending is the government's got to live within your means. A consistent message that you, my colleagues are sending, is we just got to tax people more and allow government to grow unrestrained and it is simply not sustainable, nor is it responsible. Cathy Wurzer: Let me ask you something Senator Dayton. I was thinking about this as I was preparing for this debate, your DFL primary opponent, House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, brought this up. She she suggested funding early childhood programs through a constitutional amendment. She felt it was that important to do that. Would you consider such a long term funding mechanism for early childhood? Mark Dayton: Well, if it's necessary, I would, I would consider that. I'm not sure what that would achieve uh, because frankly the Supreme Court in Minnesota ruled 40 years ago that it was unconstitutional to fund the public schools exactly the way we're doing it now, which is reliance on the property tax. They said that was inherently unequal. And that's why they created what's was then called the Minnesota Miracle, which was a progressive income tax and a progressive source of state revenues that funded most of public K-12 education, now we would say early childhood and kindergarten as well. So, you know, that's that should be the priority is actually carrying out what the mandate has already been from the Supreme Court and what we know is fair and equitable in Minnesota. So when you had in real after inflation dollars the state's support per pupil aid cut by 1,300 dollars under Governor Pawlenty's two terms, ah you know directly….first you got overcrowded classrooms, more four-day school weeks. And you know the unfairness that if one does school district, their referendum is approved, the children are spared further pain and if its disapproved somewhere else the children suffer, there are more layoffs among teachers and the like. So, let's work within the framework that we have. We know what's necessary. We know we need to make a commitment. We should know that we had 10 years ago above the state national average in per pupil K-12 funding and now we're below the national average. We should know that our average teachers' salary is 2,300 dollars below the national average. You know we could talk about reform as we should… Cathy Wurzer: 23-thousand. Mark Dayton: I'm sorry, 2,300 dollars thank you. We should know that these are commitments that Minnesota has made in the past because education is our value and our priority and we're not reflecting that in our budget today. Cathy Wurzer: I'd like to do a quick little round of yes/no questions, and I'm going to leave early childhood with this question. Do you favor, yes or no, the creation of a department of early childhood education? Mark Dayton: You know, ah.. I Cathy Wurzer: Yes or no. Mark Dayton: We'll see. Cathy Wurzer: We'll see. Mark Dayton: You know, I don't give yes or no answers to complex problems Cathy Wurzer: A creation of a department… Mark Dayton: Tom Harkin, my colleague said for every complex problem there's a simple answer and it's almost always wrong. Cathy Wurzer: OK. Yes or no Representative Emmer, do you favor the creation of a Department of Early Childhood Education? Tom Emmer: No. Cathy Wurzer: OK. Tom Horner: No, we have the structure to do what we need to done, to do. We need the leadership and political will to do it. Cathy Wurzer: Coming back down this way then, Tom Horner, yes or no, do you support compulsory attendance until age 18? Tom Horner: Yes Cathy Wurzer: Tom Emmer? Tom Emmer: I… if the legislature passed it I wouldn't oppose it but I think you got to make school valuable so kids want to be there rather than telling them this is your sentence until you're 18. They should want to show up because they're getting something of value. Cathy Wurzer: So that's a yes? Tom Emmer: I.. I… I think I did what Senator Dayton did. Cathy Wurzer: OK (laughter) Mark Dayton: I'll agree with Representative Emmer, let's give 'em , let's give them a reason to stay in school. Cathy Wurzer: OK so, so you go with that. You, I'm going to go on to another yes-no question. Do you support… do you support lengthening the school year . Mark Dayton: I think we need a longer school year, yes. I think our kids need to spend more time in school, which is why I disagree with the four-day school week. Cathy Wurzer: OK, Representative Emmer? Tom Emmer: I think we .. I think we leave that up to our school boards. Cathy Wurzer: OK. Tom Horner? Tom Horner: I think we need more time in the classrooms and we can do that and still balance it against other needs including tourism. Cathy Wurzer: OK, Senator Dayton, this is an in-studio audience question here, thank you very much, your really good questions. This is about K-12 funding. What is your plan to provide sustainable funding for education in Minnesota. Funding that will provide consistency and continuity for budgeting and planning purposes? Mark Dayton: Raise revenues progressively. And have the state be the principle source, ideally the primary source of the funding for K-12 education, which is what the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled was constitutionally required 40 years ago, which we know is necessary because the property tax is the most regressive and unfair tax we have. Middle income taxpayers pay five times more as a percent of their income in property taxes as the the highest income earners in the state. They pay two and a half times more as a percent of their income in sales taxes as the highest income earners which is why the basic difference is my two opponents here are going to raise sales tax or property tax on middle income tax payers and I want the the people who are best off in this state to to pay so that we can protect middle income taxpayers from this burden. Cathy Wurzer: Now your budget has a problem. You're about a billion dollars short. Mark Dayton: 890 million actually. Cathy Wurzer: OK 890 million. (laughter) Mark Dayton: Because I'm holding on to not repaying the delayed pay in repaying the shift. Cathy Wurzer: So you're Mark Dayton: You know we penalize our schools districts including those who have been most fiscally responsible as the legislature and the Governor have over the last years with the shift, which is really a misnomer. You say if I reach my hand, and I wouldn't do this, into your pocket… Cathy Wurzer: Thank you Mark Dayton:… and take out your wallet and say I'll give it back to you when I feel like it. We don't, in the real world we don't call that a shift. Now, so they've used it as a piggy bank or as something else and taken, you know this money and say we'll repay it. Now its in law that its supposed to be repaid in the next biennium. So I'd like to follow the law. And I'd like to square the books and I think the state needs to get its fiscal house in order so local governments can operate responsibly as they have been and not be penalized for doing so. (33:15) Cathy Wurzer: So you'd like to do that… Mark Dayton: I intend to do that. Cathy Wurzer: Can you tell us now Mark Dayton: (inaudible) Cathy Wurzer: Can you pay back the shift on time or delay? Mark Dayton: Well, as I say. You got an 890 million dollar gap. If worst case scenario, I can't find a way through that with the kind of reforms I'd bring in place, uh if I'm elected, between now and issuing a budget at the end of next January, next January or February, that's the fallback position. But I'm not willing to go with that now. And even that would be a partial repayment because I think that's wrong. We owe the schools that money. The law says it needs to be repaid. And I think we should honor the law and the principle that the state will get its financial house in order and so local governments and cities and counties and school districts can know that they can depend on the state's financial commitments. Cathy Wurzer: Representative Emmer, I saw your new ad on education Mark Dayton: You looked almost like a Democrat there Tom. Cathy Wurzer: You're talking about holding education harmless. That your budget plan holds flat education spending. Which sounds good, but you don't factor in inflation in your plan. And I'm curious how does your plan then protect classroom funding? Tom Emmer: Well, ah it absolutely. When you talk about holding it flat, again its within existing revenues and we're ah adding about 500 million ah of the federal money to it. Before we go to that though, Cathy, because your question was how are we going to sustain funding in the future? Cathy Wurzer: Correct. Tom Emmer: Ah, first off. Senator I think you're a little bit more than 800 and some billion dollars short with your new education ah plan that you put out with all the great investments that don't have numbers on it. It looks like it may go well beyond a billion dollar short if you do the things that you're talking about. But I understand (inaudible) earlier about we need to (inaudible) within the existing (inaudible) we should work within the existing framework. And with all due respect, if a hundred years ago the people sitting up here would have said we had to work within in the existing framework, we might still be in one room school houses. You can't say that what we're doing today is working. Because we have… I've only been in the legislature six years and this has been one of the hottest topics every single year. How are we going to do this? You have to start thinking outside the box. You have to start empowering the education professionals that are actually at the administrative level and in the classroom. You have to let them start having input as to the resources need to be determined. Not just the head of the education union. That's one of the biggest problems that nobody's talking about and and that's what we have to go after is empowering people at the ah at the local level, in the classroom, in the schools to make sure that the money is going where it needs to go. Cathy Wurzer: Senator, actually the Representative brought up something. I mean looking at your new education plan that was released. You don't have dollar figures on all day kindergarten and some of the things you really want to do. And those are expensive propositions. Really, how do you pay for all that? Mark Dayton: Well, those are the priorities that I set in my administration. And as resources become available we'll work our way hopefully as a nation and as a state out of this ah economic serious recession and as the funds become available, those are my commitments and my priorities. I I don't have the dollars in my budget to date. Ah, I'm gong to look every possible way, if I'm elected, with those I can bring into state government. You know, we, we're inheriting a 20 year legacy of really an indifference to the quality functioning of state government. And I believe a lot of savings that are possible there once we get in there and send commissioners in there that believe in the purpose and the mission of the agencies. And and that's my commitment. We'll find more resources and as they become available through job creation and through efficiencies in our operating side. Cathy Wurzer: You'll get to where you want to go. Mark Dayton: I'll put that money into education, first and foremost. Cathy Wurzer: Tom Horner, you're going to delay the repayment. Is that right? Tom Horner: Yes. Cathy Wurzer: 1.7 Billion? Tom Horner: Yes I am, unfortunately. You know I do have to say though, it's always fun listening to my colleagues talk back and forth. I don't understand most cause what they're saying or where their positions are, but it's always fun listening to them. The fact is we do have to lay out a very clear position on education and I've done that. I was at the Humphrey Institute on Monday and articulated a very clear set of principles. A very clear vision for education and I am willing to put the money against it and more importantly, I'm willing to put the leadership to it. And so yes, I went to the superintendents and school boards and I said I'd love to pay back the the shifts and the deferrals and the accounting shifts. And and the reality is the money is not there. There's 20 percent of the operating budget that we are in deficit. And with all due respect to Representative Emmer, it is real money. And it is a real shortfall. And we can't pay it back without doing serious harm either to the economy through higher tax increases that we can't afford, particularly when they're directed at the wrong place, or can we afford to say we'll just cut deeper. We can't afford to do that. We need an education system that works for all Minnesotans. We need to invest in early learning. We need to allow teachers to teach. We need to have good principals. We do need to bring Education Minnesota to the table and as partners to deal with seniority, tenure with those critical issues. But then look it, we haven't even started to talk about higher education, which is another critical area that we need to invest in. Cathy Wurzer: And that's a debate for another time. Tom Horner: Right I understand. Cathy Wurzer: But Tom Emmer, Tom Horner just said 'this is real money we're talking about'. Is it, are you just unwilling to say to folks really I'm going to cut education? Tom Emmer: No ah, we're not. Our commitment is going to increase K-12 education . But what I'd say to both of my ah colleagues up here and everybody else, is we have to start recognizing that you can't just keep going at the pace we're going. Because we'll be back here in two years or four years. We'll be talking about it again. Both of my colleagues talk about raising taxes. (looking at Tom Horner) 2.15 billion plus, (looking at Mark Dayton) ah two to three, I don't know where you're at right now in terms of raising taxes, but that's your thought. You talk about progressive, I tell you what, the only progress we'll see is more business leaving this state and if you want to pay for education, if you want to do the investments that some politicians like to call them with the public's money, you got to be growing your private economy. You want to have a long term sustainable funding source for K-12, for early ed, for your higher education institutions. You gotta be growing jobs in your private economy, because that ultimately is what pays for all of these things that we expect from government. Cathy Wurzer: Senator Dayton. Mark Dayton: Well what grows jobs in our private economy more than anything else is the best quality education system in the world. And that's what we can not afford to sacrifice. So Representative Emmer, your budget, you calls for the same level of funding for the next two years for K-12 education as this two years, 13.3 billion of state money and 500 million dollars of federal stimulus. So you put in 13.8 billion. The formula in existing law for per pupil aid would drive that to 14.3 billion, so you're 500 million dollars short and what you're overlooking is that the projection is there will be 10,500 more students in our public schools next year than there were this year in 2012 compared to 2010. And there'll be, they estimate now over 20,000 more in total the year after that. So if you're going to keep the same level of funding and we're going to have 20,000 more school children in our public schools by the end of the biennium, once again, you're going to have less money for per pupil. You're going to have overcrowded classrooms. You want to go to the educators and ask them what's necessary to be successful. Go ask teachers. How do you be an effective teacher in a classroom with 35 children? You can't be effective in that situation. We've got to get class sizes down. We got to provide all day kindergarten and these things are just essential so educators can succeed. Cathy Wurzer: Tom Horner? Tom Horner: Both of these start from the wrong premise. I mean, both gentlemen start with the premise of how much? And Representative Emmer would say a lot less and Senator Dayton would say a lot more. We need to start asking the question of "what for"? What do we need to achieve as outcomes? What's important to the state of Minnesota? And there are two outcomes that are absolutely critical to economic success, to civic success, to our success as a state. And the first is, we need more Minnesotans who have had some level of post-high school education, including degree programs. And we need to make sure secondly that Minnesotans have access to lifelong learning. And when you start with those two outcomes and back up, you need to be spending better on K-12 education, you need to be thinking of it as E-12 education. You need to be investing in early learning. You need to reform the structure of school. Not just by changing the funding, but by saying we need to allow teachers to teach. We need to give them more autonomy, more authority, and more accountability. We need schools with great principals and we need superintendents that have the flexibility and the ability to say this is really a terrific young innovative teacher, we need to keep her in our system regardless of seniority roles. Cathy Wurzer: I'm glad you brought up teachers. Now this question comes from the advisory panel. Is the current tenure policy for teachers satisfactory or should it be changed? Tom Horner: Oh it absolutely ought to be changed. I mean look it in in Anoka-Hennepin, the largest school district in the state. Centennial High School, terrific program for vocal music, a career path for kids who wanted to be in vocal music. Kind of the 'Glee' of Centennial High School. And and students loved it, parents loved it. Great teacher was going to be lost. The Superintendent went to Education Minnesota and said 'allow me to exempt one percent of the teaching slots'. Now this is a district with 2,800 teachers. He's asking for 28 slots. Education Minnesota turned him down. The programs lost. Now he's going to lose another program that's also tied to an innovative teacher. You can't afford to do that. We do need some flexibility. We need to work with Education Minnesota, but we do need to have some flexibility so that we can keep the best teachers in the school. Cathy Wurzer: Representative Emmer, how would you change… how would you work with Education Minnesota to change the tenure system? Tom Emmer: Well, no where else in our ah in our , in our state are you evaluated or do you get to keep your job just because you've been there the longest. I mean you keep your job because you're providing something of value and you're performing. Alright? Teaching should be no different, and we've got great teachers in this state. What we would propose, rather than just eliminate tenure outright is have a five-year renewal process where every five years, you go through a review of of the teacher where they're at, you have measurements. 'Cause it's not just about measuring students progress, (it's) about measuring the effectiveness of our teachers. Have a five-year ah review on tenure, ah, give the school districts more flexibility and ah I think you'll see better results. Cathy Wurzer: Senator Dayton, you are endorsed by Education Minnesota, I know this is a subject that ah is kind of touch with that particular group at times. What would you do? Would you work with Education Minnesota to try to change the tenure system? Would you keep it the way it is? Mark Dayton: Well, I think any, any private sector employer or public sector employer who has a, comes into a situation where there's an established union, works with the union. And tenure is a seniority system. That's the basic principle of unions in the public and private sectors. If somebody's going to go in and try to destroy that as it effects 60 or 70 thousand people, I think they're going to create a very destructive relationship that's going to just overshadow everything else. We need to get rid of bad teachers and we need to get rid of bad principals. I learned when I was teaching in a dysfunctional school in New York City, a bad teacher ruins a classroom. A bad principal ruins a school. We need a way that that those individuals who are not performing and have been evaluated and are found wanting or even you know just burned out and don't want to be in the profession, we need a way to get them out of the system. And I will support doing that. You know when I came in as State Auditor, right away I was confronted with two employees that it was proven had embezzled public funds and I fired them. And ah one was reinstated, and I took that all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court. So I will, I will take the principle that everybody in public sector who is paid for by taxpayers dollars, needs to be doing her or his job and doing it well. And if they're not, if there are conditions that call for that person's removal, if those are not available now then I will work with the entities or even with their disapproval to achieve that. Cathy Wurzer: Alright. Mark Dayton: But I think to go in there with a , go in there with a buzz, with a blade saw where you need to be using a scalpel, is is just going to really be destructive to the whole process. And once again I just pointed out, you know it's easy to sweep all these things under the rug, you know the big bad wolf, Education Minnesota. Teachers are professionals, most of them highly trained, highly skilled, very dedicated and through a small "d" democratic process, they have elected people to represent them. Now that's a basic inherent, I believe, American right. Certainly a right in Minnesota to be organized and represented in collective bargaining. And I think anyone who comes into a management position, whether its in business or in the public sector who doesn't respect that is is really as I say, going to make it more destructive and not successful. Cathy Wurzer: I heard someone try to say something. Tom Horner: Yes. Let's hope that a criminal offense is not the line in the sand before we remove a bad employee. I mean we, there are good teachers, a lot of good teachers. But we also have ineffective teachers. What we ought to be doing is something along the line of the Wayzeta school district, a terrific program in which the union, teachers the school boar..the school administration work together to take Q-comp money, not just to reward teachers but as staff development. To help make ineffective teachers better. To help train them and make them better teachers. Not just the young teachers but the experienced teachers. Well, it's those kinds of things you need to be investing in. So I agree. We ought to be working with the union, but we also work with the union on a level playing field on equal terms. And when the union says that that there are these kinds of stakes in the ground that are at the the disadvantage of students that are losing great programs that can't be replicated, then I think we as leaders have an obligation to students, to parents and to other teachers to say we will do what is best for the students. And that ought to be not just our first priority, but our only priority. Cathy Wurzer: Tom Emmer, as you know efforts to pass an alternative teacher licensure bill didn't go anywhere last session. What would you… would you work toward that as Governor? Tom Emmer: Absolutely. I mean it gets to this, ah we want to work with the union, you're absolutely right. We want to work with the teachers. That's who we want to work with. We want to work with the professional educators, the administrators of our schools. It is become abundantly clear to somebody who ah was working at least trying to understand both sides of the aisle in St. Paul, ah, which by the way, there was much agreement on alternative teacher licensure, on both sides of the aisle. Ah, it's necessary. Not because we have so many teachers out of work right now ah, but we we do have a shortage when it comes to people that can ah help in science and math. It's on the horizon. World languages. These are things where we should create an alternative teacher licensure program where we can get the talent that we already have in this state into the classroom and benefit off it. But it was, it was almost a tragedy to watch last legislative session as it wasn't the teachers, and it was not the ah administrators, it was the head of Education Minnesota that literally said 'we're not going to do this' and it didn't go anywhere and that that's inexcusable. That has to be talked about openly and honestly. Ah, we might have a difference of opinion, but you can't stand in the way of reform. Cathy Wurzer: And he's not right here to defend himself, obviously, but I want to ask Senator Dayton something because you do bring it up when we do ah, when we've done interviews and just early on in this conversation you talk about teaching in New York City when you were a young man. And you were part of a program that's kind of a precursor to today's Teach For America, and teachers unions are not terribly fond of Teach For America, but you taught in the classroom in that manner, and and I'm wondering why shouldn't other qualified, non-traditional teachers be able to do the same thing with alternative teacher licensure? Mark Dayton: Well, I, that's not exactly correct. I, I, I, ah met the requirements back then of the New York City Board of Education. Because you had to have a bachelors degree and had to be qualified in the subject you were going to teach. I was teaching ninth grade general science, I was pre-med. I took advanced physics, inorganic and organic chemistry and biology in college and ah you had to have 12 uh 12 teaching credits in an accredited teaching institution which was arranged that summer with the University of Massachusetts and it was an intensive summer program. Taught summer school and so you know that met the qualifications. You might have said they should have been higher, and in this day and age they might have been, but this was way back in 1969. And I was accredited. I mean, some of this other stuff, you know, there's a book written, it's about that thick, it's about the New York City Board of Education. If you want to go to sleep some night I'll give it to you, or loan it to you to read. But the labyrinth there was such that, you know, you got one temporary license to get started. And then you know after the bureaucracy caught up, I'm amazed they delivered the license today given how dysfunctional they are. And I had a regular license. I was a regular teacher of ninth grade general science. Cathy Wurzer: OK Mark Dayton: I mean, this is some of the people… Cathy Wurzer: So you were licensed to teach. Mark Dayton: …are bringing this up like the Republican Party. This is a point of absolute absurdity. Cathy Wurzer: OK. So… Mark Dayton: And let me also say, because it relates to this issue, I mean, I knew ninth grade general science forward and backward and upside down. That didn't automatically make me a good teacher. You know? I had to learn how to teach. I had to learn the skills of relating to students, of being an effective teacher, motivating students. So, I mean, are there skills that people in the private sector have that can be valuable in education? Absolutely. And we have an existing law on the books, so that if a school district wants to bring somebody like that in, they can do so. Unfortunately the State Department of Education, a couple of years ago I know for a fact that an elementary school in St. Paul had a couple of very well-qualified Hmong teaching assistants, spoke the language that 90 percent of their students talked, they made a, the St. Paul school district made a request for a waiver to the State Department of Education, turned it down. My State Department of Education will grant those waivers… Cathy Wurzer: OK Mark Dayton:… so we can bring people that also committed and prepared for teaching who bring some special set of skills. Cathy Wurzer: We have about three minutes left before closing statements. Tom Horner, what skills and attributes are you looking for in an Education Commissioner? Tom Horner: Oh I think you need somebody who has a vision, who has a has um a clear set of principles but who also brings a commitment to ah education as a fundamental cornerstone of Minnesota's economy, of Minnesota's life. And so I'm looking for somebody who with with a background ah in in related fields. Somebody who can ah has relationships with different constituencies with education. And I think among one of the most important attributes is somebody who is a person who can engage the public. Who can speak to to teachers, to the public, to parents, to all audiences and really get them involved in making education a priority for the whole state. Cathy Wurzer: Tom Emmer, who are you looking for an Education Commissioner? Tom Emmer: Somebody who is prepared to help us enact our agenda. Somebody who is ready to help us empower, not only local administrators and educators to do what they see best. If they see an need to opt out of different state mandates in order to make decisions that they believe will best position the kids to succeed in their classrooms, we need to do that. Somebody who will empower parents to be able to make choices base on whether or not the school or the education environment that their child is in, is the best environment for that child to learn. Somebody who is committed to helping us enact the agenda that we're talking about. Cathy Wurzer: And Senator Dayton? Mark Dayton: Someone who has the proven commitment through a professional career in education, proven success and whatever aspect of that. A proven leader, someone who can work well with people, can bring the different stakeholders together. And ah I would agree with Mr. Horner, who says the number one priority, number one consideration should always be what's in the best interests of our students, the 825 thousand that we're educating in our public schools today. How can we improve that, what do we need to do to accomplish that, what are the resources we need to accomplish that? Cathy Wurzer: Since the camera is on you, let's go to closing statements. Each of you gets a minute starting with Senator Dayton. Go ahead. Mark Dayton: Well we're in a an era now,as I say, of limited resources. We recognize that. My priority will be education. I set forth a program yesterday that protects middle income taxpayers and recognizes that the resources are necessary are going to have to come if we're going to meet this commitment. We have more kids, 20,000 kids, coming into our schools over the next two years we're told. We need to make sure they're coming to school ready to learn. We need to make sure we give them the full skills and opportunities, every one of them, to be successful because we know that the future of our state, economic strength, social well-being, depends upon all those children having a chance to achieve the American dream through the rest of their lives. I got a proven commitment to education. I come out of an education background. I know what the challenge is in the real world of that school every day. I know having been in a couple hundred schools throughout Minnesota, what the real needs are. I mean, this is not about theory. This is not about slogans. This is about effective strategies that build on what we have, which is a good educational system, far better sometimes than the resources we provided it to be, that we need to empower to empower to be even more successful and give our kids the world-class education they need. Cathy Wurzer:: Representative Emmer Tom Emmer: You know, politicians have been making promises for my whole life , probably a lot longer. Promises that we're going to give this to every constituency that's out there in order to ah get elected. Ah, I believe in my colleagues commitment to education. No question, I've been around them now, we've done a few debates actually. Ah I, I, do believe in their commitment to education. But here's the problem. At some point you can't just keep saying because we need to spend it, we want to spend it, we're going to spend it. At some point you gotta realize that you can make all the investments in the world and if you don't have jobs for people when they get out of.. if you don't have a growing economy, you're going to lose in the end anyway. This is about recognizing that we do have limited resources that it is the wrong time to be talking about raising more taxes, no matter where they come from, they will directly hit the middle class and frankly they'll hit a lot of the folks that ah are struggling to get by just with the basic needs of life. This is the wrong time in this state and in this country to talk about raising any taxes on any people who are just struggling to put food on the table, clothes on their kids and pay the mortgage. You got to live within your means. You've got to empower a professional administrators and educators to start to put the resources that we have, and let's face it, you got almost 14 billion dollars, we need to empower the educators, the professionals to start putting those resources where they can be most effective and we look forward to hopefully having that opportunity. Cathy Wurzer: Thank you. Tom Horner. Tom Horner: And I would turn that around a little bit and say that if we don't have the talented skilled people to fill the jobs in Minnesota, we're not going to have the businesses in Minnesota. Because that will always be our distinctive advantage. And we need to make sure that we do have an educated workforce. That we have an educated population to continue the civic vitality of Minnesota. Education is an issue like so many other policy issues in Minnesota. We don't suffer from a lack of great ideas, innovation, of smart people. We know what to do. This is another issue where it's leadership and political will. Where somebody is willing to say we do have to make tough decisions. And it's not a tough decision just to say we'll take the status quo and make it a lot bigger or we'll take the status quo and make it a lot smaller. We need to acknowledge that for so many Minnesotans, in so many issues , it's the status quo that isn't working. We need to think differently. We need innovation. We need to really be different about what it is we do. And that's the opportunity of this election, not to continue down the same path. Not to continue doing the kinds of things we've been doing in the past, but to really be bold, to grab onto that future. And so here's my challenge to you. Is that if you want bold leadership in January of 2011, it only happens with bold leadership from voters in November of 2010. Cathy Wurzer: Thank you Tom Horner, Tom Emmer, Mark Dayton. A good discussion gentlemen. You can re-watch this debate. Study it. Take notes. Thank you for being here. Thank you for watching.


text:
Call it an indigenous take on the Grand Prix. Kambala, or traditional buffalo racing, is a hugely popular pastime among villagers along the southern Karnataka coast. Kambala events are usually held between November and March, usually on weekends. Parallel tracks are laid out in a paddy field, along which buffaloes hurtle towards the finish line. In most cases the man rides on a board fixed to a ploughshare, literally surfing his way down the track behind the beasts.
Around second weekend of February the excitement around the races reaches a crescendo. By now the top teams have been identified and they all converge at Eedu, a small village in Udupi district. Thousands of spectators attend each edition, and racing buffaloes are pampered and prepared like thoroughbreds making it a fantastic time to capture something completely unique.
The Kambala races began almost 1000 years ago as a commemoration to the Gods for a better harvest and possibly a source of entertainment for the villagers. Today, almost 150 pairs of buffaloes and their owners take part in the 3 to 4-month-long festival where different races are held over a two-day period. This includes running on a slushy 160-metre track in record time or even creating the highest slush wave.
The first day starts with all the contestants arriving in trucks with their glistening oily-backed buffaloes and settling in their camps. A designated water tank is assigned to the teams to wash their buffaloes and keep them cool. Then the freshly watered twin tracks are inaugurated with a small ceremony and all the teams sashay down to showcase their prized possessions! Soon the tracks are ablaze with a farmer dashing down the track with two buffaloes and a hull. The tempo and the height of energy in that brief period of 11–13 seconds are extremely high. With the honour of the village at stake, many get cracking with a whip at the buffaloes. The races continue overnight and the ambience becomes more festive in the evening with the area around the track getting packed with food carts, local carousels and general cheer.
The final race is held close to afternoon on the second day. Not that the winning amount is more than 4–8 grams of gold per race, but accolades are weighed in terms of honour and prestige of the participating villages. Unlike many other festivals in India, the Kambala races have avoided sponsorship from corporates and have still managed to keep their authentic charm intact. So if you are looking to witness a thousand-year-old tradition, veer off from the regular sights in Karnataka and head straight to Eedu.
AUTHOR'S BIO: With a penchant for travelling 'ungoogled', Supriya has willingly got lost a number of times in the most obscure places of India for the last 8 years. She lives on a healthy diet of anecdotes and tea with auto drivers, co-passengers and locals! Supriya currently runs a Bangalore based travel-photography outfit called Photography Onthemove and writes regular features for India and International travel publications. More on www.supriyasehgal.com.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
On Saturday, October 18th, we went to Mandelieu and were very disappointed. The dealer didn't have much stock and the campsite charged 35E a night! So we stayed one night and traveled on to Port Grimaud.
If you ever wondered what the real people of Cannes do on a Saturday night out, here is the answer…
We chose to take the mountain road (N7) to Frejus because they don't allow motorhomes and the like on the Corniche (the N98 coast road). Patrick drove and squeeked a lot whilst Liz took photos and said "just watch the road and don't look down". Very reassuring! But really a wonderful road for all that.
Port Grimaud – where the wealthy go to look impoverished
At Port Grimaud we were in for a real treat. The campsite is British owned and mostly cabins. They take about 40 campers. Each plot is equipped with its own bathroom and shower as well as electricity and water!
All this for 18E a night!
On the Tuesday we took the buggy to St Tropez to see the market. It was very large and sold everything from cheap souvenirs to Gucci handbags at several hundred ponds a throw! We were fascinated by the trees and their contents.
We then went down to the old marina and had lunch on the quayside. Takeaway, that is – the prices around there are way out of our league.
The locals entertained us well. We watched a boat arrive which we heard described as around £4 million pounds worth. She parked just outside the harbour mouth for a while and then came in. There was plenty of room for her but she spent quite a long time sitting in the middle of the harbour; turned around and went out again. Last we saw of her she was still hanging around outside the harbour mouth. We assume that she couldn't agree a price with the harbour master!? We inspected another very large boat moored in the outer harbour. She was having a large portion of her superstructure removed having been rammed by a merchant ship. We understood that the owner was a bit miffed!
They even sent a party from, we assume, the French Red Arrows.
Anyway, the buggy didn't seem at all out of place amongst the Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsche fraternity.
We stayed a week at Port Grimaud and then the weather turned wet and miserable so we decided to move on to Aix-en-Provence and sample some urban life.
Giens and the not-Corniche
This trip took us along the coast to Hyères where we made a detour out to the peninsular of Giens. This is a lovely little townlet stuck out about 4 miles off the coast and joined to it by long causeways. Felt very much like the Florida Keys. Very popular with wind surfers and pink flamingos.
Aix-en-Provence – A fine place but we saw mostly mud and wiring.
At Aix we found a campsite just a mile from the city centre. We did go and have a look one day and were very impressed with everything except the traffic routing, which is bizarre to say the least. We found a wonderful underground car park right in the middle of town. Beautifully finished with lots of coloured lights which told you where to find spaces and how many there were on each "roadway". Not only that but each bay had red or green lights above it so you could see from a distance where the empty spaces were. Sadly, it wasn't until we left that we worked out what it all meant!
The town was delightful to walk around and heaving with people. About 60% students, probably…
They even had racks of electric mopeds which you could hire by putting a coin in a slot and unplugging it from its docking station. We had nothing like that in Halifax!
Our stay in Aix was mainly spent doing electrical repairs and waitng for a new controller for the satellite dish, which has delivered a much more reliable signal and better bandwidth after three month of struggling. They wanted us to go up to Strasburg to let Alden examine it but fortunately we were able to dissuade them of the need to do a 1,000 mile detour! As with all things electrical, the faults were something minor but finding that out is the hard bit. We got our headlights and stop lights back with a new wire to earth. The loss of 12v supply whenever we unplugged from the mains turned out to be the PV cell connection in the wrong place and the satellite controller was a known bad unit from the start, apparently.
The weather was foul but we had to wait for the controller and, of course, needed to ensure that we could get coverage of the US elections. We had thunder, lightning and torrential rain most days and were surrounded by a sea of mud. Liz stayed up all night to watch the results and what a night it was – she just cried a lot and life has seemed better ever since. But we were cold and wet, so as soon as the satellite bit was fitted (05/11/08) we decided that we would up sticks and make a serious move South – to Spain as it turned out.
Illegal immigration?
Most of this trip was uneventful as we took the autoroute all the way.
Entry into Spain was a little strange. As we approached the border, we were confronted with cars going to sort of toll booths and queuing. There was a diversion sign for lorries and we decided that we were a lorry and took it. This became a sort of dark narrow service road passing behind the office block but no-one seemed interested in us and didn't come out of their offices. We kept going, slowly, expecting to be stopped and told where to go. But it never happened and we found ourselves rejoining the autoroute after the douane point by another small service road. For the next ten miles we kept looking in the rear view mirror for the blue flashing lights.
At the first service station we pulled in for some sleep, it being well after midnight. It was crowded out with wagons. We decided to be a bus, but even the bus area was littered with lorries. Nevertheless we found a spot and went to bed looking somewhat tiny amongst the haulage trucks. In the morning they had all gone and after breakfast we headed for the turn-off for L'Estartit. At the toll gate, we were interrogated closely by the cashier. What make vehicle, registration number. Where had we come from. Had we slept at the service station, etc. Then he asked for 3.60E and sent us on our way. We are still not sure if we are illegal immigrants or not!
We learnt later that they like to check motorhomes and wagons for cigarettes but that seems odd when everything is much cheaper in Spain. Cigs are half the price and petrol is about 85 pence a litre here!
Open all year – except now!
A very pleasant stop for lunch at a small town called Torroella de Montgri, where they had the most amazing fish shop and bakery, and we pressed on to L'Estartit on the Gulf of Roses to the only campsite in the book open all year round. We found it closed with a note on the gate saying it was closed for November and would reopen in December…
We took some very rural roads down to Feliu de Guixlos. At this point we looked at the map and we had a choice of going back inland or taking an alarmingly wiggly road to Tossa de Mar. We took the wiggly one, of course.
The Costa Brava Rally with motorhome
What a road, the G1682! Steep, narrow, cliff hanging and nothing straight about it anywhere. Fortunately, we had it mostly to ourselves until 10 km along we came to a bend with lots of cars parked everywhere and people milling around. We wondered what was happening but carried on up the hill. About another half mile and we were stopped by a policeman with his bike parked across the road. He only spoke Spanish and we don't so we managed to get that the road was closed from then (4pm) until 5:15pm. We could turn around or wait. There was no way I was going to attempt to turn our rig around on that road so we said we would wait. At this, he moved his bike and ushered us round the corner into the ditch. This was the last possible place for anyone to park before the barriers across the road.
The car in front of us was clearly press. He was from fotoracing.com and had a large Nikon. Gradually we realised that a car rally was taking place and just beyond the barrier was a turning off up the mountain.
We explored and found that people had brochures for the "Rally GUI Costa Brava" or something like that.
After we had a cuppa, we heard a helicopter overhead. It was obviously a TV camera. As cars came up the mountain, the helicopter followed each one to our bend so we had plenty of notice of each one coming.
At least the D90 got a chance to show its stuff
Meet Peter!
In amongst all this, Peter arrived on his bike. He is Dutch but lives in Hamburg. He has spent 5 weeks cycling down from there on his way to Malaga for Christmas.
When it was all over, the policeman let Peter through the barrier first and within two minutes one of the rally support cars managed to back into him, unhurt, fortunately.
Blanes – for those who don't need fish & chips with warm beer
Another 18km later and we arrived at Blanes, 6km South of Lloret de Mar at a very nice campsite, charging just 12.50E a night including electricity, right on the promenade, overlooking the sea.
The weather is much better with sunshine and temperatures in the mid 20s. We've managed to get the washing done – just as well as Liz was running out of clean clothes, after all the rain and mud.
It did its best to amuse us with a display of powered hang gliding
We walked along the promanade for an ice cream by the harbour before catching a road train home!


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Region briefs
Illinois budget stalemate hitting U of Illinois campus
URBANA, Ill. (AP) — The state budget standoff already has some programs and projects on hold at the University of Illinois, and faculty and others say they're nervous about what might be ahead.
Gov. Bruce Rauner wants deep state spending cuts and has frozen a number of programs until a budget for the new fiscal year is complete. On Thursday he vetoed most of a $36.3 billion budget approved by legislators. It was more than $3 billion short on needed revenue.
According to The News-Gazette, projects to improve the country's power grid and install solar panels on the new Electrical and Computer Engineering Building on the Urbana-Champaign campus are on hold. And the Illinois Smart Energy Design Assistance Center in Champaign will close Tuesday, at least temporarily putting several dozen employees out of work.
Rauner earlier this year proposed a 31.5 percent cut in higher-education spending. The state provides only about 11 percent of the university's $5.6 billion operating budget, but the governor's first proposed cut in that state appropriation would still mean a loss of more than $200 million.
Rauner last week approved spending increases for primary and secondary education, but he did not sign off on higher education spending.
Man drowns while launching boat in northeast Missouri
LA GRANGE, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a 23-year-old man has drowned while launching a boat at Wakonda State Park in northeast Missouri.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol identified the victim as Richie L. Armour of New London, Mo. The patrol says he drowned Saturday when he swam into Wakonda Lake to recover a boat that had come of its trailer and floated off.
The Lewis County coroner pronounced him dead at the scene.
4 rabid bats found this year in Cook County
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (AP) — Health officials say four rabid bats have been found so far this year in Cook County and are warning people to learn how to avoid contact with the virus.
According to the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights, the most recent bat to have rabies was found earlier this month in Palatine.
Sean McDermott of the Cook County Department of Public Health said no one was exposed to rabies by that bat.
But McDermott said a Cook County child earlier this year touched a dead bat found to be infected. The child was treated and is fine.
McDermott said people should never handle wild animals, dead or alive. He advised people to call animal control if they find a bat or other animal acting unusually because it may have rabies.
Illinois church closing after 126 years
THAWVILLE, Ill. (AP) — The last in a long line of services will happen Sunday at a small Methodist church in eastern Illinois that's been around for 126 years.
The United Methodist Church of Thawville will close after the 10 a.m. service. The church 35 miles south of Kankakee dates back to 1889.
The Rev. Stanley Rapp told The Daily Journal in Kankakee that the weekly congregation these days is just a handful of older men.
But Ryan Veatch expects all 20 pews will be full Sunday. At 76, Veatch is the youngest regular.
Trustees decided it wasn't fair to keep asking Rapp to drive 16 or so miles to preach to a handful of people.
Veatch says he'll soon attend the small church in Roberts, just a few miles up the road.
Chicago celebrates official opening of expanded Riverwalk
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago has celebrated the official opening of an expanded Chicago Riverwalk with live music, food and family activities.
The project added three more blocks to the pedestrian pathway on the south bank of the Chicago River. It will offer dining, live entertainment, biking, river cruises and kayak and boat rentals.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at Saturday's event that Chicago has reclaimed part of the city that had been forgotten and turned it into a new recreational frontier.
After a final phase of construction beginning this summer, the Riverwalk will stretch from Lakeshore Drive to the Lake Street Bridge in the heart of downtown.


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Re-Watch Previous Rounds
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December 25 2014
How are you using social media to help grow your business? The fast-paced world of social media is always changing, and it can make creating a successful social strategy somewhat difficult at times. Whether it's creating content that provides value to your audience or understanding the best ways to manage paid advertisements, it's never been more important to be in-the-know when it comes to the current best practices of today's most popular social networks.
"Content is King" is a phrase that has recently generated a lot of buzz in the real estate marketing world, but you may be wondering just how important this concept is for your business. According to a study performed by DemandMetric, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing practices and generates about three times as many leads. Furthermore, website conversion rates are nearly six times higher for those who are creating valuable content compared to those who have yet to pick up on this trend (Inboundwriter).
This means that there is a lot of potential to generate more business from great content, and today's social networks are the primary ways that online users are accessing this information. The key to taking advantage of this is having a well-planned content strategy. Our 2015 Social Media Checklist highlights three important steps for creating a content strategy that will keep your audience coming back for more.
Before you can sit down and start creating content, it's important to know what sparks the interest of the people you are trying to reach. This goes beyond just looking at what's trending in the news; you'll need to pay attention to the conversations that they are having with each other.
Social networks have become a place where users feel comfortable voicing their opinions, so there's never been a better place to find what they are really talking about. Are people curious about a new local restaurant? Are they looking for information about an upcoming event? You want to join their conversations, not just try to push new listings.
Now that you know the type of content your audience is looking for, it's time to start organizing it into an actionable plan. A content calendar serves as a way to plan what type of content you will be pushing out each day. A study from Social Breakers found that most major brands post once a day and when they posted more than once, each post received 57% of the likes and 78% of the comments per post. This means you need to make each post count.
Instead of hopping on each social network every morning in search of something to share, a content calendar allows you to plan it out weeks in advance. Not only does this give you a window of time to perfect each piece of content you create, but it also gives you an opportunity to utilize a wide range of mediums like Slideshare, eBooks, or even host a contest. Diversifying the way you present content to your audience will keep everything fresh and will help draw them in again and again.
People love local and they take pride in where they live. Sure, they like to keep informed on big picture topics like national news, but sharing information that is more closely tied to their community will foster far more engagement.
For example, say that a local high school football team makes it to the state championship game. Show your support and create a post or share a news report that discusses the story of how they got there. Your audience can relate to this, and may even have a history with the school, so they will feel more inclined to share it with their own networks. Once your audience recognizes you as a reliable source for all things local, they'll have that much more reason to keep up with all the content you are sharing!
Sharing great content plays a big part in maintaining a strong online presence. If you aren't providing value to your audience outside of the real estate transaction, they'll really have no reason to keep up with your business once they've settled into their new home. Download the Homes.com 2015 Social Media Checklist to find more tips on creating a social strategy that will help generate even more business in the new year!
To view the original article, visit the Homes.com blog.


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36 years ago - Garfield Lynns is born.
25 years ago - 11-year-old Garfield first exhibits accute pyromania.
18 years ago - 18-year-old Garfield enlists in the army, joining the Rangers.
13 years ago - 23-year-old Garfield is discharged from the army for psychological reasons. He begins his career as a pyrotechnician.
12 years ago - 24-year-old Garfield is hired for the road crew of pop singer Cassidy who he starts to date.
.10 years ago - 26-year-old Garfield is burned in a pyrotechnic accident, Cassidy leaves him, and he starts building his equipment to have his revenge.
8 years ago - 28-year-old Garfield attacks his ex-girlfriend Cassidy's stage show as Firefly, starting a pyrotechnic rampage across Gotham before he is caught by Batman.
4 years ago - 32-year-old Garfield is among the inmates of Arkham released by Bane. He returns to his hidden lab and uses a new prototype costume to attack the police before he is stopped by Batman.
3 years ago - 33-year-old Garfield escapes Arkham again during No Man's Land, using the destruction of the earthquage to start fires across the city before he manages to escape.
Firefly is a pretty solid comic book badguy, but within Batman's pantheon of villains he's probably about C-level at best. He has a cool schtick and a good look, but ultimately he's really just not THAT dangerous when compared to some of the other enemies Batman has to fight. Still, he's functional, has a good backstory, and presents at least a decent physical challenge for Batman to overcome; any story about Firefly will invariably end with Batman trailing behind a dude in a jetpack with a grapping line. It might not be original, but it's certainly satisfying.
Firefly's Comic History
Firefly is actually one of those old classic terrible Batman villains from the fifties, right up there with Crazy Quilt and the Condiment King. In his original origin, Garfield Lynn was a standard street thug who was being persued by Batman and Robin. When the crimefighters saw a lingering firefly in the darkness they assumed it was Lynn's cigarette (it's the 50's), and lost him. So naturally, Lynn decided that he's going to be a firefly-themed super villain and puts on a TRUELY terrible costume... the sort of outfit someone might wear on the sidewalk to promote a seafood restaraunt... and starts staging crimes with light or optical illusion themes. It's funny how this sort of nonsense was fun and cheeky when Flash villains were doing it, but when Batman villains do it is just comes across as frustratingly sad.
It was after the first Crisis that Firefly was reimagined as a fire-based rather than light based badguy, which pretty much immediately resolved the weirdness of the character. When Batman the Animated Series used him in the episode "Torch Song" and defined him as a revengeful pyrotechnician it pretty much established the character as we have him today.
Our Firefly Story
We actually didn't invent a single element for Garfield's timeline. We've simply taken the given facts of the character: that he is a lifelong pyromaniac, he was a special forces soldier that was discharged because of his psycological issues, had a career as a pyrotechnician for a pop singer who rejected him... we just laid those out together and they took shape into what his life would have been.
From there, you'll notice that there actually isn't a single story after his introduction where he is the sole badguy. This is actually the best way to go about using the character; After the drama of his initial appearance reaches it's climax he doesn't really bring any of his own narrative weight. What he IS, however, as a great outlier part of the world of Batman that can bring a whole new layer of complication to a larger story. For all of the major Gotham-wide storyarcs where multiple enemies have escaped are are turning the city into a crisis-zone, Firefly is a great element to add. He brings a entirely different dimention to the physical challenges Batman has to confront. There's never any question as to whether the hero will win, but that's really the case all the time, anyway.


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Size: 15m*30m. Cover Material: Glass.
Layer: Single. Type: Glass Greenhouse.
Feature: Small Scale. Area: 450 Square Meter.
Wind Load: 0.35kn/M2. Snow Load: 0.35kn/M2.
Export Markets: Global.
With the development of glass greenhouse industry, and now a lot of greenhouses have been used as a cover glass material. So, in the end glass-covered greenhouse covering materia compared to other materials which the advantages and disadvantages of it? I believe this is a problem. Greenhouse builders are most concerned about. So, in order to make everyone a glass greenhouse glass covering material has a sufficient knowledge of the original. greenhouse specialist for everyone lists the advantages and disadvantages of glass covering material.
1. A low coefficient of thermal expansion and contraction.
2. Light transmittance than glass greenhouse PC board greenhouse high sunshine, excellent light transmittance of about 90%, glasshouse overall appearance is good.
3. Easily obtained, low prices.
4. The optimum UV resistance and barrier ability, wear life of up to 25 years.
5. Simple and effective solution for varied and complex topographic conditions.
· Frame of hot dip galvanized steel pipe
· Gable spans range from 8 meters to 10.8 meters
· Total structure height - 4 meters to 5.3 meters
· Covering material - 4mm or 5mm float glass or 5 mm tempered glass
· Light transmittance could be more than 90%
· Suitable for all climate conditions and adaptable to any type of landscape
· Gable roof
However, the introduction of greenhouse usage , due to poor weather in our adaptability, high cost , convenient installation and maintenance , most of the operating losses and economic inefficiency . In China usually only in the late autumn and winter season for cultivation of flowers , vegetables and nursery crops and ornamental demonstration on agricultural research , therefore ,greenhouse glass in China's development is very slow. Glasshouse glasshouse including single slope , dual slope glass greenhouse .
Normal shipping time is 4-6 weeks after receipt of order. Please allow additional time for transit from factory. 30% of basic greenhouse price may be charged upon receipt of order. The balance will be charged before shipment .
Every year we ship above USD 8million to all over the world. We have professional engineer department for commercial glass greenhouse, if customer request, we can send our engineers to foreign countries to guide the installation. Every year there are many customers visiting our factory for business cooperation. If you want to know more, please send E-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com.
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propugnaculum Christianitatis (Latin, meaning: the Bastion of Christianity)
After Hungary became the Habsburg empire's anti-Turkish theatre of war in the 16th -17th century, the border defence and border fortress system set up in this area guarded the whole of Central Europe, thus Christendom. This is why early modern-age Hungary was also accorded this title (since Poland was also often referred to as the Bastion of Christianity). In the second half of the 16th century the castle of Győr was granted a similar title becoming known as the Bastion of Vienna and Lower-Austria, while Muraköz was named detached Bastion of Styria.


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Lessons From the End of a Marriage
I used to judge.
I'm not proud of it.
But I used to judge those who stayed in abusive relationships.
I criticized the victim for staying put while exclaiming that, were I ever to find myself in a similar situation, I would leave immediately.
It always seemed so clear to me. So cut and dry.
If the victim wasn't choosing to leave, then they were choosing to be hit.
But that was before I was judged myself.
I wasn't in an abusive relationship*. But I was played. And I played along. Played the fool. People hear of my situation and wonder how I didn't know about the marital embezzlement or the double life. I'm criticized for staying unaware.
And you know my first response when I hear those words?
You weren't there.
You don't know.
The same words spoken by those that have been in abusive relationships.
It's so easy…
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