Allen Quist Response
2
Question 2: Overall, Minnesota's economy is the
strongest it has been in years. On the agenda are issues such as
living wages, labor shortages,
welfare-to-work, and the changing economy in Greater
Minnesota. What do you feel the most pressing challenges will be?
How will you address them?
I was chief House author of the bill which created
Minnesota's Department of Jobs and Training. The purpose of the bill
was to enable Minnesota residents to successfully make the transition
from welfare to work, from unemployment to employment, from part-time
employment to full-time employment, and from low-wage jobs to
high-wage jobs. During the 1994 gubernatorial campaign, I was the
only candidate calling for major tax reductions. My record on these
issues speaks for itself.
In 1998, however, the biggest economic issue facing Minnesota
is making the transition from a service and industrial economy to the
coming information economy of the 21st century. Citizens who are
unable to make this transition will be relegated to second-class
status.
To equip our citizens to make this transition, we must develop
a more effective education al program. To do so, we must reject the
imposition of wrong-headed experimental approaches, such as the
Profile of Learning, we must reject approaches that have proven to
not work, such as "whole-language" and traditional sex education, and
we must resist teaching ideology, such as Diversity Training and
subjective approaches to history.
We should instead be giving students the basic skills they
need to succeed in an information society. Doing so requires
systematic objective testing of basic skills. I would require such
testing at the beginning and end of each school year, K - 12.
I will promote whatever strategies can be scientifically
proven to work. I expect these methods to include: 1. teaching
phonics, 2. school choice, 3. charter schools accountable only for
results, 4. strict discipline, 5. grouping students by skill level,
6. spending more time on basic skills, 7. treating teachers as
professionals worthy of respect, 8. teaching skills instead of
"process," 9. expecting high levels of performance, and 10. refusing
to give up on anyone.
Allen Quist
