May 5, 1997 - As part of the “Voices of Minnesota" series, this program features two interviews on personal stories of overcoming life struggles. MPR’s Laura McCallum speaks with Stanley Sahlstrom, retired educator. Sahlstrom focused his adult life in support of agriculture. MPR’s Dan Olson speaks with Giovanna "Mama D" D'Agostino, a philanthropist and restaurateur. Program ends with a call-in segment with Kathleen Maloney, the new executive director of the Minnesota Alliance for Arts in Education.
May 8, 1997 - A Minneapolis-based, for-profit, education management company is expanding the private elementary school it opened 10 years ago in Eagan. Education Alternatives Incorporated plans to add an 11-classroom wing to its Tesseract (TESS-er-act) School and expand its program to seventh and eighth grades. The company's success with this suburban private school has been overshadowed by well-documented failures in urban public schools. Despite that troubled history, E-A-I officials say the company has a place in public education. Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reports... Education Alternatives Incorporated opened its first private preschool and elemenetary school with 42 students in September 1987. Enrollment a
May 8, 1997 - By the end of this week, residents in East Grand Forks, Minnesota may be able to drink their water straight from the tap. The city's more than 8-thousand residents have been without drinkable water since flooding shut down their water treatment plant three weeks ago. As Minnesota Public Radio's Lorna Benson reports, city crews and an army of volunteers have been working around the clock to fix the problem and are now only days away from making life a little bit easier for everyone. 253 - Driving...Car doors slamming...10-4 clear Saint Paul Water Department tester Mary Hiber (HIGH-burr) drives through
May 9, 1997 - Remember the Minnesota Budget Surplus? The state's bookkeepers made a splash in the news when they said they expected to rake in 2-point-3 BILLION dollars more in tax dollars over the next two years than they'd anticipated. The announcement set lawmakers at the state capitol to claim some of the money on their pet projects. Now, as the legislative session draws to a close, Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste reports on what's happened to the budget surplus: ((sound of taxes conference negotiations)) The details of the state budget have yet to be finalized in negotiations like this one, where House and Senate negotiators are slogging through hundreds of pages of new tax statutes. But you can already make out the general trend, and that's higher spending. K-12 spending is going up te
May 12, 1997 - Police officials and now civilians across the country are looking for a man suspected of killing four men in a spree stretching from Minnesota to New Jersey. The last victim was a cemetery caretaker in New Jersey on Friday. Authorities there say suspect Andrew Cunanan (koo-NAN-in) could be anywhere by now. Cunanan (koo-NAN-in) has been on the run since April 29th, and there have been some rumblings about why the suspect hasn't been caught yet, and whether law enforcement or the media are to blame. Nick O'Hara is the superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Before that, he spent thirty years with the F-B-I, including seven years heading up its fugitive task force. We asked him whether the frustration in not catching Cunanan (koo-NAN-in) is justified: | D-CART ITEM: 1681
May 13, 1997 - Minneapolis and Saint Paul school officials say the fastest growing segment of their enrollment is immigrant students, who are unable to speak English. Both districts are directing considerable resources toward English as a Second Language and bilingual education programs. But increased immigration has brought even more students speaking a myriad of native languages...and qualified teachers are hard to find. The state pays much of the cost to teach such students, but districts say it's still a big financial burden. Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire looks at the impact of immigrant students and one alternative project trying to help... 1624
May 14, 1997 - Reporters are running out of synonyms for the word "standoff" to describe the K-12 education funding situation at the state capitol. Governor Carlson says he'll settle for nothing short of education tax credits; legislative leaders say tax credits are the ONE thing they won't give him. Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste reports on this legislative game of chicken: Teachers unions and other supporters of the current public schools system are tired of losing ground at the capitol. Two years ago, they watched lawmakers cave in to the Governor and put a cap on K-12 spending... and in the years before that, they lost fights over charters schools and open enrollment. But House Majority Leader Ted Winter says this year will be different: ((We dug in on this last year and the year be
May 15, 1997 - Midday looks at Governor Arne Carlson's insistence that tax breaks for education expenses, including private school costs, be part of any education funding bill passed by the legislature. On this Talk of Minnesota, listeners call in and comment on whether the governor should stick to his guns or be willing to compromise.
May 16, 1997 - (For Friday Morning Ed) Legislative leaders have given up trying to reach a compromise with Governor Carlson over education tax credits. Senate negotiators last night (Thurs) abandoned a plan known as "Common Schools of Excellence," which they had hoped would satisfy the Governor's desire to let families spend public dollars on private education. Minnesota Public Radio's Martin Kaste has the story: The DFL leaders of the House and Senate went into Governor Carlson's office on Thursday afternoon hoping to coax his signature for their school funding bill. By the time they came out, they's resigned themselves to a veto. Speaker Carruthers: ((Carruthers being gloomy))
May 19, 1997 - A Voices of Minnesota interview with retiring Augsburg College president, Charles Anderson. Also Israeli novelist Abraham B. Yehoshua is in the Twin Cities to speak on the topic of "Israeli Identity in a Time of Peace" and "Modern Democracy and the Novel". He has won numerous awards for his writing and is an activist in the Israeli Peace Movement, working for a compromise with the Palestinians.