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SPEAKER 1: Be sunny in downtown Saint Paul. Forecast here, partly cloudy today, highs around 70, lows overnight in the mid 40s, mostly sunny on Tuesday, highs near 75. That might be the warmest day of the week, but we've got clear skies and warm temperatures through the remainder of the week.

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GARY EICHTEN: And good morning. I'm Gary Eichten, inviting you to stay tuned for Midday here on Minnesota Public Radio news. Coming up this first hour, Bridging the Achievement Gap. Alan and Diane Sims Page will join us to talk about their efforts to help students of color break the mold, get to college and help others along the way. We'll get started with that conversation. We'll take your questions and comments right after the news.

CRAIG WINDHAM: From NPR News in Washington, I'm Craig Windham. American and Iraqi officials say the two leaders of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq have been killed in a US airstrike. The commander of US forces in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, says the deaths of the two men is potentially the most significant blow to al-Qaeda in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency. NPR's Quil Lawrence in Baghdad says US military brass seem confident that both insurgent leaders were killed in a raid on Saturday night.

QUIL LAWRENCE: The only question about this is that one of the individuals who goes by the name of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi has previously been reported both captured and killed more than once by the Iraqi government. So it was treated with some skepticism at first, but US military sources have confirmed they think this is the man, and other sources off the record from the intelligence community say that this is the right guy.

CRAIG WINDHAM: NPR's Quil Lawrence in Baghdad. Airlines in Europe are hoping to fly up to 9,000 of their scheduled flights today, but that would mean some 19,000 more cancelations. From London, Larry Miller reports airlines and European governments are struggling to deal with the economic fallout from the cloud of volcanic ash that's hampering travel across the continent and beyond.

LARRY MILLER: A number of European airlines carried out test flights and report no damage from volcanic ash. They want some airspace restrictions lifted. However, Britain's Transportation Secretary Lord Adonis says airlines will not be making the decision.

ANDREW ADONIS: This is being driven by the safety analysts at the moment. And they will be reporting to us later, and then we'll take full account of their advice.

LARRY MILLER: The airlines case may not be strengthened by reports that NATO F-16 fighters did suffer engine damage over the weekend from glasslike ash. For NPR News, I'm Larry Miller in London.

CRAIG WINDHAM: Toyota is agreeing to pay a nearly $16 and 1/2 million fine to the federal government for not promptly notifying authorities about a dangerous accelerator pedal defect. But NPR's Brian Naylor reports the automaker is denying allegations that it broke the law.

BRIAN NAYLOR: It's the largest fine the government can levy and was assessed after government investigators determined Toyota waited some four months to notify it that accelerator pedals in some Toyota models could stick. In a statement, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that by failing to report known safety problems, Toyota put consumers at risk. In its own statement, the company denied it had violated the law and said it agreed to the settlement to avoid a protracted dispute and possible litigation.

Toyota recalled some 2.3 million cars in the US in January to address the sticky accelerator problem. The company faces dozens of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits as well as other government investigations. Brian Naylor, NPR News, Washington.

CRAIG WINDHAM: Citigroup is reporting a nearly $4 and 1/2 billion first quarter profit after nearly two years of losses. But shares of Goldman Sachs are down again amid concern about the civil fraud charges filed against the firm. On Wall Street, the Dow down 28 points. This is MPR News.

SPEAKER 2: Support for news comes from Judy and Steve Hopkins, supporting the Smithsonian Craft Show at the National Building Museum in Washington from April 22 to the 25th.

PHIL PICARDIE: From Minnesota Public Radio news, I'm Phil Picardie. Just a few weeks remain in the regular flu season, and so far the state health department has confirmed only a few cases. There are usually hundreds of confirmed cases each year. Even when the 60 Minnesota deaths from the H1N1 flu are factored in, deaths from flu overall are expected to be much lower than usual this year.

Democrats are scheduled to meet at the end of the week in Duluth to back a candidate for governor. The DFL party's convention runs Friday through Sunday. There are roughly 10 candidates competing for the endorsement.

DFL Party Chairman Brian Melendez says he expects the endorsement contest to be spirited, but he says he's seeing more civility from the campaigns than in years past.

BRIAN MELENDEZ: I'd be very surprised if anybody's going into that convention with 60% already lined up. So I think both candidates and delegates are realizing that second choices are going to be very important in the way this all shakes out.

And so everybody is thinking I really can't be mean to the other folks. I can't run a nasty campaign because if I'm going to get across the finish line, I'm going to need their people to come over to me when they drop out of the race.

PHIL PICARDIE: There isn't a clear path to November for whoever wins the DFL endorsement. That's because at least three candidates have said they will run in an August primary. Republicans will endorse a candidate for governor on April 30 over the weekend in Mankato. State representative Randy Demmer won the Republican Party endorsement to challenge incumbent Democratic Congressman Tim Walz.

Senator Amy Klobuchar met yesterday with Minnesota families hoping to complete adoptions from Russia. Last week, Russia suspended US adoptions after a Tennessee woman sent an adopted boy back to Russia, saying he was mentally ill. Klobuchar is urging the State Department to take up the adoption issue.

Partly sunny skies across the state this afternoon, highs in the 60s and 70s. It's MPR News.

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GARY EICHTEN: And good morning. Welcome to Midday on Minnesota Public Radio news. I'm Gary Eichten. Well, it's test time again in Minnesota schools. Students are taking their annual Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment exams this month with students being tested on their reading, math, and writing proficiency.

If history is any guide, most Minnesota students will do pretty well on these tests. But again, if history is any guide, students of color probably won't do very well at all. Over the years, there has been a wide gap in achievement, separating white students from students of color. And it really hasn't been much progress made in closing that gap.

However, today we're going to focus on one effort that has been more successful than most, the Page Education Foundation founded by Minnesota Supreme Court Justice and former Minnesota Viking Hall of Fame Alan Page and his wife, Diane Sims Page. Page Education Foundation has helped thousands of Minnesota School students continue their education after they leave high school. And what's more those students, in turn, help mentor younger students, try to keep them on track.

This Saturday, the Page Education Foundation holds its annual fundraiser at Target Field 7:00 to midnight. And today, Alan and Diane Sims Page have joined us to talk about the foundation and what they think can be done to help close this achievement gap.

As always, we invite you to join our conversation. Give us a call here 651-227-6000, 651-227-6000, toll free number 1-800-242-2828. Or you can send in your question or comment online. Go to mprnewsq.org and click on Send a Question.

Justice Page, Diane Sims Page, welcome back to Midday.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Thank you.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Thank you.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: It's good to be here.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: It's good to be here.

GARY EICHTEN: A few nuts and bolts, if we could, let's start at the beginning. Why in the world did you start this foundation back in 1988?

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Well, you talk about the achievement gap that has been around for some time. And it was our thought that by putting together this program that funds post-secondary education and at the same time requires our, we call them Page scholars, to go back into the community where they come from or where they're going to school and spend two hours a week during the school year working with young children, kindergarten through eighth grade, would go a long way towards sending the strong, clear message that education is important, that it is a tool that can be used to help one achieve one's hopes and dreams, whatever they may be.

And IN some respects, it arose out of the notion that we put athletes and entertainers on a pedestal, look at them as heroes and role models. Well, the reality is that we're all influenced by those we can reach out and touch. And so we thought that we would be able to reach far more young people through the scholarship grants and the community service.

GARY EICHTEN: How many students have received Page scholarships over the years?

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Well, over 4,000.

GARY EICHTEN: 4,000?

DIANE SIMS PAGE: There are renewable grants each year. So there's actually been over 8,000 grants given to about over 4,000 students.

GARY EICHTEN: And that's for both, well, either four-year schools or two-year schools--

DIANE SIMS PAGE: For community or technical schools.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Four-year, two-year, I think our scholars have gone to some 105 maybe post-secondary academic institutions across the state.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Yeah.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Mm-hmm.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: We kicked it off, Gary, 22 years ago when Alan was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Alan said if I'm going to have all this attention showered on me, I want to do something to make a difference. So we brainstormed with some neighbors, Steve and Karen Burrows, and came up with the concept for the foundation.

And it was actually our daughter Georgie, who was at South High at the time, who came up with the concept of not just a scholarship program. She said the service to children component have your Page scholars pay you back by working with little kids during the school year. And we think that service to children component is one of the really unique and most important features of the Page Education Foundation.

GARY EICHTEN: They work what, about 50 hours a school year with the young girls?

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: 50 hours a school year.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: And many of them do way more--

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Far more than that.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: --hours than that, yeah.

GARY EICHTEN: So have you been able to track what's happened with the Page scholars? Have they all been roaring successes? Have some of them been roaring successes? How's that worked out?

DIANE SIMS PAGE: All of the above.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: All of the above. A lot of them have been roaring successes.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Yeah, yeah, over there.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: We've had some really good young people who have done some pretty neat things.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Yeah. And our Page family, Gary, has grown significantly over the last 22 years, as you can imagine with 4,000 scholars. But one of my early mentees, a second year scholar, DeGaylynn Wade, went to the University of Minnesota, graduated from law school at the University of Minnesota. And Alan swore her into the bar after she graduated from law school. So you see that full circle there of undergraduate law school and then Alan swearing her into the bar.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Last Friday, I had the opportunity to speak down at Mankato State University. And the person that arranged it, Vang Xiong, is a Page scholar who is now an adjunct professor at Mankato and is working on his PhD, just another example.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Well, don't forget [? Twi ?] who's been a Page scholar for eight years and is currently getting her PhD in public health at the University of Minnesota, and Kao Yang, the winner of two Minnesota Book awards. In fact, she, I think, has been on Minnesota Public Radio.

The book that she's been is The Latehomecomer. And she was a Page scholar. So Yang Tammy Tran who is a doctor and Nate Pelzer who works at US Bank, I mean we could go on and on.

GARY EICHTEN: Do you think these young people, though, would have made it on their own with or without the scholarship? Or was this scholarship really something that got them on track and kept them on track?

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: I think the financial assistance kept them on track. Some of them it gets them on track. Our scholars vary, and some of them might have been successful, otherwise.

The real key component, though, is that the community service part. The service part, that has changed any number of lives, because we've had-- I can't tell you how many scholars who start off not quite knowing where they're going and end up either in the educational and counseling end of things or as teachers, really pretty impressive.

GARY EICHTEN: Have you been able to track the youngsters? And what's happened to them, the ones who were mentored by the Page scholars?

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Yeah, anecdotally, it's pretty difficult to get the funding and the staff time to do any kind of a projectable quantitative study. But we know that it's, based on talking to the classroom teachers and some of the community organizations, that were making a big difference. We need to get a big grant so we can put some numbers behind that.

GARY EICHTEN: We're talking with Alan Page and Diane Sims Page today about the Page Education Foundation. The foundation was started 22 years ago back in 1988. And this weekend, the Page Foundation has a big fundraiser. These folks have been good enough to come in today to talk about what the foundation has been up to and broader efforts in society to close the so-called achievement gap.

Love to have you. Join our conversation as well. Give us a call at 651-227-6000 or 1-800-242-2828. The online address is mprnewsq.org. And then when you get there, click on Send a Question.

Well, in a nutshell, while we wait for some listeners to get their calls lined up here, why does this achievement gap persist year after year after year after year? Lord knows it's gotten plenty of attention.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Well, it's interesting. The University of Minnesota's Institute on race and poverty has done some studying of that. And it comes down to two things, race and poverty.

And when those two are combined, it has a devastating effect on the education of children. And as we can see, it has had a particularly devastating effect on African-American males.

It's interesting as Martin Luther King says people who have hope want to protect their society. People who have lost hope want to destroy it. One of the ways, it seems to me, that we can create that hope is by doing a better job of, the way I would put it is, educating children one school at a time, one classroom at a time, one child at a time to ensure that each individual child grows in their educational efforts.

GARY EICHTEN: Mm-hmm. Diane, I'm wondering if the battle is largely lost even before school begins. There's an argument that holds that early childhood education is so critical in terms of getting kids off on a good start. Is that true?

DIANE SIMS PAGE: So important, yeah, very important. But, G, I don't want to lose that, the hope that Alan's talking about, to think that we've lost the battle even before it starts. I don't want to believe that.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Well, but it is true that the children start to learn from day 1. And we have to recognize that and work with parents, work with the young children to encourage them and motivate them in their reading and writing and even early on. I mean, it makes a big difference how much time parents spend with their children, talking to them, singing with them, playing with them, reading to them.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: We're finding that out firsthand right now, Gary, with having two grandchildren. So grandma and grandpa Page are doing a lot of what we're talking about with our own grandsons, the reading and the singing and the talking. They're little right now, preschool, but we think that's very important.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: That's when it's got to start. That's when that enthusiasm and that curiosity that carried me, carried Diane, probably carried you and our children through the educational process, is it really does have to begin very early on.

GARY EICHTEN: Have you been able to identify what it is that distinguishes, say, the Page scholars from so many of the kids who aren't making it? I mean, the Page scholars have to be at least interested enough in education to apply, for example, and to pursue some course of study as opposed to a lot of the kids who just don't seem to care.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Well, unfortunately, for a lot of young people, by the time they get to that point where it's thinking about going to college or to school beyond high school, they've given up. They've lost that hope. And sometimes I think we beat it out of them. But when you lose that hope early on, it makes it very difficult, even if you intellectually know you want to go on to get started to get moving in the right direction.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Yeah, anybody that's had a child that has-- during college application process and getting your own children to go through that whole process of applying and writing the essay and all of that entails, we have a lot of those same challenges with our Page scholars. But there are organizations and mentors in the community and teachers and counselors who help the students who are applying for Page scholars to go through the application process.

GARY EICHTEN: Now about 10 years ago, you were starting to have some trouble getting African-American males to--

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Yes.

GARY EICHTEN: --to apply for the Page scholarships. Has that turned around?

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: It's still a challenge, but it's a challenge not only for us, it's a challenge nationally that African-American males are falling by the wayside. And the flip side of what's happening on the academic side is what's happening in our criminal justice system, where African-American males are woefully overrepresented.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: We have an initiative called the African-American male recruitment initiative. And I do think that we are seeing progress. I mean, it's a challenge, but we are seeing our numbers of African-American males increase each year. So that's encouraging.

GARY EICHTEN: We're talking this hour about the Page Education Foundation and lessons that the foundation has learned and working with young students of color, trying to get them moving forward, get them off to college, get a degree, and then reach back along the way and help younger kids stay on track as well.

Joining us here in the studio, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page and Diane Sims Page, his wife. They operate the Page Education Foundation, big fundraiser this weekend. Foundation has been well 4,000 recipients over the years since 1988.

Love to have you join our conversation, 651-227-6000 1-800-242-2828. The online address is mprnewsq.org. When you get there, click on Send a Question.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: OK, Gary, I have another success story I wanted to share with you because I think you'll enjoy hearing about it. Alan in a few weeks is going to go down to Cannon Falls Minnesota and speak at the Chamber of Commerce.

And there was a young person who had just moved to Cannon Falls, Yani Sanchez. And he went into the Chamber of Commerce and said I'm new to the community. And I'd like to sign up for the Chamber of Commerce.

And they said great. At our upcoming luncheon, Alan Page will be the keynote speaker. And Yani said, I was a Page scholar, and I'm opening a New Mexican restaurant in town. So anyway, Alan will be reunited with Yani in a few weeks down in Cannon Falls.

When we're out in the community, those are the kinds of things that just bust our buttons when people come up to us and say, I'm a Page scholar. I teach. I'm a Page scholar. I'm a counselor. So anyway, you must be looking forward to going down to Cannon Falls, Alan.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Very much so, very much so. As Diane says, these are the-- our scholars are our heroes, certainly my heroes. They're the ones that I look to for inspiration because they do some pretty amazing things.

GARY EICHTEN: I really do want to get to listener questions here, but do the peers of the Page scholars look at them as heroes or as nerds? Or I mean, how are they viewed?

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: I think they're viewed pretty positively. My impression is that if you're a paid scholar, other students notice it other, young people notice it and look at that as a plus.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Yeah. One year, we got a donation of some "I'm a Page Scholar" book bags that we distributed to the Page scholars. And I noticed that coming into the foundation and in some campuses that the Page scholars carried their book bag "I'm a Page Scholar" with pride. So I think they're looked up to.

On some of the campuses where there are quite a few Page scholars, there's, for example, there's 68 at--

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Mankato.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: --Mankato. And there's hundreds at Minnesota technical and community college. And I think--

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: I think our largest number is at the University of Minnesota.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Yeah, and they get together informally as Page scholars.

GARY EICHTEN: OK, well, let's get to some listener questions here, folks listening and waiting patiently. Ralph, you're first. Go ahead please.

AUDIENCE: Yes. Hello, how are you?

GARY EICHTEN: Just fine.

AUDIENCE: Thank you for the discussion. Mr. Page, I appreciate your work in the foundation and all that you're doing in the community. I know specifically about the achievement gap. I mean the discussion today is very fitting because Minnesota leads the nation next to Washington DC with the highest achievement gap between Black and white students.

So my observations as a parent specifically is in relationship to Title I funding through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, otherwise known as No Child Left Behind, and state compensatory education funds that are funds that deal specifically as supplemental funding for local school to deal with the identified issues of poverty and which many times spills over into racial percentages of a specific local school's population. That money specifically is supposed to provide supplemental resources to bridge the gap in a child's education experience, which is a significant amount of funding at the local school level.

So, Mr. Page, I would just like to get your observation on, do you see that those state and federal dollars really working in an efficient, effective way? And is there accountability there? Because as a parent, just navigating around those particular kind of funding issues at the local school level, I see a serious disconnect with how those funds are being used, allocated, and transferred down to the children's educational needs.

GARY EICHTEN: All right. Thanks, Ralph. Justice Page.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Well, Ralph, I don't know that I'm qualified to speak to the funding issues that you referred to. I do know that clearly whatever we're doing isn't working and that we've got to become more effective and presumably more efficient in what we're doing. And simply continuing to do the same things over and over and over again and getting the same result and then wondering what's going wrong isn't helping anybody.

GARY EICHTEN: Have you folks, though, been able to pick up a couple of ideas on what it is that isn't being done that would be helpful at this point to close the achievement gap, based on your work with kids and so on and so forth and again, getting back to the Page scholars, the kids who make it versus kids who don't even bother to apply?

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Well--

DIANE SIMS PAGE: The mentoring.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: I think it's the mentoring. I think people like me have to spend time in classrooms, talking with, working with, encouraging, and motivating young people, people like Diane, people like you, people like your listeners. I think that's where the change is going to be made.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Tell them about Everybody Wins, the program that you participate in.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Yes, I'm a participant in a program at Benjamin Mays Elementary School here in St. Paul, where we have a read-- it's a reading program called Everybody Wins. And every Tuesday, I go over and spend time with my reading buddy.

This year, she's a third grader. In the past, we start off first grade, second grade, third grade. Next year I suppose we'll go back to the first grade. But I've been doing that since 1995 or '96. And in fact, my first reading buddy, Kayla Randall, is graduating from college this year.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: And we still get a Christmas card from her every year.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Absolutely.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Yeah.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Those are the kinds of things that make a difference in young people's lives, that connection with somebody who cares about them, who is there, who is there on a regular basis. And I think that's how we create certainly an important part of creating the motivation and the inspiration for young children to continue on.

GARY EICHTEN: Hashim, your question, please.

AUDIENCE: --taking my call. I'm actually one of the Olympic scholars.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Hi, Hashim.

AUDIENCE: How are you doing?

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Good.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Hi, Hashim.

AUDIENCE: I was just listening to the radio, so I had to call.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Oh, we're so proud of you, Hashim.

AUDIENCE: Thank you.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Hashim, go ahead.

AUDIENCE: Yeah, I just want to say thank you. And Alan was mentioning about the closing the achievement gap. I'm a student teacher right now at Roosevelt High School, and I teach world history and US history.

And the first week I asked the questions, how many of you would like to be a teacher? And the class was dead at zero. And none of the students said they want to be a teacher.

So as we all know, for example, Roosevelt High School is dominated by urban students, African-Americans, Latinos, students of color. And I think in order for us to close the achievement gap, we need to motivate students of color to become teachers. If we motivate the students of color to become the teachers, then we can close the achievement gap.

But I think that's my solution as of right now what I'm thinking as a student teacher. I don't see a lot of student color teachers in this urban education area.

GARY EICHTEN: Thanks, Hashim. Appreciate it.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: We didn't plant that question, Gary. Hashim, we're excited that you called in. He's one of our many stars. Hashim, he's on the advisory board for the Page Education Foundation, and he is just an incredible inspiration. He's just the greatest.

GARY EICHTEN: We often hear that it would be easier for kids to learn if they looked up and saw a teacher that looked like themself. You suppose that's true, or is a good teacher a good teacher a good teacher?

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: A good teacher is a good teacher is a good teacher. But having somebody in the classroom who looks like you, who has some shared experience with you, comes from where you come from, that's always going to be a plus. That's always going to be a plus.

It's the same with our judicial system. Having judges, having lawyers who look like the people that are in the courtroom makes a difference. It absolutely makes a difference. If nothing else, it gives people trust and confidence that what they're going through is something worthwhile, is something that the person, the teacher, the judge, the lawyer understands and has some, as I say, some shared experience. I think this is pretty important.

GARY EICHTEN: Talking this hour about the Page Education Foundation. Minnesota Supreme Court Justice and former Minnesota Vikings star Hall of Fame Alan Page is here. Diane Simms Page is with us, and we'd love to have you join our conversation. Give us a call 651-227-6000 or 1-800-242-2828, online address, mprnewsq.org. When you get there, click on Send a Question.

Talking about the achievement gap in Minnesota and what can be done to help students of color get up to speed and move on to college. And the Page Foundation has helped 4,000 students do so so far. And they've in turn been working with younger students to get them motivated. But what about bringing that to a broader number of people?

Give us a call with your questions and comments. We'll continue here in a couple of minutes.

SPEAKER 1: Programming is supported by Flint Hills Resources, using ethanol from Midwest farmers and North American crude oil supplied by Canada to produce the transportation fuels that help power the region. More information at fhr.com.

TOM CRANN: On the next All Things Considered, get the context on the news you've been hearing about throughout the day. I'm Tom Crann. We'll cover the top stories from around Minnesota and the world. So join me here on Minnesota Public Radio news weekdays from 3:00 to 6:30.

PHIL PICARDIE: From Minnesota Public Radio news, I'm Phil Picard. Two leaders of the terror organization in Iraq have been killed in a joint US-Iraqi operation. The commander of US forces says it could be the biggest blow to al-Qaeda in Iraq since the insurgency there began. The US military says the two were killed in a nighttime raid on their safe house near Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein.

The ordeal may soon be over for some of the travelers trying to get to and from Europe. They've been stranded for days by the ash cloud from an erupting volcano in Iceland. But British officials now say restrictions over Scottish airspace will be lifted tomorrow. And other British airports could also reopen soon. Germany is letting its airline fly 15,000 passengers back home.

NASA will try again tomorrow to bring the space shuttle discovery in for a landing. Rain and cloudy skies over Florida today prompted controllers to wave off the shuttle from today's two landing opportunities.

Toyota says it's just trying to avoid a costly court battle as it agrees to pay a $16.4 million fine for failing to quickly tell US authorities about a defect in an accelerator pedal. The company is denying allegations it broke the law. But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says Toyota has accepted responsibility for violating its legal obligations.

A judge is hearing testimony on whether a man whose crimes horrified Minnesota in 1980 should remain locked up. Ming Sen Shiue has spent 30 years in prison for kidnapping missionary Mary Stauffer and her eight-year-old daughter and then killing a six-year-old boy who witnessed the abduction. Now 59 prosecutors are seeking to commit Shiue indefinitely to the state's sex offender treatment program.

Partly sunny skies across the state this afternoon, high temperatures from the mid 60s to the low 70s. Right now, sunny and 62 in Saint Paul, partly sunny and 52 in Duluth. This is Minnesota Public Radio news.

GARY EICHTEN: And this is Midday coming to you on Minnesota Public Radio news. Good morning. Gary Eichten here. It's about 25 minutes before 12:00 and over the noon hour.

Today, we have some highlights from a really interesting conference, a reunion really that was held over the weekend down in North Carolina. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee held its 50th anniversary, marking the start of SNCC.

John Lewis brought the house down, Congressman John Lewis, civil rights hero. And we'll hear from him over the noon hour. We'll also hear from Attorney General Eric Holder, who spoke at the reunion. All of that coming up over the noon hour.

This hour, we're talking about the achievement gap in Minnesota what to do about it. Joining us here in the studio, Alan Page and Diane Simms Page. They are the heads or the founders of the Page Education Foundation, and they've joined us today to talk about what they found in terms of working with students of color.

They've helped over 4,000 students over the years move on to college. The students in turn are then required to help younger students, mentor them. Big fundraiser this coming weekend on Saturday at Target Field.

Meantime, they've joined us here in studio to take your questions. We've got a full bank of callers, but you can send your question or comment in online at mprnewsq.org. And by the way, you will also find at mprnewsq.org a link to the Page Education Foundation if you want to learn some more about the foundation. Lynwood, go ahead, please.

AUDIENCE: Hello. Hi, good morning, Gary.

GARY EICHTEN: Hi.

AUDIENCE: And to the guest Judge Paige and his wife, Diane, good morning.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Good morning.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Good morning.

AUDIENCE: First, I would like to send a shout out to Judge Paige. I've been following your work out on the football field since you were a Chicago Bear, which is the area that I'm from.

GARY EICHTEN: Lynwood, Lynwood, we don't talk about the Chicago Bear, period. It's an era that we've wiped off the history books.

AUDIENCE: I hope not, Gary. You didn't allow me to finish. I was going to say that in addition to his work for the Chicago Bears, his career also here in Minnesota, which I am a transplant and now a Minnesotan. I've been here 15, going on 16 years.

And since my wife and I are currently sitting here at our laptops, working on our education, both of us are dislocated workers. I'm dislocated from the union heavy equipment operator. And my wife's industry is the banking industry.

We're both currently working on our degrees. We both have tried the educational process in the state, colleges, technical colleges, and we were able to move from that system and move over to the private college system. And we're finding more success.

GARY EICHTEN: OK, Lynwood, your question, please.

AUDIENCE: Yes. My question or my statement is that as an adult learner, we have been able to identify that there are some serious problems and flaws in the process of adult learners achieving the gap, the learning gap here in Minnesota as well as younger students. And we would like to know, are you guys currently doing any work to help adult learners achieve this goal in every area that you guys have previously discussed this morning?

GARY EICHTEN: OK. All right. Thanks, Lynwood. Any kind of a program for adults.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Not with the Page Education Foundation. We're very focused on high school students graduating, going on to college, and then working with young children. Clearly there are issues with adult learning and adult education. But with our program, our focus is strictly on the young folks.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Gary, it becomes-- we have over 1,200 applications every year for Page Scholarships, and we accept 550. And you can imagine the painful process of saying no. And pretty much everyone qualifies of the 1,200. And so we still have to narrow that down.

And so income obviously is taken into consideration. But age is also, unfortunately, is taken into consideration just because we've only got so many scholarships. We only have the money to give so many.

GARY EICHTEN: I was going to say how do you pick from that 1,200? And--

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: It's really tough.

GARY EICHTEN: --what criteria do you use?

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: It's difficult.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: It's difficult. You don't want Alan involved at the end because he keeps sneaking in a few of the applications where we cut off at 550, and all of a sudden, I see Alan with 10 more that he just can't possibly say no to. And all of a sudden, then we're up to 560. And so yeah, it's very difficult.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: We have an application process that requires income information and requires an essay and--

DIANE SIMS PAGE: References

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: --references and background information. And then we go through those applications. Every application gets read twice. And we make the difficult decisions. In the end, the number one criteria is need, economic need.

GARY EICHTEN: Nancy, your question, please.

AUDIENCE: Hi, I'd like to congratulate the Pages for the work that they've done to encourage individual students. But I would like to know if they don't think we also need to address the structural and institutional racism that is the cause of the achievement gap.

GARY EICHTEN: Well, first of all, let's take a step back from that question. Is institutional and structural racism the cause of the achievement gap?

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Well, I'm not going to sit here and say that it is or isn't. I'm not an expert in that field, in that area. But what I can say is clearly we've got problems that are connected to race and that race is a factor that we have to confront.

GARY EICHTEN: Mm-hmm. Joe Nathan of the Center for School Change was on Midday a couple of weeks ago talking about this issue among other things. And he said they ran a project in Cincinnati, where they've had good success apparently closing the achievement gap, virtually eliminating it.

And he said one of the keys to that effort, that successful effort, has been getting people to realize or recognize that every student actually can succeed. This business of low expectation, he said, is just a killer.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: As I said, one school at a time, one classroom at a time, one child at a time. Every child has the ability to learn. Do we have the will and the ability to teach them?

GARY EICHTEN: Mm-hmm. Bill, you're up next. Go ahead, please.

AUDIENCE: Thank you. I was listening to Mr. Page talk about going into schools and helping the younger kids. And he said something about trying to send people in to help the kids that are of the same background, the same culture.

And my question really goes to resources. Do you think we'd be better off trying to tap more local resources to help come in and tutor, if you will, the students instead of-- or maybe not instead of, but also putting more money into the schools. I guess my real question is, do you think money alone is the solution? Or do you think we should really be focusing on more localized resources for each school?

GARY EICHTEN: OK. Thanks, Bill.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Money is always an issue. But that being said, having people from whatever community involved with young people, being tutors and mentors, acting as role models, it's all important.

And don't get me wrong when I say it's important to have tutors, teachers, mentors who are people of color. That doesn't mean that there isn't a role for everybody else also. There's a role for all of us. We can all have a part in changing the way young people view education.

GARY EICHTEN: Well, Diane, I think what Bill was trying to get to here was the idea that if there were hundreds Page foundations, then maybe we wouldn't have to spend so much money on education, K-12 education. True?

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Well, I think I agree with Alan that money is always important. You need both. You need both.

GARY EICHTEN: Susan, you're next. Go ahead, please.

AUDIENCE: Thank you. I just wanted to call in because you've touched something important to my heart. And thank you for your contribution to our young kids, by the way, The Pages.

I was 25 years in the private sector, working in a highly competitive environment, very professional, and I was laid off. I had three small children at home. The children are in school and doing well, and I decided all of a sudden to work for the public school system as a substitute paraprofessional, because I don't have a college degree.

And I was absolutely bowled over and shocked by the gap that I saw. So I'm in Rochester, Minnesota, home of the Mayo Clinic, but also home of some kids that really live on the edge. And I've seen some kids that in fifth grade cannot sight read like a second grader. And I've had tears in my eyes just looking at these kids, because they just don't get how important that is to learn to read.

I've established some sort of connection, heart to heart connection, with some kids that actually would come up and give me a hug when I haven't seen them for a few weeks. And so I even though the pay is low, there's a lot of soul payback, if you will.

Just an observation here in addition to my personal experience. What I think I've seen is that this NCLB, this No Child Left Behind, and its increasing tightening of school performance and measurement is making schools so uncomfortable because they're really being asked to make everybody read at proficiency by what, 2014. This is an impossible task, given the structure that's in place.

And I think it's actually an OK thing. I think we'll struggle through it. I think we're going to be leaner for it. And I think we're going to put some fundamental changes in place in education. It's ugly, but we're going to do it.

GARY EICHTEN: OK. Thanks, Susan, appreciate the comment.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Thanks, Susan, for the work you're doing with young people. It's interesting. I'm not at all surprised at your story, and Alan can actually tell you some stories when he was playing professional football, where there were some of his teammates who could not read from the playbook. So Alan has seen that experience firsthand with adults.

And yeah, you could-- I don't know if you want to share any of that, Alan. But that was pretty shocking.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Well, it was shocking. But that being said, we tend to look at athletics and people who struggle with reading or whatever, we tend to look at that as an athletic problem. But the reality is that it's an academic problem.

Those young men who I played with who couldn't read the playbook didn't miss out on learning how to read in the colleges, some of the best post-secondary academic institutions in this country. They didn't miss out on learning how to read in high school. We all learned to read in the first, second, third grade. And that's where they missed it, and they weren't athletes then.

GARY EICHTEN: This brings up, I think, an interesting point. We've focused a lot, say, the last 10, 15, 20 years on the achievement gap and it comes around every time there's a series of test scores and the rest. But is this in fact a new problem? Or is it simply a problem that we finally come to recognize in the last few years?

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Well, it's certainly not new.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: It's not new, definitely.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: It is definitely not new.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: No.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: It has been around for a long time.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Long time.

GARY EICHTEN: Mm-hmm.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: We talk about it, and the focus of the Page Education Foundation is on students of color. But there are gaps between urban and rural. There are gaps between rural and suburban. There are gaps that we need to address, not just with our students of color.

GARY EICHTEN: Do the kids that you've encountered, who are having a tough time of it, realize or want to catch up, want to do well but simply can't or don't they give a hoot?

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: I spend a lot of time in schools and have for the last 40 years. And in the first, second, third, and fourth grades, kids understand what's happening to them, the ones that are getting left behind. They get it.

GARY EICHTEN: Even the little ones.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Even the little ones. They're still hopeful. They're still enthusiastic. But as they get older, they recognize that they've been left behind.

And that's when the real problem starts, because then they no longer have in Dr. King's words, that hope, which encourages them to protect our society. And that's when they become antisocial. That's when they start going down the path that leads them to our criminal justice system.

GARY EICHTEN: Now, are those the kind of kids that the Page scholars work with? Or do they work with the kids who are doing a little better? How do you pick out the kids who are mentored?

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Right. Well, one of the things we're very proud of, if you're an if you're an A or B student, and don't get me wrong, we have plenty of those as Page scholars. But one of our goals is, and we've actually achieved it, is to encourage the average student, the C student, who's really willing to work hard, because we have many Page scholars who are average students, willing to work hard, willing to do the community service. And we want to pull them along, and they don't have any idea when they're in high school that they would even be ever be eligible for a scholarship.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Our goal is to lift people up, not filter them out. And our scholars work in various and sundry community-based programs across the state, some 300 and some odd different organizations.

GARY EICHTEN: How do you decide, OK, this youngster is going to get help from the Page scholars as opposed to the other--

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Oh, that's through the organizations that our scholars work with.

GARY EICHTEN: OK.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: They work in the Big Brothers, Big Sisters. They work in schools the wise

GARY EICHTEN: And who benefits the most, the mentor or the mentee, if you will?

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Well, both.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Hard to say.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Yeah.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Hard to say. Certainly, we've had-- for renewing their scholarships on the annual basis, our scholars have to write another essay. And invariably, a good number of them will say this service part I wasn't so sure about it, wasn't looking forward to it--

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Didn't want to do it.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Didn't want to do it. And--

DIANE SIMS PAGE: But it's changed my life.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: --turns out it's changed my life.

GARY EICHTEN: Back to the phones. John's on the line. Go ahead, John.

AUDIENCE: Mr. Page, I just want to say thank you for your character. I'm not a person that you probably would think that would listen to this radio station. I'm just an everyday guy that gets Social Security that's messed up his life and a lot of children's lives that I have-- that I wasn't able to be in.

I just want to challenge you to reach back far enough to the root that you help these fathers stay in these children's lives so that they can be the mentor that you speak of, so that they can be the boys and girls club, so that they can be the librarian or whomever. Because without that father in their life, they've already lost before they've even started to begin to win.

And the programs that are set up in a lot of cases take the cream of the crop. But it's so much up under the cream that doesn't get even touched or looked at. And if agencies and entities were more interested in keeping this Black man in the family that the welfare separates, that the Social Security separates, that the financial situation separates, a lot of the work that you're trying to do would be done far before this problem hits an epidemic proportion.

So from my heart, I honestly hope that you can see it in yourself through legislation, through the people that you know, through this radio station to reach out to this Black man that has just been thrown by the wayside. As we speak today, we've heard nothing about the fathers, nothing.

GARY EICHTEN: OK. Thanks, John.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: He said it well that we do have to figure out how to keep fathers involved with their children, how to support them, and how to make that work. Unfortunately, it's not something that we at the Page Education Foundation can do simply because we have our hands full with the mission we have. But there are a number of groups and organizations. And in fact, I'm blanking on--

DIANE SIMS PAGE: The Twin Cities Rise.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Twin Cities Rise. There's a--

DIANE SIMS PAGE: There's a fathers group too.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Yes, that--

DIANE SIMS PAGE: [INAUDIBLE] the name too.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: --that I was talking with over the winter that they're working very hard to do precisely what he's talking about.

GARY EICHTEN: Do you folks see the achievement gap as primarily an education issue or a social issue, societal issue?

DIANE SIMS PAGE: I don't know. How do you separate those?

GARY EICHTEN: Well, there was a theory that holds, look, the schools have done pretty much everything they possibly can to deal with this problem. And they've made little or no success. They have had little or no success because the theory goes, this really is a problem that involves parents. It involves institutional racism, all of that.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: It does involve all of that. But it seems to me that all those things are interlinked when we talk about education. We can't ignore one without having an impact on the others. And we can't change one unless we bring about change in all those different areas.

GARY EICHTEN: Kathy, a quick comment here before we wrap up.

AUDIENCE: Yes, a brief comment regarding my experience with the Page scholar who volunteered at the Community-University Health Care Center reading books to children and as part of our pediatric literacy program. It was just an outstanding contribution, and we were so glad to have the Page scholar to read books to children in the waiting room while they were waiting for their medical appointments with their parents or caregivers.

Also, I have a brief question.

GARY EICHTEN: Very brief.

AUDIENCE: This is very brief. Is it possible for people to volunteer to support Page scholars through being a mentor to the scholar, himself or herself?

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Absolutely.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Absolutely.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Yeah, I just contacted the foundation office. We didn't get into it today, and we're short on time, I think. But we have an adult mentor program where we have adults in the community who mentor the current Page scholars. And so we'd love to have you on board. I'm so glad that the service to children project worked out well for your organization, and I hope you get more Page scholars in the future.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: I love that reading the young kids. We're actually working on a program that's going to be captioned Begin With a Book.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Yeah.

GARY EICHTEN: Mm-hmm. Do you still want to be a teacher? I read somewhere a few years ago anyway you wanted to teach eight-year-olds.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: I would like to have the strength and the courage to do that. Actually, I've been thinking about how I might be able to structure it so that I could do it, yes.

GARY EICHTEN: Uh-huh.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: In fact, I've been thinking about, wouldn't it be interesting to develop a reading program, reading and writing program for young five, six, seven, eight-year-old African-American males so that they learn the love of reading, learn the love of writing. And in the process, I think that goes a long way towards how you view education down the road and how you learn down the road.

GARY EICHTEN: So, Diane, I'm guessing somebody is listening right now and thinking, gosh, I'd like to apply to be a Page scholar. Or I know somebody who should apply. What do they do?

DIANE SIMS PAGE: www.page-ed.org, or call the Page Foundation office 612-332-0406. And yeah, in fact, we're in our application process right now. So this would be a perfect time.

GARY EICHTEN: And should they be prepared to write like a long essay or something?

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Oh, it's a pretty rigorous process, yes. Yeah, well, letters of recommend, your high school transcript, your parents' income, an essay. Yeah, it's a rigorous process, but we can get help for students if they need help going through the application process.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: And deadline is May 1.

GARY EICHTEN: Meantime, big fundraiser this Saturday at Target Field, $100 per ticket, but it's open to everybody, I guess.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Open to everybody and the VIP legends lounge, which is just to die for, Kirby Puckett fire pit, the Harmon Killebrew bar, a beautiful view of the infield, great music, silent auction, wall of wine. It's going to be a great event.

GARY EICHTEN: Diane Sims Page, Justice Alan Page, thank you so much for joining us today. Good luck.

JUSTICE ALAN PAGE: Thank you.

DIANE SIMS PAGE: Thank you, Gary.

GARY EICHTEN: Page is talking about the Page Education Foundation.

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Each weekday, Minnesota Public Radio news invites you to join the conversation on mprnewsq.org. The Saint Paul school board will vote this week on whether to cut elementary band and orchestra programs as well as middle school athletics.

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