The Big Disconnect

Oh where do we begin, the rubble or our sins?

Each year the Pew Research Center surveys Americans on their top public policy priorities.  Each year, the result comes out the same:  the economy and jobs rank as the public’s top priorities in the political sphere.  I have no reason to believe that the citizens of Minnesota share different priorities than the rest of the country.

You would assume that our elected officials--with their finger on the pulse of the voter—and our media, desperate for ratings and subscribers, would choose to give the people what they want.  Yet, they don’t.

At the state legislature this year, the biggest issues are not jobs and the economy, but, we are told, include Sunday liquor sales, marijuana legalization and a new glass-wrapped office building for state senators.

In education (Pew public priority No. 4), it’s much of the same.

Minnesota likes to point to the nation-leading high test scores earned by our graduating high school seniors.  Yet, somehow, 40 percent of our incoming college students require remedial coursework to perform college-level work.

In turn, Minnesota ranks near the top of states with a high percentage of the population holding college degrees.  Yet, somehow, we have thousands of jobs that go unfilled because our workforce does not have the skills needed by our economy.

Minnesota is spending record amounts on preschool education because our kids are not showing up to school ready to learn.  Our high school graduates ace the college prep tests, yet show up to college unprepared.  We turn out record numbers of college graduates, but not ones prepared with the skills needed by the marketplace.

Each layer of the system seems completely disconnected from the last.

On the environment (Pew public priority No. 12), just about every indicator shows dramatic improvements.  Yet, Minnesota’s environmental non-profits talk as if the Cuyahoga River is still ablaze.

I understand that governing is hard.  Solving our real problems--demographic decline, a structurally-shifting economy, and unsustainable government spending–will require a level of seriousness and focus that our ruling political party and the legacy media do not possess.

It’s much more fun to chase trendy social issues than to dig into actuarial tables and agency budgets.  I guess we are getting the politics we deserve.  But when will we get the politics we need?