Smart Investments in Minnesota's Students inspires question at Gubernatorial candidate debate
At the 2010 Major Party Gubernatorial Candidate Debate held on January 27, Growth & Justice research became the topic of discussion when the following question was asked:
“The progressive think tank Growth & Justice, recommended last year that the state of Minnesota set a policy goal of increasing the number of college graduates it produces per year by 50 percent by the year 2020. Would you as governor adopt that goal? If you would how would you propose to achieve it? If you would not what policy goal would you set for higher education?
The event sponsored by the News Council and the League of Women Voters Minnesota Education Fund in cooperation with the Minnesota Newspaper Association and featured 10 Democrats, 6 Republicans, and 4 Independence Party candidates.
A full re-broadcast of the debate is available at . Video courtesy of .
Let's talk transportation — as in freight, not cars
This column originally appeared in the Star Tribune on Saturday, January 9, 2010
 People-moving tends to be transportation policy's squeaky wheel, but freight is where the rubber really meets the road for economic growth.
Every day, Minnesotans rely on a freight system that uses roads, rails, water routes and airways to transport consumer goods, mail, parts and equipment, crops, ore and timber to millions of destinations, tying Minnesota's communities to one another and to the larger economies of the region, the nation and the world.
In the new decade, let's reinvest in the common good: MPR commentary by Dane Smith
A version of this commentary also appeared on the Growth & Justice blog on Wednesday, December 30.
NPR and MPR have some intriguing hindsight conversations going on right now, asking in the last year and offering looks back at and at
Watch for more retrospective commentary as we mark the end of one of the worst years in the economic history of Minnesota and the United States. It's also the end of one of the worst decades in modern times for most ordinary Americans.
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