13.37 GENERAL NONPUBLIC DATA.

Subdivision 1.Definitions.

 

As used in this section, the following terms have the meanings given them.

(a) "Security information" means government data the disclosure of which the responsible authority determines would be likely to substantially jeopardize the security of information, possessions, individuals or property against theft, tampering, improper use, attempted escape, illegal disclosure, trespass, or physical injury. "Security information" includes checking account numbers, crime prevention block maps and lists of volunteers who participate in community crime prevention programs and their home and mailing addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail or other digital addresses, Internet communication services accounts information or similar accounts information, and global positioning system locations.

(b) "Trade secret information" means government data, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique or process (1) that was supplied by the affected individual or organization, (2) that is the subject of efforts by the individual or organization that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy, and (3) that derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable by proper means by, other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use.

(c) "Labor relations information" means management positions on economic and noneconomic items that have not been presented during the collective bargaining process or interest arbitration, including information specifically collected or created to prepare the management position.

(d) "Parking space leasing data" means the following government data on an applicant for, or lessee of, a parking space: residence address, home telephone number, beginning and ending work hours, place of employment, work telephone number, and location of the parking space.

Subd. 2.Classification.

 

(a) The following government data is classified as nonpublic data with regard to data not on individuals, pursuant to section 13.02, subdivision 9, and as private data with regard to data on individuals, pursuant to section 13.02, subdivision 12: Security information; trade secret information; sealed absentee ballots prior to opening by an election judge; sealed bids, including the number of bids received, prior to the opening of the bids; parking space leasing data; and labor relations information, provided that specific labor relations information which relates to a specific labor organization is classified as protected nonpublic data pursuant to section 13.02, subdivision 13.

(b) If a government entity denies a data request based on a determination that the data are security information, upon request, the government entity must provide a short description explaining the necessity for the classification.

Subd. 3.Data dissemination.

 

(a) Crime prevention block maps and names, home addresses, and telephone numbers of volunteers who participate in community crime prevention programs may be disseminated to volunteers participating in crime prevention programs. The location of a National Night Out event is public data.

(b) The responsible authority of a government entity in consultation with the appropriate chief law enforcement officer, emergency manager, or public health official, may make security information accessible to any person, entity, or the public if the government entity determines that the access will aid public health, promote public safety, or assist law enforcement.

History: 

1980 c 603 s 15; 1981 c 311 s 11,39; 1982 c 545 s 24; 1984 c 436 s 15; 1985 c 248 s 4; 1990 c 573 s 3,4; 1996 c 440 art 1 s 5,6; 1997 c 111 s 6; 1998 c 371 s 1; 1Sp2003 c 8 art 2 s 7; 2005 c 163 s 33-35; 2012 c 290 s 16,17; 2013 c 82 s 2; 2014 c 208 s 1

Copyright © 2018 by the Revisor of Statutes, State of Minnesota. All rights reserved.

Teacher Shortage is ‘Real and Growing, and Worse Than We Thought’

While the teacher shortage is being felt across many states and school districts, its impact is not shared equally along socioeconomic lines, according to a new paper by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

Probably the most critical resource denied to many students is an experienced, full-certified teacher –  a deficit that is “much more acute problem in high-poverty schools,” said EPI Economist Emma García. “These shortages threaten students’ ability to learn and reduce teachers’ effectiveness, and high teacher turnover consumes economic resources that could be better deployed elsewhere.”

The study, co-authored by García and EPI research associate Elaine Weiss, is the first in a series  examining the “perfect storm” in the teacher labor market – the causes, the consequences and potential remedies. “The teacher shortage is real, large and growing, and worse than we thought,” they write.

As the U.S. economy slowly recovered from the Great Recession and school budgets improved, districts began to look for teachers. They soon found that filling positions was more difficult than they had anticipated. Too many districts have struggled ever since. Finding qualified teachers in mathematics, science and special education has been a particular challenge.

The Leaning Policy Institute (LPI), who has sounded the alarm about the teacher shortage in a number of reports, defines a shortage as “the inability to staff school at current wages with individuals qualified to teach in the fields required.”

As García and Weiss note, not all current teachers meet the education, experience, and certification requirements associated with being a highly qualified teacher.

“We argue that, when issues such as teacher quality and the unequal distribution of highly qualified teachers across schools serving different concentrations of low-income students are taken into consideration, the teacher shortage problem is much more severe than previously thought,” the EPI report said.

The shortages are especially severe in California. In 2017, LPI found that two-thirds of principals in high-poverty schools left positions vacant or hired less-qualified teachers. Less than half of their counterparts in schools with fewer lower-income students did so.

According to Advance Illinois, in 2017, 90 percent of teacher vacancies in the state – 1,006 positions in all – were in underfunded school districts. Seventy-four percent were in majority-minority school districts, and 81 percent were in low-income districts.

Students in high-poverty schools are more likely than their counterparts in low-poverty schools to have teachers who have less experience, fewer credentials, and lack the educational background in the subject matter they are teaching. (See chart below.) These teachers are also more likely to leave the profession.

The EPI paper also finds that the established link between strong credentials and retention weakens in high-poverty schools, as attrition drains these schools of qualified teachers at a greater rate. Richard Ingersoll of the University of Pennsylvania estimates that half of all teacher turnover occurs in 25 percent of public schools, predominantly in high-poverty urban and rural areas.

“There is no sign that the large shortage of credentialed teachers—overall, and especially in high-poverty schools—will go away,” García and Weiss write. Progress can be achieved only when the problem and its complexities are evaluated properly. This begins by understanding that the shortage is driven by several critical factors, including the teacher pay gap, stress and demoralization, and a scarcity of effective professional development, training and mentoring.

EPI will be take an in-depth look at these challenges – and potential solutions – in upcoming papers.

“In light of the harms the teacher shortage creates, as well as its size and projected trend, it is critical to understand the nature of the problem and the complexity of the teacher labor market,” said Weiss. “While most people understand teaching is a difficult job, our goal is to provide the attention that we have historically failed to in order to understand and fix the problems contributing to the shortage.”

http://neatoday.org/2019/04/03/how-bad-is-the-teacher-shortage/?fbclid=IwAR0FUgvVedFSMn08CBAw01icOsdlfaDpMN2xdrx8Qh1Ke5U0NzlVP6IZyEk

Most licensed Minnesota teachers are turning to other careers

Fewer than half of Minnesota’s state’s licensed teachers actually work in public schools, according to a report issued this week by the teacher licensing board.

The publicly funded Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board researched the biennial “supply and demand” report last fall with the Wilder Foundation.

Its findings align with previous state and national studies on teacher licensing, hiring and retention. Those studies have found a high percentage of young teachers leaving classrooms within the first couple of years.

According to the report released Wednesday, some 70,000 licensed Minnesota teachers are not working in classrooms. That’s 52.5 percent of licensed teachers in the 2017-18 school year.

Meanwhile, districts reported difficulty in hiring teachers. The problems aren’t concentrated in specific regions but exist statewide.

The report didn’t include recommendations. The board is seeking funding for a statewide teacher survey on why licensed teachers aren’t working in their profession.

“The report clearly illustrates how districts are struggling to find fully prepared and licensed individuals to fill teaching positions,” said Alex Liuzzi, executive director of the licensing board. “And all of these concerns substantially increase when looking at whether we have enough teachers of color in Minnesota.”

Denise Specht, president of Education Minnesota, the teachers union, said the results aren’t surprising. Low salaries are only part of the problem for former teachers.

“The stresses of overcrowded classrooms and the unmet mental health needs of many students have pushed out others,” Specht said. “Minnesota schools are starving for additional resources. If the state Legislature doesn’t deliver them this year, I’m sure Minnesota schools will lose hundreds of more good educators this spring to less stressful jobs in the private sector.”

The report also found a lack of racial diversity among teaching staffs. While one-third of students statewide belong to minority groups, only 4 percent of teachers are people of color.

The licensing board, which is separate from the state Department of Education, paid Wilder $47,000 for its work on the report.

“Our next step is collecting more comprehensive data to uncover why so many teachers leave the classroom,” Liuzzi said. “With the additional information, we can find solutions to increase enrollment in teacher preparation and increase the retention of our current teachers.”

Rochelle Olson is a general assignment reporter for the Star Tribune. Olson has been on the quick strike team for three years, writing about a wide variety of topics. She specializes in the intersection of sports, business and culture.

raolson@startribune.com 612-673-1747 rochelleolson

Where does illegal immigration mostly occur? Here's what the data tell us

Most undocumented immigrants didn't enter this country through Tijuana, where news cameras have captured images of thousands of immigrants seeking refuge during recent months.

And they didn't enter near the border town of McAllen, Texas, which the president visited Thursday during the 20th day of a partial government shutdown fought over constructing additional barriers on the Southern border.

When it comes to people in the country without proper documentation, the majority of them didn't cross the Mexican border at all. Most of them came to the United States legally — but then don't leave.

About 700,000 travelers to the United States overstayed their visas in fiscal 2017, the most recent year for which the Department of Homeland Security has published figures. DHS estimated that, as of Sept. 30, 2017, the end of that fiscal year, more than 600,000 of those travelers were still in the U.S.

During that same year, there were just 300,000 apprehensions along the Southern border, according to Customs and Border Protection — the lowest number since 1971.

Don't see the graphic above? Click here.

Visa overstays have outnumbered people who enter the country illegally at the Southern border every year since 2007, according to a report by the Center for Migration Studies. The report's authors estimate that the number of total visa overstays was 600,000 more than the total number of border crossers and that in 2014, visa overstays accounted for two-thirds of all new undocumented immigrants.

Immigrants traveling through Mexico, of course, take up much of the public's attention on the issue of illegal immigration. And they do account for almost all people apprehended by CBP, which includes the Border Patrol. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement largely works in the interior of the country.)

Those caught by the U.S. government can apply for asylum if they can claim a credible fear that their lives would be in danger by returning to their home countries; some immigrants, in fact, turn themselves into federal agents to do so. Apprehensions of people attempting to cross the border illegally, however, far outnumber the number of people requesting asylum at the border.

The agency catches the highest number of undocumented migrants in the Rio Grande Valley sector of south Texas. This includes McAllen, where the president visited on Thursday.

In fiscal 2018, CBP apprehended 162,000 people in the Rio Grande Valley. None of the eight other Border Patrol sectors on the Southern border had even half of that activity.

Don't see the graphic above? Click here.

But another area saw apprehensions quickly rise during recent months: the El Paso sector.

In the last fiscal year, 8 percent of all apprehensions came from this area, which consists of New Mexico and a small portion of West Texas, including the city of El Paso. But in October and November of 2018 — as apprehensions in general ticked up — that area's share doubled.

The majority of that growth in the El Paso area has been from apprehensions of what CBP calls "family units." During those two months, the agency reported that almost three-quarters of all people caught there were traveling with family members.

"What we've been seeing over the past few months is a dramatic increase in families and kids," Andrew Meehan, CBP's assistant commissioner for public affairs, told NPR. "You have Border Patrol stations that are largely at capacity and are not equipped to handle the large surge of families and kids that have approached our border."

Don't see the graphic above? Click here.

It is unclear how many of these migrants applied for asylum after arriving in the U.S. — but the total number of asylum cases has been increasing as well.

"A growing percentage of border crossers in recent years have originated in the Northern Triangle states of Central America," wrote Robert Warren and Donald Kerwin of the Center for Migration Studies. "These migrants are fleeing pervasive violence, persecution and poverty, and a large number do not seek to evade arrest, but present themselves to border officials and request political asylum. Many are de facto refugees, not illegal border crossers," the authors wrote.

In 2017, the Border Patrol employed more than 19,000 agents, almost double the number in fiscal 2003. And the agency's budget grew from $263 million in 1990 to more $3.8 billion in 2016, according to the American Immigration Council. The budget for Customs and Border Protection — which includes the Border Patrol — has grown from $5.9 billion in 2003 to $13.2 billion in 2016.

At the same time, apprehensions at the Southern border have declined — from a high of more than 1.6 million in 2000 to just over 300,000 in 2017.

Does the wall deter crossings?

Despite consistently high apprehensions in sectors that do contain fencing, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said at the White House on Wednesday that "everywhere we put up a wall, illegal immigration has been reduced 90 to 95 percent."

Yet, CBP data shows that the number of people that agents have caught has decreased across the board — not just in areas where the government constructed barriers.

Both the El Paso and Rio Grande sectors have physical barriers in place to prevent illegal crossings into the United States. Pedestrian fencing stretches to both sides of the city of El Paso in West Texas, with vehicle barriers along much of the rest of the New Mexico border. In south Texas, pedestrian fencing dots the area around McAllen and expands most of the way from there to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Tucson sector, which covers most of Arizona and is almost completely blocked by vehicle and pedestrian fencing, has seen a recent increase in apprehensions. In fiscal 2018, CBP caught about 52,000 people there, including an estimated 5,000 unaccompanied minors.

The sector of the Southwestern border with the fewest apprehensions, on the other hand, has almost no fencing. The Big Bend sector, starting in West Texas and extending about halfway down the state, is the largest individual sector guarded by CBP. The rough terrain of the mountain ranges and the Chihuahuan Desert make it a difficult place to cross. In fiscal 2018, CBP apprehended just 8,000 people there.

Joel Rose contributed to this report.

Twin Cities a hot spot for specialist visa program

The visas are being used by businesses and schools to attract top-tier talent from abroad to match employers' needs. 

By Allie Shah Star Tribune

JULY 18, 2012 — 12:35AM

TEXT SIZE

EMAIL

PRINT

MORE

Demand is hot in the Twin Cities and across the country for workers from overseas with computer, engineering and other science skills, according to a report released Wednesday by the Brookings Institution.

The Twin Cities ranked 16th out of 106 metro areas, as measured by the number of "H-1B visa" requests submitted by local employers from 2010 to 2011.

The H-1B is a temporary work visa issued by the federal government that allows foreign nationals with special knowledge or skills to immigrate legally to the United States for three years at a time. The Brookings report takes a ground-level view of how the much-debated H-1B visa program is playing out in the U.S. economy by studying which cities have the highest demand.

By far, most of the 4,199 requests made by Twin Cities employers went to fill jobs in computer-related fields, the study found. Engineers, health practitioners, financial specialists and business operation specialists rounded out the top jobs filled by overseas talent.

"One of the surprises is that this is a program used very widely across the country," said Jill Wilson, senior research analyst with Brookings and one of the study's authors. And demand from employers continues to exceed the supply of visas available, she said.

Rochester, Minn., stands out as a high user of the H-1B program.

More than 70 percent of requests made for the special visas to bring over skilled immigrants to Rochester came from research or academic institutions -- the largest share of any U.S. metro area, the study found.

Education editor Allie Shah supervises coverage of K-12 and higher education issues in Minnesota. In her more than 20 year journalism career at the Star Tribune, Shah has reported on topics ranging from education to immigration and health.

ashah@startribune.com 612-673-4488 allieshah

ISD 112 - Eastern Carver County Schools

ISD 112 -  Eastern Carver County Schools

11 Peavey Road

Chaska, MN 55318

Tel. 952-556-6100

2013-2014 NLCE Applications 

Year	File Folder Number	Last Name	First Name	District Number
13-14	451603	DOU	JIHONG	112
13-14	488900	MA	LING	112
13-14	997749	WANG	LING	112