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Aug 31, 2005 10:39 am US/Central
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Yecke Leaves Behind An Impact On MN Schools
Minneapolis (AP) ―
Cheri Pierson Yecke spent a mere 16 months as Minnesota's schools chief, but the mark she left on them will be felt for years to come.
Yecke, who was fired by a divided state Senate in 2004, announced Monday she was abandoning a run for Congress to take a top education job in Florida. She leaves some considerable accomplishments and a share of enemies in her wake.
Her tenure included a rewrite of academic standards in English, math, science and history. She introduced consumer-friendly report cards that treated schools like restaurants by assigning them star ratings. And, in one of the most basic but enduring changes, she dumped the name of her agency -- the Department of Children, Families and Learning -- for the simpler Minnesota Department of Education.
"What we did in those 16 months I think was phenomenal," she said Tuesday. "In some administrations you can't do that amount of work in four years."
But Yecke's hard-charging style rubbed many the wrong way, leading the Democratic-controlled Senate to refuse her confirmation. Senators claimed her change agenda was turning education into a political battleground.
Yecke, 50, found a home at a local conservative think tank, the Center of the American Experiment, after losing the commissioner's job. She was one of a handful of Republicans seeking the nomination for an open congressional seat.
"She had a bias against current education," said state Sen. Steve Kelley, DFL-Hopkins, who oversaw Yecke's confirmation hearings. "(She wrote a book) blasting the middle school movement, and after she left (the Department of Education), she still kept finding ways to blast school districts."
Gov. Tim Pawlenty said his first choice for education commissioner had "a strong appetite for change and reform and has never been afraid to challenge the status quo."
(© 2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)