It is important that students both in small schools and larger schools get what they need to compete in an ever-more complex world. This is important for Minnesota and for the rest of the nation.

Education Trust charged that states that spend more get more from Washington, rewarding wealthy states and shortchanging poorer states with higher concentrations of poor students. Why should Maryland, with fewer poor students than Arkansas, for instance, get almost 50 percent more federal aid per poor student?

We must demand more equality in our public education system.

Thumbs up

To Congressman-elect Tim Walz for urging a House oversight committee to call hearings on the DM&E’s $2.3 billion federal loan application when the new Congress convenes.

Walz isn’t wasting any time bringing top issues of his district to the forefront. And he is being strategic about his plan as well. Walz, D-Mankato, has recruited a veteran member of the House Committee on Government Reform to ask committee chairman-designate Henry Waxman to hold the hearings on the taxpayer-financed loan. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., co-signed a letter with Walz that outlined concerns about the loan and asked that more public scrutiny be applied to the application process. The loan, if approved, would be the largest federal loan to a private company in U.S. history.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune had earmarked money for the $2.3 billion expansion loan in the 2005 federal transporation bill. The Republican senator had been a lobbyist for DM&E.

The DM&E expansion is an ongoing controversy in the 1st District, which includes Rochester and Mankato. When Thune tucked the loan money into the transportation bill, a lot of people shook their heads in disgust that taxpayers would be expected to finance the expansion.

Walz is pushing for long overdue scrutiny on the DM&E loan. We hope Waxman gives the Walz-Maloney memo the serious consideration that it deserves.