2006 Minnesota Statutes

120A.03 MISSION STATEMENT.
The mission of public education in Minnesota, a system for lifelong learning, is to ensure
individual academic achievement, an informed citizenry, and a highly productive work force.
This system focuses on the learner, promotes and values diversity, provides participatory decision
making, ensures accountability, models democratic principles, creates and sustains a climate
for change, provides personalized learning environments, encourages learners to reach their
maximum potential, and integrates and coordinates human services for learners. The public
schools of this state shall serve the needs of the students by cooperating with the students' parents
and legal guardians to develop the students' intellectual capabilities and lifework skills in a safe
and positive environment. It is part of the department's mission that within the department's
resources the commissioner shall endeavor to:
(1) prevent the waste or unnecessary spending of public money;
(2) use innovative fiscal and human resource practices to manage the state's resources and
operate the department as efficiently as possible;
(3) coordinate the department's activities wherever appropriate with the activities of other
governmental agencies;
(4) use technology where appropriate to increase agency productivity, improve customer
service, increase public access to information about government, and increase public participation
in the business of government;
(5) utilize constructive and cooperative labor-management practices to the extent otherwise
required by chapters 43A and 179A;
(6) report to the legislature on the performance of agency operations and the accomplishment
of agency goals in the agency's biennial budget according to section 16A.10, subdivision 1; and
(7) recommend to the legislature appropriate changes in law necessary to carry out the
mission and improve the performance of the department.
History: 1991 c 265 art 7 s 1; 1995 c 248 art 11 s 9; 1Sp1997 c 4 art 7 s 2; 1998 c 366 s
56; 1998 c 397 art 1 s 58