GOP gubernatorial hopeful Hann brings campaign to Brainerd

State Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, one of several Republican candidates in the 2010 race for governor, campaigned Wednesday in Brainerd.

The two-term lawmaker met with Republicans and other interested people at noon time at the Sawmill Inn.

A desire to reform education was the impetus behind Hann's first run for the Wayzata School Board. He was elected to three terms on that board and was elected to the Legislature in 2002. He said leadership is needed from the governor's office if structural reform is going to be accomplished in education.

"I think we have a system that's highly political ... dominated by political and employee interest groups." Hann said.

He said he would like to see more independence in the state's independent school districts and more influence by families and students.

Hann, 57, and a father of four, said he would like to enhance school choice and encourage the use of vouchers and charter schools. He said it's intolerable that roughly half of the Minneapolis and St. Paul high school students fail to graduate from high school. Education problems, he said, won't change by pouring more money at the problem.

"It's not about how much money you spend," he said.

There should be more local control of curriculum and policies.

He criticized legislative proposals for sex education curriculum, saying the issue should be left to the school districts.

One of his pet peeves, he said, is an existing state requirement that an amount equal to 2 percent of a school district's general fund be spent on staff development. In addition, he said the education's tenure systems are obsolete.

"They don't exist anywhere else in the economy," he said.

He said the teachers' unions are political organizations and the political contributions from these groups go almost exclusively to Democrats. Hann raised an objection to requiring that teachers belong to what he said was basically a political organization (the union) as a function of having a job.

Hann estimated 70 percent of Minnesota school districts' funding comes from the state, a figure he said was second only to the state of Arkansas. He wants to see more power and funding responsibility be returned to the school districts. While he said that shift might raise property taxes, Hann said that as governor he would work to reduce the overall tax burden.

"There is a governing principle at stake," he said.

Hann said he would abide by the GOP endorsement process, and most of the other Republican candidates have pledged to do the same.

The Republican lawmaker wants to reduce tax and regulatory burdens on Minnesotans in an effort to get the economy back on the right track. In order to encourage growth in the private sector, Hann wants to reduce Minnesota's tax burden and encourage business growth.

"Right now, we're not very attractive (to businesses)," Hann said.

Hann is a business process consultant who spent 25 years with the Eden Prairie-based business E.A. Sween Co. He's a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College. After graduation he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served a tour of duty in Vietnam.

MIKE O'ROURKE may be reached at mike.orourke@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5860.