State Journal

Some urban school superintendents in Minnesota were bristling last month over Gov. Arne Carlson's critique of student performance in the state's largest districts.

The governor, appearing at a news conference where he named an education task force, said children in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul were not doing as well on standardized tests as their peers in places such as Detroit and New York City. The director of the state's new department of children, families, and learning, Bruce Johnson, added that minority students in the state's urban centers were failing or dropping out at alarming rates.

The gloom-and-doom remarks were too much for St. Paul Superintendent Curman Gaines, who sent an open letter to Mr. Johnson's office...