GOP’s Host State Made Its Mark on Education Stage

In a 1973 cover story , Time magazine detailed "The Good Life in Minnesota”—a place where crime was low, politics was “almost unnaturally clean,” and the citizenry was well educated.

Then-Gov. Wendell Anderson, a Democrat shown on the Time cover hoisting a fish caught in one of the state’s 10,000-plus lakes, was lauded as being a key figure in the state’s success, in particular for his 1971 effort to greatly equalize spending on education in the state by reducing property levies and increasing state taxes.

The change became known as the “Minnesota Miracle,” and most observers in the state believe its effects lasted...