Jerry Holt jgholt@startribune.com A 2003 research project concluded that for every $1 the state invests in the life of a child, it gets back $8 in value. Within months of that reports release, Minnesota Business for Early Learning was founded as a resource to fight for the cause. It was backed by leading businesses and various chambers of commerce.

It was in the early 2000s that the Minnesota business community began getting serious about a most unlikely education cause.

Businesses and their various foundations and employee giving programs had long sponsored college scholarships for those most in need. In the mid-1980s, the business community began a serious effort at reforming the K-12 system under the leadership of 3M CEO Lewis Lehr and his colleagues at the Minnesota Business Partnership.

Forming an unusual alliance with DFL Gov. Rudy Perpich, such reform ideas as postsecondary enrollment options for high school students (earning college credits along the way), open enrollment, student/parent choice of schools and careful measurement of student performance were the result of several years of significant policy advocacy.

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The evolution of Minnesota businesses' agenda for effective early learning - Minneapolis Star Tribune