Education Champion to Head New Minnesota Reform Group

MinnCAN will launch in early 2011

ST. PAUL, Minn., Nov. 30, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- MinnCAN (the Minnesota Campaign for Achievement Now), a new education reform advocacy group, is pleased to announce Vallay Varro as its founding executive director.

MinnCAN, which will launch in early 2011, will build a movement of Minnesotans to enact smart public policies so that every Minnesota child has access to a great public school.

Varro – a mom, educator, and community leader – comes to MinnCAN after serving six years as education policy director for St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman and as school board director for the St. Paul Public Schools. Varro and her family immigrated to the United States over 30 years ago and she has spent her entire career working to improve education for all children.

MinnCAN is also excited to announce the members of its founding board: Sarah Caruso of Greater Twin Cities United Way; Rob Clark of Medtronic, Alex Cirillo of 3M (Retired); Michael Ciresi of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi; Gary Cunningham of the Northwest Area Foundation; Vernae Hasbargen of the Minnesota Rural Education Association; Virginia Hubbard Morris of Hubbard Radio; Father Michael O'Connell of the Church of the Ascension; Tim Penny of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation; Tad Piper of Piper Jaffray; Governor Al Quie; Carleen Rhodes of The Saint Paul Foundation; Sondra Samuels of the PEACE Foundation; John Stanoch of Qwest; and Sandy Vargas of The Minneapolis Foundation.

MinnCAN, a 501c3 non-profit organization, will be funded by individual donors and foundation support.

MinnCAN is the second state campaign, after Rhode Island, in a new organization called 50CAN (the 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now). 50CAN grew out of ConnCAN's groundbreaking education reform advocacy work in Connecticut. Learn more about ConnCAN at www.conncan.org. MinnCAN will have a staff of three based in Minnesota, and, as a part of the growing 50CAN network of state education campaigns, will be supported by the share resources of a national staff based in New York.

As education policy director for Coleman, Varro developed the mayor's education policy agenda and raised over $22 million dollars of public and private funds to support education programs. She worked to secure public and private support for afterschool programs, college access programs and circulator buses to improve access to resources for youth in Saint Paul.

Prior to joining the city in 2006, Varro served as a program manager at the Minnesota Literacy Council, director of the AmeriCorps Minnesota Reading Corps and as a classroom teacher at the University of Saint Catherine Pre-K Education Center. She holds a masters degree in education from the University of Minnesota.

MinnCAN's 2011 legislative policy agenda will be announced in January and will be based on the three principles of flexibility, accountability and choice.

About MinnCAN: The Minnesota Campaign for Achievement Now (MinnCAN) is an advocacy organization building a movement of Minnesotans to enact smart public policies so that every Minnesota child has access to a great public school.

Contact: Karen Silverman, Cell: 202-406-0456, Email: [email protected]

SOURCE MinnCAN