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Background for the "Damn Speech"
Harry is far too cerebral to give vent to his emotions publicly although you can often find evidence of deep feeling in his writing.
Harry was a Duluth teacher in the 1980's as the School Board struggled with its finances. Twice when the District ran out of money Harry was given pink slips.
The fiscal problems continued as Harry ran unsuccessfully for the School Board in 1989, 1991 and 1993. Finally, on his fourth attempt, Harry was elected in 1995.
Generally frugal Harry has always been willing to be a big spender where education is concerned. However, after his election he made the pragmatic choice not to spend money he didn't have because that habit had been the one that had been responsible for so many pink slips over the years.
Considering that twenty years earlier Minnesota had experienced what was then called the "Minnesota Miracle" this was a bitter pill for Harry. In the 70's both political parties agreed to changes in the funding of K-12 education which freed poor urban and rural school districts from their dependence on property taxes by shifting school funding to the state's income and sales taxes.
Over time education spending, drunk on these new revenues, out paced the state's ability to match its hunger for money and the legislature began to reign public schools in. The result was not pretty for property poor districts like Duluth which like many other out-state school districts was suffering from declining enrollments. But it wasn't just declining student populations that were hurting public schools. The state had also abandoned its famed reputation for supporting public education. Whereas in the 1970's the state ranked in the top five states for per-pupil spending by the time Harry was on the Board the State had fallen to 23rd place. (We've heard that it is now ranked 36th)
In 1993, the Duluth School Board, in part at Harry's prodding, offered an "excess levy" referendum to raise more money locally. Duluth voters dug into their pockets and raised their property taxes for the schools. The extra funding would last until 2001.
When 2001 rolled around Harry was finally a school board member himself. He was eagerly looking forward to renewing the levy which had been so vital for the District for the previous five years. He was particularly concerned about the criticism of one highly regarded Board member who did not want to offer a levy until the District closed more schools.
As Harry prepared to make his case for renewing the levy the World Trade Towers were attacked. The School Board met exactly one week after the attack and emotions were still raw.
About the picture: Claudia Welty took this picture during a winter hike on the Lake Superior Trail during a driving snow storm. Its fondly remembered today as the "Beaver Bay Death March." Harry's still smiling but Claudia was so done in by trudging through the deep snow that she didn't manage to get all of Harry's big head in the view finder.