news-record.com

Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota spoke to the Institute for Emerging Issues here in Raleigh today. The theme of this year's forum (the 25th annual) is “creativity,” specifically how creativity could be used to spark economic development.

Pawlenty is of interest because he’s one of a hand-full of Republicans seen as potentially serious contenders during the 2012 presidential campaign. And his theme this morning of “radical decentralization” sounded like it was based solidly in Republican ideas about the limitations of government.

Pawlenty’s idea is that technology and its ability to move intellectual commodities (lectures, computer programming work, etc...) outside of defined places and times will change how society operates, including education and other government services. After pointing to how the newspaper and television news industries was suffering the effects of having their virtual monopolies end, he said the same things could apply to government programs such as K-12 and college education.

“Right now in our K-12 system … you see a huge industrial model bureaucracy from the 1940s, and through no fault of their own, it was designed and envisioned in a different era. You’ve got a 1940s industrial model versus the i-Pod world. Those two things are going to collide,” Pawlenty said.

For the full audio from Pawlenty's talk (about 33 minutes) click on the player below:

After his talk, Pawlenty spoke with reporters. He was asked if he was going to run for president (doesn’t know) whether the tea parties would help or hinder Republicans (GOP in a better place to take advantage of the energy in the movement) and his thoughts on civility in politics (it’d be a good idea).

You can listen to that give and take below: