[Mpls] school closing without a plan

[Socialist2001 at cs.com]

In a message dated 10/4/2004 7:42:15 AM Central Daylight Time, 
hoboanne at uslink.net writes:

<< Dorie writes:
 The enrollment in the schools have dropped due to people sending their kids
 to charter and private schools is my understanding, not due to a census drop
 of children.  One would assume then,  that parents are not satisfied  with
 the education being given in the public school system... >>

I agree with everything said in the whole paragraph that begins with the 
above two sentences. It seems to me that parents are very likely to look for 
alternatives to the public schools if their children are not on a college bound 
curriculum track. I believe that "white flight," and now "black flight" has more 
to do with that than anything else. The district has schools with high 
concentrations of inexperienced teachers and high teacher turnover rates, including 
most of the "racially isolated" schools, of which 21 of 23 are on the state's 
list of poor performing schools. Students are ability-grouped and tracked (put 
in separate classrooms for fast, medium, and slow learners) on a part-time 
basis for reading instruction as early as Kindergarten. 

Why not fix the schools, instead of downsizing the district? The district can 
begin to make a quality education accessible to all students by desegregating 
probationary teachers (3 years employment or less), stopping unnecessary 
layoffs (which would cut teacher turnover rates), and phasing out "low" ability 
curriculum tracks. I believe it is possible to untrack the schools without 
watering down the college bound curriculum programs which are currently reserved 
for only about one-fourth of the district's students.

-Doug Mann, King Field
write-in "Doug Mann" for school board on November 2
www.educationright.com
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