[Mpls] Peebles supporters not keeping eyes on the prize, part 1 of 2

[Pamela Taylor]

Socialist2001 at cs.com wrote: 
I must take issue with statements by Natalie Johnson Lee, Ron Edwards and 
others who are widely recognized as leaders of the black community in their 
response to latest controversy over Thandiwe Peebles performance as school 
superintendent. 

The district's best schools are heavily concentrated in the district's 
wealthiest and nearly all-white neighborhoods. For a majority of nonwhite and poor 
white students, the public school options have been narrowed to low and 
middle-tier public schools, dead-end curriculum tracks in some of the better public 
schools, and charter schools. 

Pamela Taylor says:                                                                                              I don't believe the comment about where the best school's are located came as any surprise.  With that in mind, how many White parents from those neighborhoods have ever been seen protesting at the school board about lack of anything?  Minorities and poor white students have.  My point is, WHY do we allow the wealthy neighborhoods to get the best of everything?  Why has the MPS allowed that? 

Doug Mann says:
Complaints about Peebles that are making the school board sit up and take 
notice appear to be coming from white parents in the Southeast quadrant of the 
city. That's where many of the city's middle and lower tier schools are located. 
That's where a majority of white students are not thriving academically in 
the public schools.

"Look, my kids are in the Southwest area schools and Dr. Peebles has 
basically left these schools alone. So if parents like me were only looking out for 
our own kids, we would too shut-up and color. Why risk bringing on a round of 
retribution? But as a citizen, I want the whole district to succeed..."


Pamela Taylor says:                                                                                        Take the above statement made by Lynnell Mickelsen and mentally insert wealthy school parents.  Shutting up and coloring is exactly what those parents were doing when minority parents were saying what Lynnell is now.  Did anybody see the White parents protesting the School Board about any problems in the minority community?  Did they offer to give up any of their children's amenities?  

Doug Mann says:
I doubt that the school board and Peebles want to rile up the school 
community in SW Minneapolis. There is a lot of support for the status quo there, which is why the issue of closing the education access gap is not being addressed 
by the School Board, Thandiwe Peebles and her supporters, and the Star-Tribune.

Pamela Taylor says: 

So, it appears that you are saying that when poor Whites are having issues, the School Board must do something right away, which is to possibly consider firing Ms. Peebles.  So when did they become unimpressed with her skills and abilities, when that is the basis on which they hired her?  Who are they trying to placate now?  You say that Peebles doesn't want to rile up that community, but by concentrating on schools other than those in that SW community, she has.  Ms. Peebles doesn't have the problem; it is the School Board who appears to be in a quandry.  Is it possible that Ms. Peebles was getting to the worst schools first, and perhaps the extreme SW corner of Ward 13 that appears discontent was next on her list?  Minorities have waited for so long without seeing the wealthy White parents jumping up and down on their behalf to make things in the schools fair and equal, that I am failing to see the problem here.    

Doug Mann says:                                                                                               On the other hand, there is some support in SW Minneapolis for the kind of 
school reform agenda that I advocate. In the general election of 2002 the 
highest level of support for my candidacy was in ward 13 (the extreme SW corner of 
Minneapolis).

Pamela Taylor says:                                                                                              
Until Whites and Minorities are joined together for the greater educational good of ALL CHILDREN, not too much is ever going to change.  And, until the citizens of Minneapolis are joined together in an honest effort to reform the practices of the School Board (i.e. vote some out, and change the mindset/policies, etc.), it will not matter who is superintendent, that person will be doomed before they start, and we will forever be paying out huge severance checks as they leave, with only a pittance left in the bank for education.

Yes, I believe their eyes are on the prize.  It is the opposition whose eyes have remained closed because they do not want to see what is coming at them.  


Pamela Taylor (Lyndale)






		
---------------------------------
Yahoo! Sports
 Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football