[Mpls] Peebles supporters not keeping eyes on the prize

[Socialist2001 at cs.com]

When the report on the basic skills test scores came out in the Star-Tribune, 
you didn't hear any board member say, "Something's wrong here!  Our plan to 
close the gap didn't work! The black-white test score gap got wider. The gap 
between high and low scoring schools got wider."  

Did Randy Statten, Rev. Bethel, Natalie Johnson Lee, Ron Edwards and others 
say to the board: "We have a problem. The Board-approved plans to close the gap 
aren't working for our kids.  What went wrong?" No. Nothing of the sort. I 
can only conclude that they were not paying attention or they didn't care.

The Board approved a desegregation plan last December. We all knew that the 
"racially isolated schools" had the lion's share of inexperienced teachers, 
most have extremely high teacher turnover rates. Did the desegregation plan 
identify that as a problem and propose any steps to correct it? No. Did Statten and 
company give the board a piece of their minds about that? No.

About 300 teachers, the probationary teachers, were pink slipped this past 
April. Another 200 have been, or are about to be pink slipped this month.  Is 
the district administration really planning to eliminate 500 teaching positions, 
i.e., about 40% of its licensed teacher positions in regular and special Ed? 
Last year the district laid off 4 teachers for every full-time position they 
planned to cut. 

By laying off teachers it plans to rehire or replace near the end of the 
summer, the district is driving up teacher turnover rates to dizzying heights, 
especially in areas where teachers are generally in high demand, such as math and 
science teachers. It is a cost containment strategy that has being doing 
serious damage to programs that serve a majority of students in the district, 
especially African American and Indian / Native American students.

Statten and company have been supporting Dr. Peebles. And it seems to me that 
Dr. Peebles has made an effort to fortify her base of support in the African 
American community, and to a lesser extent elsewhere.  But Peebles hasn't, and 
can't deliver very much in return. The appointment of Dr. Peebles is, in my 
opinion, just another example of tokenism in action on the part of the school 
board. 

If it is not politically expedient to support Peebles and raise hell with the 
board at the same time, because raising hell with the board about its racist 
policies will get Peebles fired, then do the politically inexpedient thing: 
Raise hell with the board and let them retaliate by firing Peebles, if they 
dare. The African American community doesn't have to be alone in the fight to save 
its children, because the struggle is really more about human rights than 
black versus white. 

Education is a right, not a privilege!

-Doug Mann, King Field
candidate for 8th ward city council
http://educationright.com/blog