First, full state funding, as I understand it, is
merely the state providing the full per-pupil
allocation itself. Thus it would not include
football, soccer, etc. - but i do not know how these
dollars are detrmined and how they are used...does
anyone out there?
Second, the district disparities in income could be
partially addressed with open enrollment but we would
need a better commitment to bussing...though, I really
think there needs to be a bigger picture discussion
about community schools and who gets them and where
does this money come from. there was an article in
city pages within the past few months about the push
from southwestish parents to get a community school
built for their kids, the class/race issue was glossed
over with a 'we're just more committed to our kids and
better organized' type dismissal, which i don't see as
honest. my guess is that if a group of 200 white
affluent parents want a school and a group of 200 poor
minority parents want a school - it will be the white
affluent parents who get the school.
Third, there has rightly been a lot of concern about
the state's role in micromanaging the
schools/districts (and someone brought up the idea of
a statewide school district:(...I think we need to
make sure the state does not get its fingers in the
decisions of schools/distiricts any more than they
currently do. schools typically perform better when
they are able to react as they deem appropriate to
THEIR students - we have all witnessed the chaos and
heard the horror stories of our current Profile...and
don't get me wrong, this does not mean that schools
should not be accountable or there should not be high
expectations for students...the fact is when students
are challenged they perform better - so we need
teachers who are not afraid to challenge students with
work many might see as too difficult - not the case.
teaching students in any standardized way will either
dumb them down or not reach them...anyway keep the
state out of the decision making processes as much as
possible.
Lastly, I think the state already pays the full amount
70ish% and then the rest gets distributed later for
some other reason...i obviously want to know how the
money is currently distributed and why...let me know
thanks:)
And Fran is right about needing to sidestep any
increases in regressive taxation and let the taxes
come from the highest income bracket.
jon kelland
bryant
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> The idea of state funding of public k-12 schools is
> worth discussion.
>
> Most posters have, with good reason, focused on the
> question of balancing
> taxes and debates on regressivity. The idea of
> �full� state funding will
> involve lots of other education/city issues, too.
> For example:
>
> 1.
> How do you decided what �full� funding is? Does it
> include football, soccer,
> lacrosse, water polo, International Baccalaureate,
> industrial arts, Java
> programming? GLBT coordinators? Smaller class size?
>
> Is it simply a flat sum to follow each
> student...which would hardly be fair.
>
> Back in 1995 a long-forgotten group called the
> Coalition for Educational
> Reform and Accountability, trying to rationalize
> state education
> funding�proposing the state fund 100 percent of the
> �core� work� tried to
> decide what is essential and what is a frill...and
> couldn�t do it.
>
> 2.
> Any new plan could have major metropolitan
> significance beyond property
> taxes. One example: assuming districts would still
> be allowed to allocate
> funds and to float referenda, you could get some
> interesting, but potentially
> harmful, entrepreneurial reactions that might
> affect housing decisions. With
> the new clarity of funding, could districts be even
> more open about
> �branding� themselves, e.g., the district that
> invests a higher percentage
> of its resources in gifted education or the arts,
> creating some
> self-fulfilling prophesies?
>
> 3.
> Central cities have different and expensive needs.
> You�d need some serious
> philosopher/statistician kings to develop an easily
> understandable formula to
> address that. (A lot of the complexity now works to
> the benefit of
> Minneapolis and what most of us would describe as
> social justice for kids
> with the longest odds.)
>
> 4.
> The Minneapolis school board�s mildly restrained
> reaction to the Profile of
> Learning was an example of districts as
> �laboratories of democracy.� What
> happens when the state funds it all? Would it be
> left to those bureaucRATS?
> What would/should school boards do? Is local control
> viable today?
>
> None of which is to say that a kid�s education
> should depend upon the
> property wealth of the district in which her
> parents/guardians live. (It
> shouldn�t. In a better world we�d be past that and
> debating whether a kid�s
> education should depend on the wealth or mental
> health of parents/guardians.)
>
> The idea of full state funding is a good
> one....between conception and
> creation lies the shadow.
>
> Dennis Schapiro
> Linden Hills
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