two points,
first, keep the school board and get rid of the public
school system and create a full network of charter
schools where schools are small enough to most likely
operate in the best interests of all of the students,
but if they do not prove that students are making
progress, the schools are shut down, and the students
go off to another school with a proven record...the
fact that charter schools will probably be much
smaller makes the impact of shutting one down much
easier to justify (and handle) and it makes all public
schools accountable, obviously impossible in the
current system (imagine if you try shutiing down a
1000 student behemoth that allows failing students to
pass..).
second, i am more than happy to see our council
spending some time on "global issues". the fact that
our city supports the rape and torture of humans
should not be supported by our doing business with the
villians, but should be addressed with purchasing
guidelines. this seems obvious, and entirely
appropriate. do you suppose that our city should not
have standards by which purchasing and contract
decisions are made? and don't you suppose that if a
business partner of the city is known to kill and rape
it is an obvious decision to terminate business with
this villain? the narrow thinking of people who do
not agree with the "politics" of "boycott" and "human
rights" deny the humanity of others and show
themselves as the xenophobic, and parochial-paranoids
their coded hate-speech tries to hide. the fact that
niland and herron (and whoever else) spent some of
their time on these issues does not mean that they are
not putting another 40 or 60 hours per/week on local
issues that burns and others would (possibly) agree is
appropriate.
jon kelland
bryant
--- j burns <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> It is dumbfounding to me (emphasis on the DUMB)that
> in a city where most
> school age kids LUCKY enough to snag a part-time job
> at the local
> SuperAmerica can't make change to save their lives,
> that the Minneapolis
> school board finds the time to publicly, and in a
> lengthy, "I know what's
> good for you" conversation no less, chastise a
> private organization like the
> Boy Scouts, and THEN has the nerve to ask for more
> money to continue what
> seems to be a less than mediocre performance.
> Further, as a resident of the
> Cleveland neighborhood, I was shocked that the new
> Lucy-Laney-Let's-Argue-about-the-Namey school even
> opened this year what
> with all the controversy about the name!
> I no longer wonder (as our elected council and
> boardmembers deal with hot
> potato issues like organic food and Bhurma) why
> issues like grafitti, crime,
> affordable housing, and the never-ending garbage
> along Portland Avenue
> remain on the proverbial back burner...
>
> J Burns
> Cleveland, formerly Nokomis, formerly Camden
>
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