I've support publicly the referendum, and wrote an article that was published in the local newspaper stating such. The referendum brings that school budget under more local control, but the next step in this is to remove the same amount from the state funding. Regarding the numbers... Two things need to happen here : 1. Separate the ELL and Special Ed student numbers from overall test score numbers. This would be a more fair representation of comparison numbers. 2. The school administration needs to be serious about addressing the real issues that the standards report points out, instead of looking for excuses. There are real problems in the Minneapolis school system, and they won't get solved with excuses. Some of the issues aren't seen as much in other school districts. The cities generally face these issues more than the subs. The school system needs to address itself to how to deal with these issues instead of looking for excuses. Steve Sumner Ward 1
