Re: [Mpls] dropouts

[Brobson34]

I promise the list members (and Mr. Atherton) that I won't bait him any more
by saying that he relishes attention. And I'll leave the heroism of his posts
to the judgment of others.
I have done more than wonder why the graduation rate of the MPS is no more
than 50 percent: I have identified what I believe to be a few root causes,
including lack of affordable housing causing transiency, the cultural
adjustment of immigration, the stresses and deficiencies associated with
poverty. Mr. Atherton seems to believe these are not as germane to public
school failure as is a self-perpetuating and inefficient bureaucracy staffed
by incredibly cynical people out to save their own jobs at the cost of young
peoples' education. I'll leave it to list members to determine whose
viewpoint is more credible.
Mr. Atherton does get somewhat specific in his explanation of continuation
schools, but blithely states that because the kids fall under what would be
classified as special education, then extra federal dollars would be
forthcoming to pay for it. Right now, under the federal IDEA legislation for
special education, the feds are supposed to be picking up 40 percent of the
costs for their mandates. The actual federal dollars for these mandates
amounts to only 15 percent of the cost. (I got my info from Nancy Reder at
the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] And I won't even charge Mr. Atherton for the link!) Any of
the self-serving education professionals Mr. Atherton decries will tell him
that lack of federal monies for federal mandates is creating huge funding
problems for the MPS and other schools. In other words, his solution isn't
that simple.
As for the war zone weblinks, Mr. Atherton introduced this area of discussion
when he said something along the lines of "if children can learn in war
zones, why can't they learn in the inner city?" I was merely trying to point
out that they probably don't learn in war zones as well as Mr. Atherton would
find acceptable, but since he included it in the discussion, he might feel
otherwise. After all, the issue isn't whether there is "some learning" in war
zones, the inner city, or the MPS, but whether the conditions involved make
learning more difficult, and prohibitive for some children.
Mr. Atherton's statement that "I'm not sure why it's relevant that I might
redesign the schools in the image I would want for my child," is curious,
since he lives in the MPS district and has obviously profound disagreements
with the way the schools operate. Unless Mr. Atherton considers MPS reform a
theoretical exercise, I would argue that it is highly relevant. For some of
us, this is about more than other people's kids.
List members are probably growing weary of this back and forth between Mr.
Atherton and me--I think our areas of disagreement are pretty well stated.
Any specific responses he wants to make to this post are welcome by me, and
for my part will represent the last word on this particular thread.

Britt Robson
Lyndale