Comment on the Star-Tribune editorial of 13 December 2001, Minneapolis Schools: Jennings should serve district well.
The Star-Tribune expects Dave Jennings to "help the district weather challenging financial times" as chief operating officer, Jennings "...is well know and respected across political, business and community lines...[and] ...has worked closely with the district to establish strict performance benchmarks and measure progress toward them." Jenning's "unique insights about balancing business and education needs" are also valued by the Star-Tribune. Presumably, the school district's job is to provide employers with workers who have just the right amount of education and the right kind of self-image and outlook. The schools are preparing students to function in jobs and other roles for which their education prepares them. Those are the goals to which the district's new accountability system is aligned. And let's not forget that Jennings was also the CEO of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, which provided some of seed money for the "better schools referendum" in 2000. As COO, Jennings will no doubt use his industrial relations, public relations and marketing expertise to help the district administration sell its package of budget cuts to MPS employees and the larger school community. Jennings is evidently not being picked for his expertise as a corporate COO, since his job experience in that area appears to be rather limited. Moreover, it seems that the district is already managing its finances pretty well. According to the Star-tribune editorial, "A national group of school financial officials had awarded Minneapolis top honors for several years in a row, placing the district in the top 1 per cent of well managed schools nationally." Can money be saved on administration costs? Absolutely not! "The Minneapolis district is not top heavy; it devotes 4 per cent of its budget to administrators -- well below the 10 per cent considered reasonable under most business models" says the Star-Tribune. However, comparing the administrative costs of businesses, including private schools, to the administrative costs of a public school system is like comparing apples to oranges. Administrative costs are generally much lower for public schools than for businesses. According to Berliner and Biddle, "In 1990-1991 the average salary paid to central-office administrators and professional staff in the nation amounted to only 2.2% of school district operating budgets" [1995, Berliner, David C. & Biddle, Bruce J.; The Manufactured Crisis, page 81 // 1992, Robinson, Glen & Brandon, David, Perceptions about American education: Are they based on facts? p. 17]. No confidence should be placed in the current board to resolve the current budget crisis without further weakening the public school system in Minneapolis. The strategy of the current board, of attempting to "preserve excellence" for the few at the expense of the many should be rejected by the working class in Minneapolis. -Doug Mann Doug Mann for School Board <http://educationright.tripod.com> _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
