[Mpls] Schools Thread

[Audrey Johnson]

The NAACP settlement was to hold the schools harmless. That means that the cost of providing what the settlement called for, which was increased choice for students who are eligible for aid, was to be paid for by the state.  That wasn't happening at the levels expected.  The state agreed to $5 million of the added cost of transportation primarily.    The argument at the house as I understand it last year was that the state could not settle with financial considerations without permission from the legislature, thus it was pulled.  Does that mean we can pull out of the agreement as well as easily as the state does?  The public wouldn't hear of it.  So where is the justice to the kids in that equation?  We have to do more with less and less..    Gary Sudduth raised very good points and since that time, financial accountability systems have been put in place, so if one wishes to know where the money is going in this district, there is public information that can illustrate just that.  The district is audited every year and that information is also public.   What would be enough?   It would be enough if the state would fully fund every mandate it puts in place such as special education.  It would be enough if the state would fund the schools at the rate of inflation, in real dollars, not one time money which is what Ventura did the first year he came into office.  Never mind that the state had been deficit funding school districts for 10 years previous to that.  The structural balance bill only allows districts to agree to real money contracts, not a bad idea.   But the outcome of each session is so unpredictable now, and the education bill is always one of the last bills to pass.      It would be enough if the state would remove the barriers to Federal Medical Reimbursements, and it would be enough if the Federal Govt. also fully funded it mandates.  Take the new testing system that the Bush administration is mandating;  the  Federal money appropriated in the newly passed ESEA bill to cover that increased testing is not enough to cover the cost to the state. The CFL uses state money to cover the shortfall.  Part of that cost will be passed on to the schools, count on it.  That comes out of operating budgets that should be applied to the classroom.  We have to do this testing, we just don't get the money.  It's like your boss saying you have to work every weekend but not paying you for that.    School Districts are required to balance their budgets by June 30.  This past year, we had no idea what was coming until 3 am of the special session, which gave our district less than 24 hours to digest the numbers and balance the budget.  That is not good practice, and it was totally out of our control.  When utility costs do what they did last year, which was not anticipated or estimated to happen, the school districts face deficit spending.  That money was not recovered.     When insurance companies raise costs at double digit rates, the schools have no control over that.  The insurance system is broken, it's having an adverse effect on every govt. from the smallest to the largest.  It was a big issue in the state strike last year.  When a district that employs 8,400 people had contracted to pay and the cost rises at unanticipated levels, who should cover that cost?  Who is willing to really take on medical reform here?  That is not the job of a school district, it really falls to the state and the feds.   The opportunity gap is not just of the school district's making.  Racism and shortsightedness are pervasive throughout the state.  The gap is not significantly different or better when Gary Sudduth was questioning the finances.  Education reform takes time, and is labor intensive.  But the state is not living up to it's constitutional requirement to adequately fund education, that's the bottom line here.  Some things like housing, early childhood education, and health care as well as immigration are not things the schools have control over, but the effect of these issues and how they are handled by the state and the counties on kids who come to school is enormous.   The lives our children face at home do have an enormous effect on the children.  The district cannot change that.  But we know what works, there is a massive effort to identify, support and sustain education reform.  In the interim, the public education system is under assault from the extreme right wing.  Billions have been put into media campaigns across the country to really undermine public education.  Yes, the institution of public ed needed to change, has changed and will be forever changing.  Time and human development does not stand still.  Until everyone in the system, administrators, teachers, parents, the community and the policy makers start working together in a more coherent manner, there is only so much schools can do.  Until educational policy is more about what kids need and less about identifying winners and losers, and about political expediency, there will be way too much tension within the state and the country to really reform and change the outcomes.   We know the importance of teacher quality, that is the biggest factor over which we have control.  And in Minneapolis, we are redoubling our efforts in the area.  For many students, class size is also a factor.  The community here is very supportive of that as well.  But when those factors over which we have no control start to draw away from the educational experiences, like the lack of housing, early childhood ed, and non funded mandates, every child and every individual loses something.  In the long run, we all lose.   Audrey Johnson 10th ward