Lynnell - I love to be quoted, and you did it again and again. Thank you very much. And they were mostly favorable quotes. Very unusual, and also much appreciated.
But I wish to discuss the one issue we don't agree on - which part of your post I've left on the bottom of this posting: You talk about private schools serving the disabled and disruptive. We seem to be talking about vouchers for private school education, so I will make it plain that I do support them. And I will agree, along with all those other conservatives, that you can't force a private school to take any kid against their will. It's not private anymore if the State makes decisions on their enrollment. What I've always figured you could do with this issue is to increase the amount of the voucher for disabled kids. If you paid more for a kid that's disabled than for one that isn't, I'm sure there would be private schools willing to take these kids. That way these kids could also benefit from vouchers. I bet there are many parents of the disabled who would like the option of a private school also. This issue is also somewhat personal to me. My son is in fifth grade, and the school he would normally be assigned to next year is (guess where?) Folwell Middle School. My wife and I went to a lot of effort to make sure he doesn't go to Folwell next year (the parents' choice on which school to go to is a little more limited than the School Board would have you believe). We were ready to send him to private school if we couldn't get out of Folwell. We finally did get him in another public school, so we won't need to do that. We have enough resources that we could have put him into a private school if we felt it necessary. I would guess that is not the case for the majority of Minneapolis residents. Even though the deficiencies of Folwell are probably mostly due to the kids that go there, and their parents, the kids and parents that are serious about education also are punished by the poor school that results. These are the people that vouchers are designed for. From your posts, I think you are in agreement with me that the School Board doesn't have a good way of saving these schools. My hope would be that vouchers would at least save those people that make some effort to be saved. I don't see a way to save those that don't try themselves. The limited choice that exists in Minneapolis helps some, but a private school choice would help a whole lot more. Mark Anderson Bancroft Neighborhood <snip> Mark from Bancroft again: "I'm also one of those awful conservatives that thinks competition is the best solution we have currently. Both public and private competition." Lynnell: For the record, Mark sounds like a lovely, rather than awful conservative. And I'm all for the private-public school competition too. Bring it onSSas long as all private schools are required to work with the same proportion of students who are chronically poor or non-English speaking or wildly ADD or profoundly autistic or disturbed or just released from a juvenile detention facility, etc. etc. I mean, let's take all these students who are currently being served exclusively by public schools and equally divide 'em between public and private and see who does best! Go for it! Unfortunately, I can never seem to find a conservative, awful or otherwise, who wants to have this head-to-head, level-playing field kind of competition. As one of them once told me, "I will never allow those kind of kids at my (private) school." Well, damn! There goes that game. I have far more to say about "failing schools." But I'll save it for another time. Lynnell Mickelsen Ward 13, Linden Hills -- _______________________________________ 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 _______________________________________ 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
