W. Brandon Lacy Campos wrote: > School Vouchers are a cop-out. Period.
Michael Atherton responded: So you'd advise parents to keep them children in schools with a 50% failure rate? And if not please tell me (I'm a parent), what are you going to do to provide a quality education for my child this year or next? You've got a two year window before my son doesn't learn to read and starts falling behind. [TB] Brandon has it right on. Minneapolis schools don't have a 50% failure rate. Its very clear that students who stay in the same school and show up for class are successful. We have a huge number of students who change schools, primarily because the family moves, many times during their elementary school years often multiple times during a single school year. That is not the fault of the teachers in a specific school of the Minneapolis Public School District. We also have a number of educational options. Our school system has a number of schools that offer special educational programs. Down the street from me is a Spanish language immersion school, there are many special programs offered to all students by MPS. We also have a number of excellent charter schools, quasi-public schools that also offer a number of excellent programs with a certain amount of public oversight. Minnesota also has state wide open enrollment, a student has the opportunity to enroll in schools other than in his or her home district. True some of these programs are full as are many of the private schools that would be accepting vouchers. Most of the local school funding in Minnesota now comes from the state at the rate of around half a billion dollars a month (year round). I don't have any interest in diverting any part of that money to subsidize some kid's tuition at Blake, Breck or De LaSalle, schools that can pick and choose what students they want to admit to their programs, schools that have extensive screening programs to decide what students to admit to their programs. I'm not any more interested in making that diversion than I am in buying a car for some parent to drive their kid to school because they don't want to get out of bed early enough to catch the bus to school. If a parent really thinks that the public schools are that bad, I suggest they get off their duff and start a charter school. Use the funding that goes to the charter school and start a program that is a model for excellent education. Accept all students into the program, don't just run and hide. Terrell Brown (not a candidate for School Board) Loring Park (home of the Emerson Language Immersion School) terrell at terrellbrown dot org _______________________________________ 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
