"Brown, Terrell" wrote: > [TB] The school district will provide an education for your kid > (granted, they will kick the kid out for such things as bringing a gun > to school but stay away from the major felonies and the kid will be > provided for) we have a number of great charter schools and s/he may be > able to enroll in public schools in another district.
I won't argue that if I were to place my children in the Minneapolis school system and I picked the right school, tutored them on the side, and got them additional outside classes in music, math, Spanish, etc. that they won't get an education. That's not what worries me. I worry about children who come from homes with parents who are unable or unwilling to do that. I also worry that I would still not be satisfied with even the best education that the MPS schools are willing provide given their beliefs about what education is suppose to achieve. > No shortage of options. If you don't like what is provided, I as a > taxpayer don't feel the need to finance something else that meets your > super platinum standard. > > I, however, don't have a park available with a quarter mile track and > removable roof that allows me to adequately train year round. It's > clear that the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board should pay my > membership fee (give me a voucher) to a private club where I can train > properly. I will also admit that my standard of what qualifies as a quality education is most likely beyond of the typical parent. In some respects my life reads a little like a Dickens' novel. I received my elementary education in a private boarding school with William Randoff Hearst's grandson. I spent the first year of public middle school in Aspen and the remaining years of high school in a suburb of Los Angeles. By the time I reached high school I was a latch key kid from a poor single parent alcoholic home. At seventeen I was a high school drop out, in trouble with the law, and living for the most part on the streets. Which is to say that I know the spectrum from the best education the nation can offer to the problems of faced by children in the worst neighborhoods in Minneapolis. I know in the deepest sense what it means to have nothing, no skills, no job and no hope other than the anger you hold for the world. I also know what a second chance can mean, which is why I am so radical about educational opportunity. The problem here is not that my standard of educational quality is too high, it's the fact that for many of the children in Minneapolis the educational opportunities do not meet even minimal standards. What types of services with 50% success rates would we tolerate in the private sector? Would you fly on an airline which only got you to your destination 50% of the time? Would you hire a plumber whose repairs were only 50% successful? Why are we willing to tolerate a school system with a 50% success rate? Oakland California, with more significant crime, gangs, and other problems has a better success rate than Minneapolis (as reported by the NYT). > [Michael Atherton again]: I believe that in specific cases the public > schools should be able to select which students are admitted to a given > school. That is, students who negative impact the education of other > children should be assigned to special schools. > > [TB] Reminds me of a conversation that I had with a client back in the > days I worked for a public accounting firm. The client sent his kids to > a private school, he had an issue with the public schools. He told me > "its not the integration I object to, its the forced integration" There > maybe a politically correct term for his attitude, I just don't know > what it is. My statement had nothing to do with integration. There are just some kids (much like me at that age) who should not be in the general school population because their behavior is not conducive to quality education. > [Atherton again] Private schools are overwhelming white and > middle-to-upper class because poor parents don't have any means to > enroll their children. > > [TB] Okay, I know I'm not real bright but now I'm starting to get it. > You want to keep it that way. Or are you proposing that as a condition > of accepting vouchers that the school agree to accept the voucher as the > full tuition for any student that wants to attend? As a charter school > does? What I am saying is that if I was running a private school, I would be better able to accept poor students who come with vouchers than those who are unable to pay anything. > [TB] I'd like to see an example of what MPS are doing to "perpetuate > poverty and racism". I can't find anywhere on their website that is one > of the things they do. How do they "experiment in social failure"? I'm > not ready to blame MPS for the excessive transfers of some students > during the school year or the poor attendance habits of some students. > I think MPS under the leadership of Superintendent Johnson has made > great steps in addressing the issues that inhibit student performance. Failing to graduate students perpetuates poverty. The schools are an ongoing social experiment in progressive education philosophy, much as communism was an experiment in social philosophy. Both are founded on false assumptions about human nature and unfortunately although communism has faded, progressive education lives on. > [Michael Atherton] The burden of educating children should not be > placed on parents, it is a responsibility and function of our > government. > > [TB] Okay, big government to do everything for everyone? They tried > that in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe before those governments > fell apart. Maybe some big group homes for kids so their education > doesn't burden their parents. Students with interest supportive and > involved parents do much better in any school than those without. Good > parents are supportive of their kids education, great parents are > involved in it.\ Education has been the function of government in the U.S. for more than a hundred years, and more than two hundred years in some parts of the country. Even Libertarians ascribe to the belief that government has basic functions and responsibilities. Other than military defense and law enforcement I can't think of many other governmental functions more basic than education. If you are worried about big government, then I am surprised that you're not a supporter of vouchers. Michael Atherton Prospect Park _______________________________________ 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
