I heard from plenty of folks off-list and a few on-list
following my post on class warfare, city schools and School Board
candidates. The budgeting issues regarding poor schools and
middle-class schools are incredibly complicated. Sometimes I think I
shouldn't have even gotten into it. But since we're heading into
School Board endorsement and election season, I think it's important
to lay this stuff out on the table.
Here's some more random thoughts on funding issues.
1) I want to say thanks to Marj Rolland, MPS Budget Director,
for her informative post regarding the $11,000 per student figure and
the per pupil spending at various schools. Marj is one of the great,
unsung heroes over at 807 with the valiant task of trying to explain
(not to mention figure out) a budget so complicated it almost defies
the human capacity for understanding. I've seen Marj talking to
various groups of parents and it sometimes looks like a nuclear
physicist trying to explain quantum mechanics to a bunch of freshman
humanities majors. We sit there and try. But after awhile, our brains
shut down, our eyes glaze over and we are utterly lost. It's not her
fault. It's not our fault. It's just tough stuff to understand.
2) The funding inequities between poor and middle-class
schools are real and often misunderstood. A year ago, I had lunch
with then-Vikings coach Denny Green to talk about the city schools.
I'm not sure how I ended up at the table, but there we were. I only
knew of Denny through local sportswriters who were relentlessly
negative about him and yes, I do think racism had something to do
with that, but that's another topic. Anyways, I was pleasantly
surprised to meet this fiercely intelligent, totally unpretentious
and gracious man. Denny actually watched school board meetings on
cable---I think he was one of maybe 16 people in the city who did
that. He had read the Board's 12-point plan for raising achievement
levels among poor minority students. He had a passion for social
justice issues. And he assumed---like many people do--that the old
inequities from the 50s, which had poor minority schools getting the
short end of the stick while white, middle-class schools got all the
cash was still happening. He was shocked to find out that in fact,
the funding inequities had been reversed. And he is/was hardly alone
in his assumptions.
I'm willing to live with our current level of inequity. I
just don't think it can be pushed much further. And I reject any
funding strategy that says we have to choose between serving either
our talented students OR our struggling ones. We need to serve both.
3) The folks at the school district just don't get up in the
morning and decide, hey, we're feeling sort of Marxist. Let's do a
little class warfare. Differences in funding, from compensatory to
Title One funds and more, are dictated almost entirely by the state
and the feds. That's one reason Catherine Shreves wanted to run for
state senate. She had seen--up close and personal--how little control
the district actually has over its funding and how to spend it.
4) The elephant in the living room, in any funding
discussion, is special education. Everyone is absolutely terrified to
talk about it. I mean, you think race and class are touchy? Darling,
those two are walks in the park compared to special ed. In Minnesota
we have lobbyists who are right up there with the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the AARP in their ability to cut
off discussion and cow officials into silence. Question the way we're
currently funding special education and the lawyers over at the
Disability Law Center will immediately accuse you of beating up on
the crippled.
In Minneapolis, about 12 percent of our students are
classified as needing special ed---the same average in the state and
nationally. About 58 percent of those students have your
garden-variety learning or speech disabilities. They need a few extra
hours of tutoring and aid. No big deal. But then we have the other 42
percent and here the cost goes through the roof because the schools
are dealing with the profoundly disabled, disturbed, retarded ,
autistic, you name it. These kids can easily cost between $25,000 and
$50,000 a year. In Minneapolis, we have one kid who costs $80,000 per
year. In a lot of these cases, we're doing health-care with education
dollars. Why?
Because since 1976, the feds and state legally require
schools to provide "an appropriate education in the least
restrictive environment to all students." Year-round. Until age 21.
It's the law.
And if you had a kid who had major head injuries from a car
accident and was nearly comatose--guess what? You'd put him on as
special transport bus to school every morning too because you'd need
to go to work and/or care for your other children. The first time a
Minneapolis principal told me he had kids in his building who were
nearly comatose and non-responsive, I thought he was kidding. I said,
"Well, heck, that explains your low test scores." And I was hardly
alone either. I don't think the average citizen realizes what the
schools are being asked to do.
But here's the kicker. The feds require all these extensive
services, but won't fund them. Oh, they kick in a measly 12 to 14
percent,then tell the schools to pick up the rest. If schools balk at
the price or level or services, they get sued in federal court for
non-compliance.
So last year, the Minneapolis district had to take$27.5
million out of its general fund --the money the state gives us to
teach the basic reading and writing and math ---just to cover its
ever-growing costs of special ed. That's 90 percent of our current
deficit.
Or to put it another way, Minneapolis was forced to make 88
percent of its students sacrifice part of their education, so it
could meet its legal obligations for its other 12 percent. The same
thing is happening in districts all over the state. It's one of the
main reasons behind huge school deficits and budget cuts.
For the record, I support special ed. I really do. Letting
parents care for their own disabled kids at home and sending them to
the local school is smart public policy, humane and cheaper than the
alternatives. If this country can afford trillion dollar missile
shields, it can afford to take decent care of its disabled kids.
Every single one.
But the way we're currently funding special ed. is nuts.
We're using education dollars to pay for health care. And we've
created a new elite class of students whose needs must be put before
all others. We asking school kids to sacrifice their own education to
pay for the care for their most vulnerable classmates.
Special ed is the tail that wags the dog. It affects every
parent, every kid in the state.
And it's one reason why I think any parent with a brain
should be voting for Paul Wellstone in the fall. He's been a leader
on this issue, along with Sen. Jim Jeffords, demanding that the feds
fully fund special ed. Last week, Sen. Jeffords said that special ed.
was the main reason he left the Republican party. When the Bushies
told him they couldn't fully fund special ed (because they had to
hand out these huge tax cuts to our wealthiest one percent) he walked.
A good friend of mine worked high up in the Bush
administration on disability issues and she finally quit after only a
year. She went into it thinking that disability had to be
non-partisan. After all, Republican have disabled kids too. But after
she quit she told me, "The Bushies would much rather talk about
compassion for the handicapped than spend any real money on them."
And she didn't want to be part of that game.
And what do we hear from our Republican administration and
president? More talk about holding the schools "accountable." From
the same deadbeats who refuse to pay their share of the bill.
Call me cynical, but you almost couldn't come up with a
better plan for killing public schools than to bury them under this
crushing, unfunded mandate.
I really wish school officials would also be more blunt about
special ed. I don't think the average parent or citizen gets it. They
just see the Board having to cut back on its sports budget and
wonder, hey what the heck is going on?
5) Finally, I was struck by some of the off-list and on-list
hostility towards the schools. Folks continue to blame schools for
problems schools didn't create, didn't cause, but have to deal with.
Schools only have control of about 20 percent of what makes a kid
succeed academically or not. Yet schools are told they're 100 percent
responsible for a kid's success.
When GOP candidate Kevin Trainor on the List recommends
firing everyone in the district and having 18-year-old temps take
their place---well, I get his frustration in the face of all these
overwhelming problems. But the disrespect to good people in the
district who are trying their damndest in the face of huge obstacles
isn't fair. Isn't right. If I contributed to this climate somehow in
my first post, I'm sorry.
Instead of saying Tear It All Down and Start Over. Or To Hell
with it, I'm
Going Private. I wish we said, okay, how can we help? How can we make
it better? Which is why I wish List Members Judy Farmer, Audrey
Johnson and Jonathan Palmer all the best in their run for School
Board and I admire their willingness to role up their sleeves and
try. Ditto for Denny Schapiro who joined last year. And for Catherine
Shreves who's leaving at the end of the year. Quite an illustrious
bunch from the List.
Lynnell Mickelsen
Ward 13, Linden Hills.
.
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