Well, I can't reply to all the points made in this thread so I'll try and stick to the points I was originally concerned with. The students at my son's parochial school fit the profile of the students the public schools refuse to educate mostly low income, Black and Latino. Everyone is offered the same curriculum. Since half of the children are non catholic (like my son) I believe most of them are there for the same reasons we are. The stratification practiced by the public schools may not account for all of the difference in cost but it makes sense that it accounts for some. Not only is there separate instruction but with 80% receiving inferior instruction (and being told constantly that it and they are inferior) the public schools have to deal with more discipline problems from bored alienated kids. In fact they are eager to label any kid who isn't happy with what is, essentially, custodial care a discipline problem with an attention deficit disorder (here is where a lot of special needs funds are probably being spent).
I don't enjoy paying for an education that the children of wealthier parents are given for free (and without religious instruction). But this is the only alternative to the educational apartheid practiced in Minneapolis. The only social engineering going on here is the maintenance of a permanent underclass and I refuse to participate in it. I'm sorry other parents are too poor to get out of this viscous trap but the only way to help them is to change the system. Vote for Doug Mann! Linda Mann Kingfield _______________________________________ 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
