After the exhausting(ive) discussions on MPS, I'm sure the MCA article in the Star Tribune (http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3945593.html) will cause a lot of buzz. The paper chose the improvements as the hook for its coverage, but I think there are a lot of other issues. As I look through the chart, the link between family income and success seems solid. What teachers should have on the top of their wish list is "rich parents". Any teacher teaching a kid from a poor home is pedaling uphill, and they don't get paid a CENT more than a teacher doing the easy job. In some cases, they may get paid less. So one big topic should be "how do you offset the effects of poverty?" I'm waiting for the critics to come up with snappy answers. But here's a second issue: What is the reason to continue supporting charter schools? I didn't see that their independence or unconventional methods made any difference at all. Maybe if you run these numbers through a complex data analysis program, you might discover a nuance somewhere in the data. But right now, it seems to me that Minneapolis charter schools should be on the defensive because they haven't shown they have the answers. But why did we ever think they did? --------------------------- And this got me thinking about Arne Carlson's favorite issue, vouchers. I've said it before, but I should mention again that I belong to that majority-group of taxpayers who pay into the school system without getting any direct benefit. Without us, families would be crushed by their educational expenses, and we deserve a big say in the outcome of choices about financing. Now, according to my property tax statements, my total contribution to schools (based on a 70/30 split between state and local) is about $1436 (plus or minus a few bucks). Even if you look at subsidized private school tuitions, that is about half of the tuition for one student. So if you merely give back the school taxes paid, the family of three kids would be looking at making up a $7500 differential to send kids to a private school. Now it may be the voucher fans think MY money should also go to those parents. But I don't go along with that. I support public schools because I consider them a bulwark of democracy. So I wouldnt agree to a cent of my money going to schools that work against that. But I can see this kind of proposal. If a parent has a student who can't learn in public schools (fails assessment tests), give that parent his money back (hey, a money-back guarantee!) to spend on private school. But people whose students are doing fine but aren't getting religious indoctrination during school hours don't get a cent if they pull their students because the public schools are doing what they were put there for, which did not include religious indoctrination. Churches can do that extra-curricular, what they were put there for! ------------------------------------ Jim Graham managed to address the questions of lifestyle crime without answering any of my questions about it. For instance, I never talked about propositioning minors. I'm all in favor or prosecuting those who do, but what does that really have to do with the question of prostitutes being on the street? It would be the same result no matter where prostitutes did business from. And how in the world can Jim make a statement about all prostitutes without examining their cases. He alleges that no one sells their body except to buy crack. Well, have at it, Jim. Just how many prostitutes are there, and how many told you that? Because I think that's a legend you swallowed hook, line, and sinker. It certainly cannot be true as you formulated it, Jim. And even if it is close to truth, it again doesn't speak to my main point which is that the common complaint is that it is happening on the street. Why does it happen on the street? How could it be manipulated so it didn't happen on the street? And tell me how a profession that has been attacked for as many years as this one has and survived gonna be stopped here in Minneapolis. Has your police friends supplied you with a plan not used by governmental authorities for the last five or six thousand years?
I get really tired of hearing the same old lines about crime problems, people repeating "solutions" that have been so worn out by use and failure that you know it isn't a serious proposal. So, I'm going to challenge them every time I read them. I want mytax money spent on something I don't have to laugh at. And allthese "get tough" advocates seem to be oblivious of thousands ofyears of civilization. They seem to think the stuff they see on the streets are a new social virus humanity has never seen which must be stopped now before it spreads. Which is what makes it laughable. But much as I like to laugh, I am quite obdurate that I don't want my money wasted on what is political comedy. So give me something fresh, OK? Something that seems to incorporate a wisdom born of familiarity with the long history of civilization. That is how I expect Minneapolis to be governed, not by recycled sermons from some Southern Baptist church. ------------------------------- Jim Mork Cooper Neighborhood Longfellow Community In The Great and Wonderful City I Call Home, Minneapolis TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
