Forwarded on behalf of Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Carol
Johnson.
June 28, 2003
To The Editor:
Saturday's A1 article, "A Great Divide Between Districts", seeks to
explain how Minneapolis and St. Paul schools are facing quite different
budget scenarios for the coming year. Regrettably, the story falls far short
of that goal.
Reporters Allie Shah and Jim Walsh did create another opportunity
for valuable community discourse about the priorities Minneapolis and St.
Paul residents have for their public schools. In recent years, Minneapolis
has prioritized smaller classes, school choice and community schools. We
have already begun a planning process to engage the public as we try to
simultaneously cut costs and increase achievement for all students. As we
embark on this effort we should not assume that two urban school communities
that have some similarities would prioritize exactly the same investments.
Irresponsible, perhaps even lazy, reporting led to the use of data
that lacked analytical context and appeared to be intentionally misleading.
This is particularly troubling since readers are left with the impression
that Minneapolis Public Schools spends a significant amount more on
administration than does St. Paul.
In fact, according to data the Star Tribune received from the state
(not reported in the story) both Minneapolis and St. Paul spend roughly the
same amount for district support services (administrative costs not in
schools) of $12.6 and $11.6 million respectively. Deloitte-Touche, the
independent auditing firm used by both Minneapolis and St. Paul, continues
to report that Minneapolis is lean, not "top heavy" as the article suggests,
spending just four percent on its budget on administrative staff.
More than 90 percent of the "administrative" costs referenced in the
story are actually costs related to people who work in the schools with
students and families: principals, school secretaries, attendance clerks,
security staff and the like. Given the fact that Minneapolis has 32 more
schools and transports 8,000 more students, it is only logical that we would
spend more on such staff.
We recognize that school finance is a complex topic and even well
intentioned people can have a difficult time interpreting the data to create
apples to apples comparisons. And we are hopeful that Governor Pawlenty's
school finance reform effort will demystify this topic. This article would
have benefited from such clarity.
Our regret is that naive readers may use this information to draw
erroneous conclusions about Minneapolis' fiscal integrity. That would be
tragic not only for Minneapolis Public Schools, but for public education as
a whole.
Respectfully,
Dr. Carol R. Johnson
Superintendent, Minneapolis Public Schools
Cc: Maureen McCarthy
Lou Gelfand
Allie Shah and Jim Walsh
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.)
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