You know, I am really getting tired of public figures acting as if they are the ones who are put out by the public's need to know.
I am offended by Superintendent Johnson' fear of "naive" readers being done in by "lazy" reporting. I mean if Johnson were comfortable in explaining how MPS spends money and what are the results then she wouldn't need to fear a naive and lazy citizenry, nor would she need to leave it to Pawlenty's commission to simplify the whole thing. Pawlenty's commission isn't going to explain the differences pointed out in the Walsh article - only Mpls and St Paul schools can do that. And I don't know why Carol Johnson would think Tim Pawlenty's new commission - announced at a Taxpayer's League meeting of all things - would do anything to simplify discussions of expenses? Pawlenty is worried about the revenue side of the equation, how money should be distributed between MPS and, say, Eagan; it's Superintendent Johnson's job to worry about the expenses. I am a parent in MPS, I am a reader of the Star Tribune, I am an avid MPR listener, I have scoured the MPS web site for info on performance and finances, and I welcomed the reporting of Mr. Walsh comparing the budgets of Mpls and St Paul school Districts. I am out here reading tons of reports, trying to follow school board meetings, and trying to formulate the right questions. I've served on the site management team at my kids' school for the past two years and I am the newly elected PTSO president. I'm involved and I am working pretty hard to understand why some things are the way they are in MPS - yes, it's a big picture but so are all the other urban districts in the nation, including St Paul. 1) Why are the teacher and principal contracts written such that the District has very little room to manage by keeping good teachers and admin and letting bad teachers and admin go? The District needs to negotiate contracts that serve the best interests of the kids and they need to be able to defend that practice. 2) Why do our high schools have such bad attendance rates? and graduation rates? Were the attendance rates any better in the 1970's? 1980's? 1990's? When did things change or get worse or better and why? The District needs to devote a significant web site to tracking that information so that people can better understand why some schools such as Roosevelt and North can increase their 95% daily attendance rate by 6-9% in 2002 and why Roosevelt's 95% daily attendance rate was still below 40%. 3) And I want to know why MPS scores are not any better than St Paul's even though poverty and LEP rates are similar and MPS have smaller class sizes, more schools and spend a lot more money? What's up? 4) And I want to know why MPS doesn't have a better way of tracking stats as I have often been told that the state or the newspaper or somebody got the numbers wrong - ugh - can't we have a numbers sytem that makes sense - and, if the numbers are wrong, how wrong are they? is it to a great degree or not? why are they wrong? when are they going to be right? what school districts have right numbers? can we do what they do? why or why not? BTW, I don't really know where else to have these kinds of conversations except on the web. I don't like being so "public" with my criticisms or questions, but I am becoming increasingly frustrated the more I try to find answers to questions. Some school board members have been helpful, some principals, some teachers - but MPS seems to be controlled very tightly by the District and it seems like this list is at least one of the places where the Distirct is paying attention and actually, sort-of responding to concerns. Sincerely, Carla Bates http://mpsparents.blogspot.com 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
