I've noticed that it is a theme of Doug Mann's that the most successful schools should not automatically get the best teachers. But I wonder how successful it would be to direct the best teachers to the worst schools. The school system is not the military. The best teachers seem to me to be the people who have the most freedom to choose a school district. It seems implausible to me that they'd choose one where the pay is not the greatest AND they don't get any choice where they teach. Putting them in problem schools seems to me a way to lose them to more attractive districts. If a program were to work, it seems to me it would need an incentive, the type of thing that the National Defense Education Act did years ago. It is tempting to think you could just say "this or nothing", but education is a job market, and the "nothing" option probably only exists for people with poor resumes. Improving the quality of teaching at the tough schools will take something a bit more creative. Frankly, I don't see even the charter schools doing it that well.
First-ring Suburbs
Further checking on the first ring of suburbs, I find that there is consistent pattern of much lower crime and lower living costs. I'm puzzled. How can you step across a boundary line and suddenly there is lower crime AND lower costs? I won't accept the notion that government there is brilliant as it is nowhere else. But why would food be cheaper, even in a small degree, in the suburbs? Their stores are the same as ours. In fact, to some degree, that is where you find the Byerlys and such. Of course, it is also a fact that the entire city of Minneapolis, so far as I know has ONE Cub Foods. It has at least three Rainbows that I know of. But that means most city residents aren't buying discount food. One thing that amazed me was seeing Crystal with a homicide rate of zero. That's got to impress worrisome folks when they see it. We need to buy some of Crystal's "magic", whatever it is.
$35 million
I had the same reaction when I read that the "anonymous donor" was popping such a big sum to build a stadium on campus. I think a country has something SERIOUSLY wrong when so much that is vital to LIFE is on short rations while the very wealthy are so eager to support college sports with what seem like vast sums to all of us. I guess if it were a better program, I might have a tiny amount of understanding, but does a team like the Gophers NEED a fancy stadium? It is merely another indication of the distorted values that are taken for granted in this country. And, of course, the $35 million is only seed money. Much additional wealth will have to be wasted to make this stadium happen. If you wonder "why can't so many problems be solved", try starting with a population that routinely has the cart before the horse. Among other things, it is harder and harder for poor but ambitious kids to lift themselves by the bootstraps through education. The slow death of grant programs mean that most graduates have huge debts. Then they come out to find their jobs going offshore and an economic "recovery" that includes no jobs. And in the midst of all this, somehow it is taken for GRANTED that all problems are capable of solution. Why not be AMAZED if you can solve problems. It is more consistent with the conditions, I think.
________________________________________
Jim Mork
Cooper Neighborhood
Try lighting a few candles. The world is all stocked up with cursers of the darkness.
_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive larger attachments with Hotmail Extra Storage. http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es
REMINDERS:
1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
