Jim Mork writes: >Because of Pawlenty and Sviggum, you no longer have the financial equality to pull in >teachers with better pay.<
Hm. Last I heard, state funding for K-12 education wasn't really cut. They were pretty much protected in the budget, which meant much bigger cuts for other programs. So you can't blame Pawlenty and Sviggum. If more money is the solution, why is our superintendent heading off to a district with 1/2 of the per-pupil spending of the Mpls district? We pay our teachers pretty well by national standards. But I can't blame teachers who have to put up with serious disruptions on an hourly basis. The real difficulty is in the courts. The courts have said that we must provide "an education" to everyone--even the ones who don't want it and hate being there. This is very, very expensive, and it wears down the new teachers who are forced to babysit them. In my day in school (after walking six miles in snow, uphill, to get there ;-) ), miscreants were punished, suspended and expelled (the latter two happened rarely) and the ones who didn't want to be there were allowed (and sometimes encouraged) to leave. Parents were expected to make sure the kids were ready to learn. And if I had called any teacher a "ho", or used the f-word in class--well, after I regained consciousness I suppose I would have been suspended at least, and then had to face my parents who would have made the school consequences seem like a picnic. Equal opportunity, yes, but that doesn't, and shouldn't mean we force schools to take on that which they aren't empowered to help. --M. G. Stinnett Jordan Neighborhood 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
