Now that the immediate crisis is over on the closing of schools in Minneapolis, I have an observation to make about what did and didn't happen during the two weeks.
I am, frankly, surprised that the MPS school board didn't follow through. It seemed "greased" to do so from the point of the meeting of the school board when the closings were announced by Superintendent Jennings and I think that every member of the School Board immediately gave a short speech about how "It's a dirty rotten shame, but we don't have any other options." After the announcement, there was the expected outcry from those directly affected by the prospective closings. But I did not perceive that the concern extended any farther in the city than to those directly affected. Just one example is a review of postings on this list during the two weeks. With few exceptions, those posting seemed to be those who were directly affected while those not directly affected continued on with the other concerns that usually appear. Obviously, other concerns continued but I'd respectfully suggest to all that an attitude of, "My school isn't going away so I'm not concerned about the issue" is unfortunate. At the same time, I know a lot of people who contacted and were contacted by various media outlets about the situation. I'm not an insider to the media, but it seems to me that the reporters must have turned in a lot of copy that was never published. I conclude that editorial decisions were made that, "it's not that big of a story" or "it's just those folks whose ox was gored and we're not interested is spending more time and space on them." Again, I think it was unfortunate that the media saw it as just concerning 10 or so small areas of the city and not the city as a whole. Whatever else Superintendent Jennings may have done, his first rumbling of there being a problem with the MPS as a whole was spot on but it seemed to get diverted quickly in the minds of most of those in town of just being the problem of those affected by 10 schools. I guess that the decision to delay the decision on school closings may be due almost solely to Mayor Rybak's public statement that the School Board's decision making was flawed and needed to be postponed. His reaction, by itself, may have made the school closing issue a city-wide issue that it had not been before. Mayor Rybak needs to be commended for taking a risk and saying something. I just hope that when he continues to pursue his initiative for city-wide considerations, that he doesn't then start wondering where everyone else has gone. Now, the school board is going to go through about eight months of study leading up to major changes and potentially the same closings that it considered in the last two weeks. And, perchance, if the list of buildings to close is different, then the people then affected will probably be reacting in a "we're outraged" manner while everyone else breathes a sign of relief. On the chance that it will sound like I'm just being a scold, I would suggest to everyone in the city that the next eight months are going to be very important for the city's schools. If you adopted an "I'm not affected" stance before, I'd suggest that you drop it and burn with a little fire, because everyone is going to be affected. We need broad participation in the mayor's initiative and in the school board's considerations in the coming months. You WILL be affected next time and local protests of "it's not fair" won't carry the day next time. Steve Cross Prospect Park 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. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ 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
