The 5th District Green Party endorsing convention did not endorse a school board candidate. Green Party leaders, including Eric Makela and Annie Young, spoke in favor of endorsing Kari Tauring and against endorsing Doug Mann. 18 votes were needed to get the endorsement. Kari Tauring received 17, Doug Mann 4, None-Of-The-Above 8.
Kari Tauring stated that the district is doing a good job educating most students, and that the financial problems faced by the schools were due in part to underfunded federal mandates, and proposed that the district wean its self off of federal money. I stated that a large majority of students in the Minneapolis public schools are not getting an adequate education, and that K-12 education policy promoted by the federal and state governments, and carried out in Minneapolis, is based on the false premise that the academic achievement gap was being closed at the expense of high achievers during the 1970s and early 1980s. The net effect of reforms carried out to fight a "rising tide of mediocrity has been to widen the education achievement gap, in my opinion. Like the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, evidence of a rising tide of mediocrity in America's Public Schools during the 1970s and early 80s is not supported by such data as reading and math scores on National Assessment of Educational Progress exams. -Doug Mann 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
