"We are sending more money away from Minneapolis all the time to create more weapons of mass destruction (see, for example, "Washington's Secret Nuclear War" -- read the full article to see what our tax dollars are paying for):"
I'm all for children excelling in their education, and it sounds like your daughter is doing a fantastic job. But to quote Al-Jazeera - an EXTREMELY anti-American organization -as a justification for any personal belief is entirely irresponsible.
"Look at how our average Mpls household federal taxes are spent: over $2,300.00 for military and military debt payments, with only 10% of that -- all of $224.00 going toward education.
We cannot afford better education for our children, can we? Of course not."
Public education is primarily a State responsibility, and the Federal government should do nothing more than oversee licensing public education facilities, teachers, etc.
The budget for public education in the State of MN amounts to 50.9642% of all spending (a total state expenditure of $14.35 million for FY 2004-05). http://www.finance.state.mn.us/ffeu/forecasts/2004feb/2004feb_summary.pdf How much more do you want? Get rid of all the administrators and happy-thought "educators", train and pay the teachers what they deserve, and public education will once again be worth the praise it once deserved.
The primary problems with test scores and good education lies in the inner-city schools - compare Mpls. and St. Paul scores to those of outstate school and districts, then reconsider all that spending.
You can't just throw money at everything and call it better. Tweaking the system and eliminating the waste is pretty much the basic answer to any business model in existence. And that's what these schools are - or should be. It's my money, too. I don't see improvements made by continuously increasing the budget.
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