YOUR TURN | Diversity, integration, segregation in Minneapolis Public Schools

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Minneapolis Public Schools administration has proposed shifting away from citywide busing and towards community schools, beginning in the 2010-2011 school year. The administration is still revising details of the Changing School Options plan in the upcoming months, however the plan will most likely make major changes to citywide busing and magnet schools. The push towards zoning and community schools brings up major questions about segregation and diversity in Minneapolis public schools.This is the last in a series of TCDP forum articles on the implications of the Changing School Options plan, including on citywide busing and on magnet schools.  WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!Which of these opinions do you agree/disagree with? Why? • The Story• Keep citywide busing for integration• Integration is not the answer• Integration can’t be left to schools aloneChanging School OptionsMinneapolis Public Schools is facing both budgetary and educational challenges. Continue Reading

Governor No: Line item vetos and unallotment / Cop pleads guilty / Beware the borer / more

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Governor No No new taxes. No special session. No compromise. That’s essentially the message that Governor Pawlenty delivered with $400 million in line item vetoes and a threat that he will balance the budget by unallotment if the legislature does not agree to his terms. Rachel Stassen Berger’s PiPress blog describes who gets hit by the biggest line item veto:In signing the Health and Human Services bill the Legislature sent him, he slashed $381 million in funding for General Assistance Medical Care, a health insurance program for adult Minnesotans who don’t have health insurance but may not be eligible or may not yet be approved for other subsidized health care programs. Health insurance through GAMC is only available to folks who make $650 a month, about $7,800 a year, or less. Many covered under GAMC are homeless. Continue Reading

Waiting for the veto / “Independent” contractors / Playing to lose / more

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Passed, passed, passed and waiting The legislature passed a number of bills yesterday, and the stack on T-Paw’s desk continues to grow. Will he sign or will he veto? Only the governor knows for sure. Among the bills awaiting decision:
• Flat funding for P-12 schools and cuts for higher ed. Minnesota Miracle and expanded Q-Comp both lose out. Continue Reading

YOUR TURN | Demagnetizing Minneapolis schools?

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Minneapolis Public Schools administration has proposed major shifts in the way that schools are organized, beginning in the 2010-2011 school year. Along with a push to cut transportation and busing, Minneapolis Public Schools would like to reduce the number of magnet schools. WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!Should Minneapolis have fewer magnet schools? Why? • The Story• The case for reducing the number of magnet schools• The case for retaining Minneapolis magnets

Changing School Options
Minneapolis Public Schools is facing both budgetary and educational challenges. Continue Reading

Closing the door to college / Five days, a billion dollars / No blood on the gun / more

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I’m on the road, so this blog post is short and late — I hope tomorrow will be earlier and longer. Closing the door to college Minnesota has had a proud tradition of higher education and of making higher education available to its residents. That may be ending, reports MinnPost:Tuition is rising faster in Minnesota than in most other states. It has doubled since 1999 at the U of M. .. Meanwhile, state spending for higher education has stuck flat for years in some areas and dropped by double digits in others. Continue Reading

Minnesota school nurses and pandemics: the first line of defense

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While some Minnesota students wait for their schools to reopen in the wake of H1N1 Swine Flu cases, officials wonder if the school health network is strong enough to protect students from such outbreaks. The school closures show again that the officials at the junction of public health and schools are the school nurses. They are charged with not only keeping students well and promoting healthy lifestyles, but also with mitigating outbreaks and planning for emergencies that are both small and catastrophic. Sadly for Minnesota students and their parents, epic underfunding by state government has forced school districts to cut the number of school nurses. All major school health organizations — the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Center for Health Statistics and the National Association of School Nurses — recommend a school nurse-to-student ratio of 750 to one. Continue Reading

Minnesota still shorting education

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New figures based on those released by the Minnesota Department of Education show that state school districts remain horribly underfunded. They also prove that education underfunding results in tax hikes throughout the state. After adjusting for inflation, per-student school funding from the state was nearly four percent less than it was in 2003. The decline is due to a dramatic, 13 percent cut in aid from the state during that time. While districts asked voters to make up the difference, taxpayers in many areas couldn’t stem the flow of money away from schools. Continue Reading

Help for college students

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“Thank heavens for the stimulus package,” was all Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia) had left to say after two hours of floor debate on the omnibus higher education finance bill April 22. College students could be thankful too, as the House’s higher education funding package takes advantage of federal stimulus money to help hold down tuition rates at the University of Minnesota and at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities schools over the next two years. Sponsored by Rukavina and Sen. Sandy Pappas (DFL-St. Paul), HF869/SF2083* would fund public postsecondary schools and student financial aid for the 2010–2011 biennium. The House passed the bill 86-46 and sent it back to the Senate, where a different version passed 41-23 on April 17. Continue Reading

Bachmann’s caution about making young people work for political cause hits home

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As part of Michele Bachmann’s recent warning that “re-education camps” could be established with expansion of the AmeriCorps program, the Minnesota Republican congresswoman said she feared America’s young people may soon find themselves laboring in mandatory service to a political doctrine. But assigning youth to work for an ideological cause shouldn’t be a completely foreign concept to Bachmann: During her 2006 and 2008 congressional campaigns, she enlisted squads of home-schooled kids from around the state and even around the country to get out the vote in her district. var mnindyHeadline = “MORE FROM”; var mnindyHeadline2 = “Michigan Messenger”;
Bob Collins at Minnesota Public Radio’s Newscut blog documented it on the day before the election last November:
Why aren’t these two kids — Alex and Cate Sutton — in class? Because they are, actually.They’re home-schooled kids who have been given the assignment to drop leaflets in Woodbury today for Rep. Michele Bachmann, who’s in a close fight for re-election in the 6th District. They say this is part of a paper they’re writing on government. Continue Reading

“Mend, Don’t End” WMEP, say parents; “a vanity project,” says MPS

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More than 100 parents and students in the West Metro Education Program descended on Minneapolis Public Schools’ headquarters March 5 to give a piece of their mind to the Minneapolis Board of Education. The meeting followed last week’s vote to accept Superintendent Bill Green’s recommendation that MPS pull out of WMEP, effective June 30, 2009. Green says WMEP did not fulfill its desegregation mission, and failed to address the achievement gap between poor students and students of color, and white students. “Pulling out is a step backwards,” said Leah Lynch of Minneapolis, the aunt of two WMEP students. Lynch and her brother are black. Continue Reading