On just about every other topic, it seems the man gets it. He challenges the community to help itself, to help each other - and community leaders to walk their talk. I have been saying for the last couple weeks "I will share his outrage - when he points his finger at those who are abusing our children, and that's not the schools." Ironically, if the article is to be believed, he is mostly pointing fingers in the right direction.
Why, then, his ignorance about the schools?
Is it simply ignorance, taking inaccurate statistics to make assumptions that lead to politically convenient positions? School-bashing has been trendy since Bush took office, so go along & you don't look too liberal?
In fact, the article named support of public education a "white sacred cow" - which in this state it clearly is NOT. (At least not anymore - we're over 30 years past the Minnesota Miracle. See http://www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/18public.html) I wish the education of all American children was sacred to all Americans...
Samuels didn't give any reason in the article as to why he would dismiss the entire school system with: "Get rid of the damn thing! It hasn’t worked!” beyond the widely-quoted but still wrong statistic about black male graduation rates. I guess that is the mystifying part - what does he really believe about us?
Despite all the bad press, great things are still happening every day in all of the Minneapolis schools. Timothy J. O'Brien, an editorial letter-writer from Minneapolis made a great point in the Strib the other day in response to Samuels' call for vouchers:
SCHOOL CHOICE: Vouchers to the rescue
I've always been strongly against school vouchers. However, after reading Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels remarks, Nick Coleman's columns and Mitch Pearlstein's Feb. 21 Counterpoint, I now see vouchers as the only way for Minneapolis public schools, which my three adult children attended, to be saved.
However, I have some restrictions on how the vouchers will be dispensed. If you missed school five or more days in a semester, you get a voucher; if you acted out in class more than twice in a semester, you get a voucher; if you fail to do your homework on a timely basis, you get a voucher; if you were arrested for anything anytime, you get a voucher.
Now, after all of the just voucher recipients are warmly accepted into the schools of their choice, the remaining students -- the ones who attend every day, act appropriately, are prepared and law-abiding -- will excel as never before and the voucher system will be a huge success. I'm sure all of the charter and private schools will accept these new students with open arms.
That's the bottom line that folks don't mention when KIPP schools and other successful charters are touted as the magic bullet: they are full of kids whose parents had the good sense to send them there. Imagine if all the kids in the Minneapolis Public School had parents who were involved at the level that KIPP parents are...
Even so, the sins of the parents should not hold back their kids. I've always maintained that my daughter's elite private school has only two things that my public school needs: over $20,000 per kid, and the ability to kick out anyone they don't want. Give us those two things in the Minneapolis Public Schools and our results will match theirs in no time.
Want something to be outraged about, Mr. Samuels? How about the fact that no one with power in this state has any interest in that idea?
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