$1.7 million of school money to real estate office ?

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Today's Star Tribune has a headline that says $2.7 million is to be given to
schools to make sure that where a student lives doesn't prevent them from
having access to world class schools. The implication is that the Minneapolis
Public Schools are not currently world class schools. So, the Strib reporter
then explains that $.5 million will go to a teacher residency program in
Minneapolis Public Schools to develop more minority teachers, a problem that
has been around since the founding of the MPS. Another $.475 million will go to
help a couple of charter schools in Minneapolis expand. That leaves $1.725
million of the $2.7 million to go someplace else. The only other beneficiary of
the corporate elites' largess mentioned is "a real estate office that will
assist charter school principals with finding buildings for their schools and
negotiating leases." That would imply that the current school system doesn't
already have enough buildings and space strategically located throughout the
city. Really?
 
It would appear that the take-over of our school system by private corporations
(for profit and not for profit) is picking up steam. Who needs a public school
system when you can have quasi-private schools funded by philanthropy groups
supplementing that tax eating funding mechanism that is our state and district
education system?

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Public Schools apparently do not work well for a large underclass of
Minneapolis pupils. I welcome the innovation.
 
Bill Dooley
Kenny

Rest of post

 
On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 9:42 AM, Dan McGuire <<email obscured>> wrote:
 
> Today's Star Tribune has a headline that says $2.7 million is to be given
> to schools to make sure that where a student lives doesn't prevent them
> from having access to world class schools. The implication is that the
> Minneapolis Public Schools are not currently world class schools. So, the
> Strib reporter then explains that $.5 million will go to a teacher
> residency program in Minneapolis Public Schools to develop more minority
> teachers, a problem that has been around since the founding of the MPS.
> Another $.475 million will go to help a couple of charter schools in
> Minneapolis expand. That leaves $1.725 million of the $2.7 million to go
> someplace else. The only other beneficiary of the corporate elites' largess
> mentioned is "a real estate office that will assist charter school
> principals with finding buildings for their schools and negotiating
> leases." That would imply that the current school system doesn't already
> have enough buildings and space strategically located throughout the city.
> Really?
>
> It would appear that the take-over of our school system by private
> corporations (for profit and not for profit) is picking up steam. Who needs
> a public school system when you can have quasi-private schools funded by
> philanthropy groups supplementing that tax eating funding mechanism that is
> our state and district education system?
>
> Dan McGuire
> Ericsson, Minneapolis
> About/contact Dan McGuire: http://forums.e-democracy.org​/p​/danmcguire1
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Seems to me that more of the underclass not being served well are the
ones left
behind when those that have the wherewithal to move their children to charter
and other private schools with the use of public school funds, are
exacerbating
the problem, not really fixing anything except for themselves.
 
And lets not forget, that every child that gets vouchered out of the public
schools till gets a free bus ride courtesy of the public school funds to their
charter/private school.
 
Does Mpls public schools have problems? Hell yes! But do vouchers fix
that? Hell NO!
 
Every voucher, charter school, bus is just ne more nail in the coffin of the
public schools.
 
And now we have public school funds being used to help charter schools with
finding adequate spaces and leases of those spaces so they can continue
to kill
the very system that funds them.
 
I'm not disparaging charter schools here as unable to educate, that's a
different discussion. I'm disparaging them for making the work of the public
schools worse while they pretend to be doing the job the public schools
are not
doing. Its a deep discussion, and one that gets brought up on this
forum quite
frequently.
 
Hello?
 
Ron Leurquin
Richfield

Rest of post

 

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> And lets not forget, that every child that gets vouchered out of the public
> schools till gets a free bus ride courtesy of the public school funds to
> their
> charter/private school.
>
 
Yes. I just spoke with a MPS transportation guy this week. He said that
the average MPS student costs $400 to bus to their MPS school. They spend
on average $1300 per student to bus the kids to charters. The state
reimburses $295.
 
The rest of the busing costs come from the per pupil funding of the
students that go to MPS. Additional kids going to charters with MPS buses
will crush the system. (And that's just the transportation issue. There
are many others)
 
Gwen Spurgat
Linden Hills

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Mr. Dooley,
What innovation are you talking about. Longer school days, no education for
the special needs students. These students do not belong in charter schools.
Uniforms, Unsuccessful. Charter schools are quasi public schools and should be
treated the same as public schools. Plus they do not honor their contracts,
Getting free rides as well as free maintenance of school buildings. Our
taxpayers dollars go to their well paid administrators. I suppose you are
comfortable with that, since you appear to think they do a good job. You need
to do more research on how innovative they are and the degree of ethics and
integrity they have. I do not see any of that or maybe I have blinders on.
 
Eli Kaplan
Linden Hills

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Today's Star Tribune has a front page follow-up to the story that ran April 7.
The headline on my paper version of the paper reads "Education nonprofit hopes
cash closes gaps." The online version of the story today has the headline
"Minnesota Comeback takes new aim at Minneapolis achievement gaps - Group gives
$2.7M to aid diversity in Mpls. schools."
 
Now, I'm going to guess that somebody other than Alejandra Matos, who's byline
is on the story, wrote those headlines. Those headlines are odd for a couple of
reasons. The first is that the headlines don't convey the point of this
follow-up story which was that there is "opposition from a small but vocal
group of Minneapolis residents and one Minneapolis school board member." Now,
I'm not sure just how 'small' or vocal that group is. Is it small in comparison
to the group that of residents that supports giving $1.7 million to charters
for a real estate office? Just how many people in Minneapolis are supportive of
giving $1.7 million to charters for a real estate office? Count me a one person
in that group that opposes giving $1.7 million to charters for a real estate
office? I'm willing to bet that group gets bigger.
 
The headline that says "nonprofit hopes cash closes gaps" is interesting
because of the word 'hopes.' I'm more than a little surprised that the $2.7
million is being spent hoping that it makes a difference? But, I suppose that
is reasonable since I'm not sure where they'd find evidence to support giving
$1.7 million to charters for a real estate office as a way to actually close
any kind of gap.
 
Then, there's the part of the headline that says "Comeback takes new aim at
Minneapolis achievement gaps." Let's ignore what they might be meaning with the
name, 'Comeback,' and consider 'new aim.' What was there old aim and why didn't
it work? Again, is there any evidence to support this 'new aim' ?
 
The "key strategies: increasing the diversity of teachers in the city, engaging
families and expanding high-quality schools" is not something new. The MPS has
been saying that they want to do that since way before they hired me over 20
years ago. So, what's the new aim"?
 
The sub-headline, "$2.7M to aid diversity in Mpls. schools" is really deceptive
if not just plain wrong. How is giving $1.7 million to charters for a real
estate office aiding diversity? And, is giving $.5 million to a couple of
existing charters really aiding diversity? It seems to me to be simply aiding
charter schools.
 
Ok, that was the headlines. Now, for the meat of the story, "Bill Graves, CEO
of the John & Denise Graves Foundation, said he and his family fund donated
nearly $300,000. They support Comeback because it gives them the chance to have
a bigger impact by focusing on the same big-picture initiatives as other
foundations." Graves didn't say anything about a new aim or diversity. He's
talking about getting to be like the big kids of philanthropy. It probably
also enables him and his family feel good to be doing something for education
instead of supporting it through higher taxes on the wealthy.
 
And the other meat of the story is a report on a conversation that Michael Goar
and Al Fan had after Goar sent Fan a letter last October. So, this isn't really
'news.' Goar is said to have said "he now sees that Comeback is committed to
supporting the district’s vision of giving individual schools more control of
major decisions and investing in quality school leaders and teachers." I guess
the implication there is that without the help of these rich people that wanna
be like other rich people the MPS would not be investing in quality school
leaders and teachers. There's more than a few problems with Goar's new found
support of this group of rich people that wanna be like other rich people. The
first is that Goar was the head of a company that did exactly what MinnComeback
does before he became a superintendent wannabe in the MPS. The second is that
he will very likely go to work for another group of rich people that wanna be
like other rich people in a few months or go to work for a charter chain.
 
Which brings me to think that Goar's support is probably even more reason to
believe that MINNcomeback's goal to create 30,000 “rigorous and relevant”
classroom seats means that Comeback wants to shift the 36,000 students from
Minneapolis district schools into charter schools.
 
Anybody else want to join the group that opposes "the shift of 30,000 students
from Minneapolis district schools into charter schools" ?

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Count me in as one of the growing number of vocal opposition to MN
Comeback! The Strib article says: "Goar and Fan say the letter [from Goar
decrying Comeback's charter focus] prompted them to have more honest
conversations, and Goar said he now sees that Comeback is committed to
supporting the district’s vision of giving individual schools more control
of major decisions and investing in quality school leaders and teachers."
and the VERY NEXT SENTENCE:
"Comeback is giving the school district more than half a million dollars...
"
 
My Summary -now that MPS gets $, Goar sees the light (reflecting off the $)
never mind that Comeback's math of new seats includes taking AT LEAST 8,000
students from MPS and stirring up any consistency for the remaining
students -
I calculate (8,000/500 students =)16 MPS schools would close, and COUNTLESS
students would be moved to other schools. I assume all on the north side...
 
I have attended 2 of Minnesota Comeback's meetings where they have said
their "real estate arm" wants to secure 30 new school buildings. A problem?
"Chicago now has 101,000 students in 140 high schools, excluding
alternative schools. In 2000, CPS had 93,000 students in 86 high schools.
That’s a 63 percent increase in schools against an 8 percent increase in
students. For neighborhoods like Austin that have lost population, this
seats-students mismatch is particularly devastating."
http://www.theatlantic.com​/education​/archive​/2016​/04​/reviving​-a​-hollowed​-out​-high​-school​/477354​/
 
Also count me in as concerned that Matos isn't pulling the strings. The
new title (and previous article) sounds a bit more like a press release
than article...
 
I encourage you all to go rub elbows with Minneapolis' elite at Minnesota
Comeback's next meeting! You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who sent
their kids to public schools to be guinea pigs for their next experiment.
 
Gwen Spurgat
Linden Hills

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If you want another perspective on Fan's intentions watch him talking about
Minneapolis in this video. His challenge is to get rid of the schools that
aren't working, and he knows what's working because he has an MBA.