Showing posts with label North High School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label North High School. Show all posts
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Still Separate, Still Unequal: Brown v Board 60 Years Later.
Join PEJAM and REACH (Rank-and-file Educators Advocating for Change) for a panel discussion on the legacy of the Brown v Board Supreme Court decision.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
URGENT: Solidarity to Save North High - phone/email blast to Board of Ed and Superintendent TOMORROW & TUESDAY
URGENT SOLIDARITY - please copy, paste and forward below solidarity appeal far and wide
Please e-mail the members of the Minneapolis School Board and call the Superintendent this Monday and Tuesday (November 8 and 9), and demand they keep North High School open.
The Minneapolis School Board is voting this Tuesday, November 9th, on a proposal from the Superintendent to close North High School. This follows years of school board decisions that weakened North High, including closing local feeder schools and eliminating a “home zone” of students assigned to North. The Superintendent is proposing a plan that would prevent 9th graders from coming to North next fall, and promoting a privately-managed charter high school instead.
The north Minneapolis community and other supporters have come together to form the Save North High Coalition to demand that the Superintendents proposal be rejected and that North High stay open. Below is the resolution that the Coalition has created for the School Board to vote for instead of the Superintendent’s, and below that is the contact information for the School Board members and the Superintendent!
Whereas MPS Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson has recommended that her administration work in partnership with school and community stakeholders to create a new North High School Program that would launch in the fall of 2012, and
Whereas the community has made clear its commitment to work with the District to rebuild and reinvest in North High School, and
Whereas changes in the Choice is Yours program will result in a renewed pool of potential 9th graders in Minneapolis in the Fall of 2011, and
Whereas, students, parents, teachers, and the community are central to building not just a program, but a culture of learning.
Therefore be it resolved, Minneapolis Public Schools will keep North High open and commit to rebuilding and reinvesting in the school and community, and
Be it further resolved, The MPS District will actively recruit and enroll 9th graders and other high school students for the fall of 2011 and beyond; create elementary and middle school pathways to North High; re-establish a North High home zone, and
Be it further resolved, the MPS District will work with students, parents, teachers, and the community to develop an aggressive, fully-funded plan to boost academic excellence and enrollment at North High School.
School Board members – e-mails:
T. Williams - T.Williams@mpls.k12.mn.us
Tom Madden - Tom.Madden@mpls.k12.mn.us
Chris Stewart - Chris.Stewart@mpls.k12.mn.us
Carla Bates - Carla.Bates@mpls.k12.mn.us
Jill Davis - Jill.Davis@mpls.k12.mn.us
Lydia Lee - Lydia.Lee@mpls.k12.mn.us
Peggy Flanagan - Peggy.Flanagan@mpls.k12.mn.us
Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson
Phone: 612-668-0200
Email: mpssup@mpls.k12.mn.us
Please send them a message respectfully calling on them to support the resolution from the community and keep North High open! If you want to add more, here are some talking points.
Talking Points:
- We appreciate Superintendent Johnson’s commitment to working with the students, parents, teachers, and community to build a new program at North, but community and District efforts will only succeed if there is a new 9th grade class next fall.
- Rebuilding North High school with a student body in place has a great chance to succeed; preventing new students from coming to North for a year will effectively close the school.
- With changes in the Choice is Yours program coming this year, fall of 2011 will be a vital time to recruit new 9th graders. Otherwise, we will lose students to charter schools.
- 9th grade is when students connect to their school, the vast majority of students won’t want to switch to a new high school (no matter how great) if they have developed friends and connections in their ninth-grade school.
- Preventing 9th graders from enrolling at North will send a message to current students that their school is closed and they will transfer. Who wants to be the last kid in a school that seems to have been abandoned?
In Solidarity
PEJAM
Please e-mail the members of the Minneapolis School Board and call the Superintendent this Monday and Tuesday (November 8 and 9), and demand they keep North High School open.
The Minneapolis School Board is voting this Tuesday, November 9th, on a proposal from the Superintendent to close North High School. This follows years of school board decisions that weakened North High, including closing local feeder schools and eliminating a “home zone” of students assigned to North. The Superintendent is proposing a plan that would prevent 9th graders from coming to North next fall, and promoting a privately-managed charter high school instead.
The north Minneapolis community and other supporters have come together to form the Save North High Coalition to demand that the Superintendents proposal be rejected and that North High stay open. Below is the resolution that the Coalition has created for the School Board to vote for instead of the Superintendent’s, and below that is the contact information for the School Board members and the Superintendent!
Whereas MPS Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson has recommended that her administration work in partnership with school and community stakeholders to create a new North High School Program that would launch in the fall of 2012, and
Whereas the community has made clear its commitment to work with the District to rebuild and reinvest in North High School, and
Whereas changes in the Choice is Yours program will result in a renewed pool of potential 9th graders in Minneapolis in the Fall of 2011, and
Whereas, students, parents, teachers, and the community are central to building not just a program, but a culture of learning.
Therefore be it resolved, Minneapolis Public Schools will keep North High open and commit to rebuilding and reinvesting in the school and community, and
Be it further resolved, The MPS District will actively recruit and enroll 9th graders and other high school students for the fall of 2011 and beyond; create elementary and middle school pathways to North High; re-establish a North High home zone, and
Be it further resolved, the MPS District will work with students, parents, teachers, and the community to develop an aggressive, fully-funded plan to boost academic excellence and enrollment at North High School.
School Board members – e-mails:
T. Williams - T.Williams@mpls.k12.mn.us
Tom Madden - Tom.Madden@mpls.k12.mn.us
Chris Stewart - Chris.Stewart@mpls.k12.mn.us
Carla Bates - Carla.Bates@mpls.k12.mn.us
Jill Davis - Jill.Davis@mpls.k12.mn.us
Lydia Lee - Lydia.Lee@mpls.k12.mn.us
Peggy Flanagan - Peggy.Flanagan@mpls.k12.mn.us
Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson
Phone: 612-668-0200
Email: mpssup@mpls.k12.mn.us
Please send them a message respectfully calling on them to support the resolution from the community and keep North High open! If you want to add more, here are some talking points.
Talking Points:
- We appreciate Superintendent Johnson’s commitment to working with the students, parents, teachers, and community to build a new program at North, but community and District efforts will only succeed if there is a new 9th grade class next fall.
- Rebuilding North High school with a student body in place has a great chance to succeed; preventing new students from coming to North for a year will effectively close the school.
- With changes in the Choice is Yours program coming this year, fall of 2011 will be a vital time to recruit new 9th graders. Otherwise, we will lose students to charter schools.
- 9th grade is when students connect to their school, the vast majority of students won’t want to switch to a new high school (no matter how great) if they have developed friends and connections in their ninth-grade school.
- Preventing 9th graders from enrolling at North will send a message to current students that their school is closed and they will transfer. Who wants to be the last kid in a school that seems to have been abandoned?
In Solidarity
PEJAM
Thursday, November 4, 2010
MEL REEVES: Stand with North High students to save their school
by Mel Reeves
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 11/3/2010
An open letter to the community
As most folks know by now, there has been a recommendation to close Minneapolis North High School. However, 265 young people have taken a stand and have committed to fight to keep their school open, and a few hundred community folks and teachers have stood with them and, in some cases, stood in for them.
If these children have the intestinal fortitude to stand up for themselves, then who are the rest of us not to stand with them?
What’s important for the community to know is that North High has not closed, and despite rumors about what “they” are talking about doing, there has only been a recommendation. So, many of your fellow community members have rolled up their sleeves and begun to organize protests and other tactics and strategies to ensure the school stays open.
Some say we ought to just give up, and that the closing of North is a bygone fact. Pessimism and fatalism are perfectly understandable, considering the David and Goliath relationship we have with the “system,” with the community usually playing the role of David. We have a history of bad and sometimes racist policies shoved down our throats.
So it makes sense that some folks are apathetic. But Biblical scholars would tell you that the Davids win every once in a while, and they don’t win by not fighting!
In fact, it appears that it was the protest by more than a few hundred parents, students and community members that caused the board to take a more conciliatory approach and agree in principle to work with the community on a proposal that would enable North to stay open. For the record, the protesters did so in a very dignified and disciplined manner.
What may pass for undignified and even disingenuous conduct are Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson’s claims about why she suggested that North be closed.
While the superintendent said that North’s enrollment was too low to sustain it, it was the Minneapolis School Board that turned North into a relatively small 500-student school.
It was the school board that failed to promote North while taking away its more attractive programs. And there are persistent rumors that some parents were in fact discouraged from sending their kids to North.
The superintendent also failed to inform folks that North High, unlike the other schools, did not have a “home zone.” That means that even kids living across the street from North were not required to go there, but were assigned to Henry instead.
It’s also important to note that nearly half of the students at North are in the high-achieving International Baccalaureate Program. Despite rumors to the contrary, the vast majority of the 265 are not failing; only five to 10 percent of the students are struggling academically.
And while there has been much fanfare about bringing in the Noble Charter Schools, they are not even close to the panacea they promise to be.
According to a national study — the CREDO study conducted by Stanford University — only 17 percent of all charter schools actually exceed the performance of the public schools they replaced, and 37 percent performed worse than the public schools they replaced. The other 46 percent remained at the same level as the public schools.
Sports teams that find themselves behind late in the game spend little to no time looking back. Instead they focus on the task at hand — winning the game — which in our case is reaching the goal of keeping North High open. In the same sense, pointing fingers at parents, the community and the students at this point does no one any good. Either help us win or stay on the bench (preferably quietly).
Historically, finger-pointing and naysaying only encourages our enemies, as
evidenced by the Star Tribune’s article entitled “Loving North from afar.”
The story, written with the help of Strib hatchet man Steve Brandt, is a prevarication and a not-so-subtle slap in the face that somehow blames the Northside community for the failure of the Minneapolis School Board.
And make no mistake, it has always been protest in some form or other that has helped win struggles in the past. Those who are criticizing the protests only prove that they are poor students of history.
History indicates that all of the progress that has been made by Black folks in this country, as well as others, have indeed come ultimately through some form of protest. I am reminded of the words of Frederick Douglass, who said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
They have closed Lincoln, Willard, and too many other schools. Shouldn’t we say, “No more”? Join the young people who have said they want to be educated in this city, by this school board, at this high school. History should record that the Northside community stood with them.
Mel Reeves is a longtime political and community activist who lives in Minneapolis. He welcomes reader responses to mellaneous19@yahoo.com.
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 11/3/2010
An open letter to the community
As most folks know by now, there has been a recommendation to close Minneapolis North High School. However, 265 young people have taken a stand and have committed to fight to keep their school open, and a few hundred community folks and teachers have stood with them and, in some cases, stood in for them.
If these children have the intestinal fortitude to stand up for themselves, then who are the rest of us not to stand with them?
What’s important for the community to know is that North High has not closed, and despite rumors about what “they” are talking about doing, there has only been a recommendation. So, many of your fellow community members have rolled up their sleeves and begun to organize protests and other tactics and strategies to ensure the school stays open.
Some say we ought to just give up, and that the closing of North is a bygone fact. Pessimism and fatalism are perfectly understandable, considering the David and Goliath relationship we have with the “system,” with the community usually playing the role of David. We have a history of bad and sometimes racist policies shoved down our throats.
So it makes sense that some folks are apathetic. But Biblical scholars would tell you that the Davids win every once in a while, and they don’t win by not fighting!
In fact, it appears that it was the protest by more than a few hundred parents, students and community members that caused the board to take a more conciliatory approach and agree in principle to work with the community on a proposal that would enable North to stay open. For the record, the protesters did so in a very dignified and disciplined manner.
What may pass for undignified and even disingenuous conduct are Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson’s claims about why she suggested that North be closed.
While the superintendent said that North’s enrollment was too low to sustain it, it was the Minneapolis School Board that turned North into a relatively small 500-student school.
It was the school board that failed to promote North while taking away its more attractive programs. And there are persistent rumors that some parents were in fact discouraged from sending their kids to North.
The superintendent also failed to inform folks that North High, unlike the other schools, did not have a “home zone.” That means that even kids living across the street from North were not required to go there, but were assigned to Henry instead.
It’s also important to note that nearly half of the students at North are in the high-achieving International Baccalaureate Program. Despite rumors to the contrary, the vast majority of the 265 are not failing; only five to 10 percent of the students are struggling academically.
And while there has been much fanfare about bringing in the Noble Charter Schools, they are not even close to the panacea they promise to be.
According to a national study — the CREDO study conducted by Stanford University — only 17 percent of all charter schools actually exceed the performance of the public schools they replaced, and 37 percent performed worse than the public schools they replaced. The other 46 percent remained at the same level as the public schools.
Sports teams that find themselves behind late in the game spend little to no time looking back. Instead they focus on the task at hand — winning the game — which in our case is reaching the goal of keeping North High open. In the same sense, pointing fingers at parents, the community and the students at this point does no one any good. Either help us win or stay on the bench (preferably quietly).
Historically, finger-pointing and naysaying only encourages our enemies, as
evidenced by the Star Tribune’s article entitled “Loving North from afar.”
The story, written with the help of Strib hatchet man Steve Brandt, is a prevarication and a not-so-subtle slap in the face that somehow blames the Northside community for the failure of the Minneapolis School Board.
And make no mistake, it has always been protest in some form or other that has helped win struggles in the past. Those who are criticizing the protests only prove that they are poor students of history.
History indicates that all of the progress that has been made by Black folks in this country, as well as others, have indeed come ultimately through some form of protest. I am reminded of the words of Frederick Douglass, who said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
They have closed Lincoln, Willard, and too many other schools. Shouldn’t we say, “No more”? Join the young people who have said they want to be educated in this city, by this school board, at this high school. History should record that the Northside community stood with them.
Mel Reeves is a longtime political and community activist who lives in Minneapolis. He welcomes reader responses to mellaneous19@yahoo.com.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Robert Panning-Miller: Rebuild (don't destroy) our public schools
Star Tribune, October 31, 2010
Recent actions of the North High community could be a model for the Minneapolis School District and school districts across this country. Instead of parents, teachers, students and community members pointing fingers at one another for what has happened, a coalition of stakeholders has recognized that only by working together can they save their school.
For years, Minneapolis School District leaders have succeeded in pushing their agenda, an agenda that has put north Minneapolis on the verge of being a community without a system of true public schools. The district's success has not come by bringing people together, but rather the opposite. Following the philosophy of the "No Child Left Behind" and the "Race to the Top" corporate leadership, the Minneapolis School District has driven wedges between various groups in the city's educational community.
The school "reform" movement that has gained strength in the past decade -- and is epitomized in the movie "Waiting for 'Superman'" -- is really about the privatization of public schools. The push for charter schools is not designed to reform public schools but to replace them. Parents are encouraged to "shop around" for the best school for their children rather than to work to make their public school a place that would best serve students and the community as a whole.
The ideology behind this "Race to the Top" movement holds that competition will improve public education. But competition always produces winners and losers. The results in north Minneapolis and in urban centers around the country make clear that the losers are the very-low-income and minority students that reformers claim to be concerned about.
Minneapolis Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson has said that the Minneapolis public schools cannot provide an equitable education to the students of north Minneapolis, and implied that they would be better served by the district-sponsored, privately managed Noble Charter schools out of Chicago.
Providing an equitable education to all students is the responsibility of public education. Charter schools have never been shown to achieve this. To pass off responsibility is not a bold, creative step but a concession to those who want to privatize our system of public schools.
The Save North High Coalition has argued that "the district still has the responsibility to taxpayers and to Minneapolis to educate resident children. If the District can once again abandon children living in [zip code] 55411 to charters, suburban schools, and other non-neighborhood schools, then public education is for some and not others. It will be separate and unequal."
The Save North High Coalition will not accept a separate and unequal system of public education and has presented to the Minneapolis school board not only a demand to keep North High open but a commitment to work with the district to rebuild North. The hope for public education will never be found in its dismantling, but in a grass-roots effort to reinvest and rebuild it.
Public schools need to be fully funded, socially just, equitable and democratic. If North is closed and this current path continues, what school will be next? Edison? Roosevelt? Washburn?
The Minneapolis school board has said that mistakes were made. I have worked with teachers, parents, students and community members of north Minneapolis who have simply said to the board, "Let us help you." Rather than perpetuating divisions and abandoning an entire community, the Minneapolis school board must keep North High open and work to rebuild it. The community stands ready to help.
Robert Panning-Miller is a South High teacher, a member of the Save North High Coalition and an executive board member of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, Local 59.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
EMERGENCY ACTION! All out Tuesday! Spread the word!
PROTEST to SAVE NORTH HIGH
at the School Board Meeting
TUESDAY, Oct. 26
4:30pm - Rally outside the School District Headquarters
5:30pm - March into the Board Meeting
LOCATION: 807 Broadway Ave. NE, Minneapolis
Despite widespread community protests, the Minneapolis Board of Education is set to vote on the proposal to close North High School at their November 9th meeting. But with a growing tide of community opposition, and an election in two weeks, Board members face growing pressure to step back from this attack on the students and the wider North-side community. Now is the time to step up the pressure on the Board. With an all-out community mobilization, we can stop this! Help spread the word!
Invite friends to Facebook Event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.
http://www.facebook.com/event.
WE DEMAND:
1) Withdraw the proposal to close North High; instead re-invest and re-build North High
2) Re-establish a “home-zone” for North High to boost enrollment
3) In partnership with parents, teachers, and students, develop an aggressive, fully-funded plan to boost enrollment at North
4) Immediately open a dialogue with teachers, students, parents, and the community to create a community-based public school
Send a letter of protest to all School Board members:
Background Info
Minneapolis District officials have pointed toward declining enrollment at North High and district-wide as their reason for closing the school. Less than 270 students are now enrolled in North, but declining enrollment is a direct result of District neglect, under-funding and a privatizing of public schools. District policies have pushed down North’s numbers and now the District is proposing to phase out public education in the center of Minneapolis’s largest African American community (see Nick Coleman's Star Tribune opinion piece for more info).
Minneapolis District officials have pointed toward declining enrollment at North High and district-wide as their reason for closing the school. Less than 270 students are now enrolled in North, but declining enrollment is a direct result of District neglect, under-funding and a privatizing of public schools. District policies have pushed down North’s numbers and now the District is proposing to phase out public education in the center of Minneapolis’s largest African American community (see Nick Coleman's Star Tribune opinion piece for more info).
The School Board gave the community a challenge, and the Community has responded. Saturday, October 16th, over 100 community members came together and committed to work to improve North. We began a discussion of what a successful North Community High School would look like, and what we could contribute to make it happen. The North High community and supporters throughout Minneapolis have committed to work with students, teachers and parents to rebuild North High. We are demanding that the Minneapolis School Board make the same commitment.
Updates and further information at www.PEJAM.org
SAVE NORTH HIGH COALITION
The SNHC represents the multiple voices of the North High community. It includes the Committe for North, the North High Alumni Association, The Friends of North High Foundation, and the Public Education Justice Alliance of Minnesota (PEJAM), in addition to other parents, students, and members of the North High Community.
Monday, October 11, 2010
OUTRAGE!! Minneapolis School District letter to North High parents makes the school closure look like a done deal when the school board hasn't even voted on it
This is a SCANDAL! Below is the letter the District Superintendent sent out to parents Friday telling them North High was closing BEFORE the Board of Education has even voted yet! The letter says: "This year's ninth-grade students will be the final class to graduate from North." This shows how much of a sham this process has been. If Board members took the democratic process seriously, they would publicly reprimand Sup. Johnson and send a new letter explaining that the vote hasn't happened, the community hearings have not happened, that parents still have a voice in the process up to then. But in reality its already been decided behind the scenes, at least as far as they are concerned. The vote and public hearing Thursday is just for show.
Will North be "phased out" or closed down outright?
Another deceptive scandal in the fine-print...
All the official reports say they plan to phase North out over four years, that all existing students will be allowed to graduate, etc. HOWEVER, this appears unlikely to actually happen. If you read the fine print at the bottom of the info post on the Minneapolis Public Schools website from today, the District leave themselves an escape clause to shut North High down much sooner:
http://www.mpls.k12.mn.us/superintendent_johnson_to_recommend_phasing_out_of_north_community_high_school.html
There are only 43 freshmen in North this year, due to an intentional policy of pushing down enrollment, including: widespread reports of the District officials actively discouraging parents of 8th graders from enrolling their kids in North; because they took away North's "home-zone"; and because the widespread rumors that the school would be closed down have not been met with any re-assurances by the District for years now.
Does the District seriously believe these 43 9th graders, or the 10th and 11th graders for that matter, will stick around to spend their final years of high school wondering empty halls, without enough students to fill up the sports programs, with their best teachers jumping ship, etc?
Of course the District doesn't actually believe this - they are just throwing out deceptive spin to make their poison pill taste a little better, to insert confusion and blunt the protests until the decision is made. We need to call them out and expose the lies and manipulations that underlie this entire decision, their entire policy, which is a pro-privatization agenda.
The fact that they are being so clumsy, so hasty, means they are not as confident as they want to front. They are likely scared of the hell they are stirring up in the community which is why they are trying to rush this process along, make it look like a done deal, etc. That should encourage not discourage us and make us recognize we do have power to challenge this.
See post below this one for details on 4:30pm rally to save North High as well as next meeting of the Save North High committee.
Come to the rally! Let em know we're not a bunch of cockroaches to be stepped on!
Letter to Parents on North Closing
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Rally to Stop the Closing of North High 4:30 tuesday at Board of Ed meeting
Tell the Minneapolis Board of Education…
STOP THE CLOSING OF NORTH HIGH!
STOP THE CLOSING OF NORTH HIGH!
Rally at the Board of Education Meeting
Tuesday, Oct. 12
4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
807 Broadway Ave NE, Mpls.
Then join us inside the Board meeting at 5:30 p.m. to voice our demands.
--- Facebook event here - invite your friends! ---
Tuesday, Oct. 12
4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
807 Broadway Ave NE, Mpls.
Then join us inside the Board meeting at 5:30 p.m. to voice our demands.
--- Facebook event here - invite your friends! ---
Facts of the situation:
- Friday Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent, Bernadeia Johnson, announced her plan to close down North High School.
- Already the Minneapolis School Board has closed down more schools in North Minneapolis than any other neighborhood, including five elementary and middle schools since 2007.
- The Board is set to vote on the proposed closure of North on November 9th
- The plan to close North is linked to the Board’s recent decision to create two new privately managed, non-union “Minneapolis College Prep” charter schools.
- Public schools are the bedrock of a community and this will all but eliminate public education in North Minneapolis!
- Click here for WCCO video coverage of North closure and footage of our "Save North High Coalition" meeting.
Therefore we call on the Minneapolis Board of Education to:
* Vote down the proposal to close North High School.
* Reverse the decision to open two “Minneapolis College Prep” charter high schools.
* Re-establish a “home zone” for North High to boost enrollment.
* In partnership with parents, teachers, and students, develop an aggressive, fully-funded plan to boost enrollment at North High.
* Immediately open a dialogue with North teachers proposing an innovative “self-managed” school model.
* Vote down the proposal to close North High School.
* Reverse the decision to open two “Minneapolis College Prep” charter high schools.
* Re-establish a “home zone” for North High to boost enrollment.
* In partnership with parents, teachers, and students, develop an aggressive, fully-funded plan to boost enrollment at North High.
* Immediately open a dialogue with North teachers proposing an innovative “self-managed” school model.
To get more involved, join us at the next meeting of the
SAVE NORTH HIGH COALITION
SAVE NORTH HIGH COALITION
North High Alumni Association | 612.715.2527
Friends of North Foundation | marcusgo6@gmail.com
Public Education Justice Alliance of MN (PEJAM) | 952.465.5307
For updates: PEJAM.org
_____Text of leaflet being distributed to build for Tuesday protest_____
Stop the Privatization of Public Education!
Save North High School!
Save North High School!
District Neglect of North Minneapolis
District officials point toward declining enrollment at North High and district-wide as their reason for closing the school. Less than 270 students are now enrolled in North. But declining enrollment is a direct result of District neglect and underfunding.
District officials point toward declining enrollment at North High and district-wide as their reason for closing the school. Less than 270 students are now enrolled in North. But declining enrollment is a direct result of District neglect and underfunding.
It is clear the District pursued an intentional policy of pushing North’s numbers down to make it more politically palatable to phase out public education in the center of Minneapolis’s largest African American community. For example, every other high school in Minneapolis has a “home zone,” meaning that neighborhood students are automatically enrolled in their neighborhood school unless they specifically choose another school. This policy was taken away at North last year, denying the school potentially hundreds of students.
The Board’s planned neglect of North was also shown in their decision last summer to sponsor two new privately managed, non-union “Minneapolis College Prep” charter schools. The first is set to open in North next fall with a 700 student capacity. But studies show privately managed, unaccountable charters have increased segregation in Minnesota, while failing to improve over-all test scores.
Privatizing Public Education
On a national scale, a powerful set of business and political interests are pushing a profit-driven policy of privatization. Corporate funding has poured into privately managed charters, many of them explicitly for-profit schools, as well as political lobbying to ensure government support for expanding charters at the expense of public schools.
On a national scale, a powerful set of business and political interests are pushing a profit-driven policy of privatization. Corporate funding has poured into privately managed charters, many of them explicitly for-profit schools, as well as political lobbying to ensure government support for expanding charters at the expense of public schools.
Across the country urban, low-income, and predominantly Black and Latino communities have faced the most sweeping school closures and privatization. Low test scores, which say more about a student’s zip-code than about their intelligence, are used as an excuse replace public schools with charters. But every serious study shows charters’ test scores average no better than public schools despite their ability to cherry-pick the best performing students.
Charters failure to perform is linked to rapid teacher burnout and turnover. Charters are non-union, meaning they typically overwork teachers and don’t pay living wages or benefits. The best teachers refuse to work under these conditions. Privatization and charters are no solution to the problems facing North schools. Real answers can only come by expanding the resources and democratic community control of our public schools.
North High Alumni Association | 612.715.2527
Friends of North Foundation | marcusgo6@gmail.com
Public Education Justice Alliance of MN | 952.465.5307
For updates check PEJAM.org
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)