Immersion in the 'Burbs
Today the Eden Prairie School Board met to discuss (once again) facilities options to change the use of all of the buildings in the district (minus the Jr. High and High School) so that the 4-year-old trendy Spanish Immersion school can have its own building. One of the three empassioned Immersion parents who spoke to the Board today was local Fox Newscaster Ian Leonard.
One heavily favored option being presented to the Board involves changing the popular K-4 elementary schools to K-6, and giving Spanish Immersion our entire Intermediate School (Oak Point which serves 5th and 6th graders.) District Administration offices would also be moved to this same building....Superintendent Melissa Krull's child attends Spanish Immersion, as Dana Carvey/The Church Lady would say "Well isn't that Conveeeeenient?"
I have no horse in this race, my kids aren't going to Eden Prairie Schools (this facility uncertainly makes my decision that much easier.) I say, whatever saves the most amount of taxpayer money, then do it. It's inevitable that Spanish Immersion will get their own building, it's too popular and it has the most active/engaged parents in the district. The irony that the Spanish Immersion school "is committed to culturally relevant pedagogy and anti-racist education" yet has, by far, the lowest amount of black students in the district never ceases amaze me. Eden Prairie has the largest population of Somali students outside of Minneapolis...nobody wants to talk about it, but Spanish Immersion has arisen as an "escape" from the English as a Second Language immigrants. You see...you must speak English as a first language in order to enroll in a school where you speak Spanish all day, follow me? What we really need here in EP is an English Immersion School.
But I say to opponents of Immersion, don't fight it. It's a waste of energy. Don't let silly facts like less than 4% of Minnesotans are Hispanic and the majority of them speak English. Don't mind that the entire Immersion concept was born in French-Canada so that they could have French instruction for children of French-ancestry. No- that's not what's going on here! I mean, there's no good reason why the Eden Prairie Spanish Immersion School coincidentally has the highest amount of Hispanic students of any school in our district.
Let the trendy "feel good" school exist, let them have what they want. I look forward to the increase in my home's market value as droves of people flock to Eden Prairie so their child can learn English in Spanish, learn American History in Spanish and learn Math in Spanish, (so say all of the highly vocal supporters.) As long as it doesn't cost any more money, bring it on. Never mind the larger multi-cultural agenda of the left and the unknowing naive parents and school administrators who go along with it. Stick that head in the sand.
Facilities will need to be changed again down the road since we now have a liberal charter school (Eagle View Academy) opening to compete with the conservative charter school (Eagle Ridge Academy) to compete with the Spanish Immersion School (Eagle Heights) for Eden Prairie's best and brightest.....Hey- at least the "Eagle" brand is still good!
The brain drain in the neighborhood elementary schools will continue, and you'll be left with racially segregated schools in the end. Isn't it funny where liberal logic gets you?
I was telling a liberal-leaning neighbor that I thought it was really "sad" that all of our kids wouldn't go to school together...out of ten 2010 kindergarten families in my neighborhood , the kids will be going to seven different schools next year. She basically told me I was old-fashioned. Perhaps.
Perhaps what I had as a kid (walking to school, playing with my friends in the neighborhood after school, saying the Pledge of Allegiance every day, celebrating Christmas, and receiving a good education with no liberal nonsense) is done.
There's only one problem: the way the government gets money from taxpayers (via property taxes, state & federal income taxes) hasn't changed one bit. And while 8/10 kindergarten families in my neighborhood opt-out of of public schools, we don't get to opt out of the taxes. Neither do all of the other taxpayers here who no longer have kids in school and who have paid into the system. If we're going to revamp public education into smaller speciality schools, I can support that, but only if the funding changes too. Funding should follow the students as it does with Higher Ed. With massive budget deficits at the state, it's time to have a "Courageous Conversation" about public education. While Eden Prairie Schools gets some $7,500 per kid from the state, there are fantastic private schools delivering the same product for $3,500 per kid. While Minneapolis Schools get $12,000-$14,000 per kid, with some of the worst graduation rates in the country, the best prep schools in the state send their kids to the Ivy Leagues for the same amount of money. Why? How?
| Salary | $57,516 |
Vacation |
4 weeks vacation annually |
Holidays |
11 paid holidays each year |
Life Insurance |
Life insurance fully paid by the employer for an amount equal to twice the employee’s annual salary |
Long Term Disability Insurance |
Long term disability fully paid by the employer. |
Medical/Hospitalization |
Medical/hospitalization insurance fully paid by the employer for single coverage, generous contribution by employer towards family coverage premium. |
Dental Insurance |
Dental insurance is fully paid by the employer for family coverage |
Sick Leave |
14 days per year cumulative to 254 days |
Tax Sheltered Annuity Matching Program |
District TSA match up to 1.54% of employee’s base salary. |
Tuition Reimbursement |
50% tuition for up to 3 credits per academic session for pre-approved coursework |
Are you kidding me? 14 Days of Sick Leave? 4 Weeks of Vacation? Every private company I worked for started you off with 2 weeks of vacation until you were there for 5 years and then you'd get 3 weeks. You typically got 2 "personal days" no sick days...WHO IS SICK FOR 14 Days/Year? UNBELIEVABLE!!!! All on our dime.
Can you spell O-U-T-S-O-U-R-C-E?
I'm SO tired of the laments of the left on education. We're always hearing about "declining enrollment" when it comes to the budget crunch, but that's not the case in Eden Prairie where enrollment is predictable.
The Administrative overhead of our K-12 Public Education Beast is no longer sustainable. Why don't we consolidate School Districts to match U.S. Congressional Districts and put locally elected school boards in charge of the budget and how it's spent? How much money would that save? Millions and millions and millions.
Stop the whining, start the cutting.
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