If you can't beat them, join them
MinnPost is reporting that the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) may soon be establishing its own Charter Schools, or at least what they would have us believe are true alternatives.
Forget falling enrollment, a yawning achievement gap and draconian budgetary realities for the moment, because Minneapolis Public Schools may be on the brink of the biggest challenge to confront the district in years.
In coming weeks, school board members are poised to vote on proposals to create two schools that would operate largely outside the district bureaucracy.
One, a K-12 science program to open in 2011, would be operated by a nonprofit charter management organization headquartered in Chicago. The other, a K-5 French immersion school to open this fall, would be run by the teachers who staff it.
Both would be located on the city's North Side, long home to some of the district's poorest-performing schools.
At a minimum, this is good news in that they're at least considering trying something else. It would also be good news for the North Side, which the MPS has largely abandoned rather than fix.
But in the end it must fail because in doesn't address the core problem(s) in the beginning. The MPS is not suffering for a lack of science programs. And whether you believe in the Language Immersion concept or not, can we not all agree that French is the wrong language for it?
As to the management, one, the Immersion school, would be run by its teachers. Isn't that the number one problem with all of our public schools, that the teachers, via their unions, are running the show? No doubt these teachers at these new programs will be fully licensed union employees, at the same or better pay, probably working the same convenient hours, 9 months a year. No doubt all the buildings, grounds, food service, and transportation will also be left in the hands of the existing bureaucracy and unions.
The other school would be run by an outside agency, an out of town agency? It's hard to be optimistic here, either. I suspect we're not dealing with Marva Collins in Chicago. Regardless, wouldn't remote management in effect empower the local power structure?
At least some at MPS are willing to try something, their appointment of another status quo Superintendent notwithstanding. If nothing else, by taking some of the more challenging schools "off the books" they might finally see an increase in their test scores and graduation rates. It's called addition by subtraction.
Cross-posted and comments welcome at Speed Gibson.
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