Why Voting No on the Minneapolis School Referendum is a Vote for Minneapolis School Children

No Administrator Left Behind!

What happens if the Minneapolis school funding referendum fails this election?  What happens is the voters will be asked to approve it next year in November 2009 (when we vote in Minneapolis City Council elections). The Minneapolis School Board and referendum supporters have stated that if the Referendum fails this year, nothing “bad” will happen. This Referendum will have no effect on school funding in Minneapolis, for this year (2008-2009 school year) or next year (2009-2010 school year). It only affects school funding starting in 2010-2011.  

Why should people who support children and Minneapolis public schools vote NO on the Referendum this year? Because they believe that the children of Minneapolis deserve better than the current referendum proposal. The current referendum is flawed and incomplete. Working together the Minneapolis School Board, school administration and teachers union can do and should do much better for Minneapolis school children, than the current Referendum proposal.  The District needs to be much more specific about the actions steps it will take to achieve its stated goals, which I agree with.  Below are the things I want to know and I think all voters should know made before we support a referendum. Unfortunately, the only way to gets this information is for us to vote NO this year.   By voting NO we send a message to Minneapolis School Board, school administration and teachers union that they can do much better than the current Referendum proposal for Minneapolis school children.

Enrollment Decline

Minneapolis parents are voting with their children, by taking their children out of the Minneapolis School District and sending them to suburban districts. This is a major cause of the decline in enrollment in the Minneapolis School District. This says 10 times more about the Minneapolis school district than all the speeches, reports, editorials, and commercials on TV & radio etc. combined. Shouldn’t voters know the specific steps the School District is planning on taking to reverse this trend, before not after approving a $60 million tax increase?

School Closings

The School Board and administration will announce which schools they plan to close in February or March 2009.   I want an aggressive school closings plan because I want my tax dollars going to teacher salaries and not to pay for heat, lights and especially for repairing and maintaining buildings that are over 50 years old including several from the 1920s.  Others may want to keep neighborhood schools open, especially neighborhood elementary schools. Some people might vote No on the referendum if they knew their neighborhood elementary, middle and/or high schools was going to be closed.   We the voters and especially parents deserve to know which schools the District plans to close before we vote on this referendum not after.  Unfortunately, that means voting NO this year so we will know the District’s school closing plan before we vote next year.

Black White Achievement Gap

The achieve gap between black students and white students in Minneapolis public schools is among the very worst in the entire United States - worse than schools in Alabama or Mississippi.  The achievement gap has not really changed since it was first identified.

The Minneapolis school board, administration and teachers union say they want to close the achievement gap between black students and white students. Is the District committed to doing whatever takes to eliminate the black white achievement gap? Or is only planning to do what is easy and/or what is not controversial? If easy steps could reduce the gap, it would have been eliminated years ago. The only way to know the level of commitment is to know the specific action steps the School Board and Administration are committed to taking to close the black white student achievement gap. But the District has not shared with voters what specific steps it will take to close the achievement gap. I  want know and I believe that all voters, parents and especially black parents deserve to know if the School Board and Administration are willing to “take the heat” for making the unpopular and/or controversial  changes that will be necessary to close the black white student achievement gap, before approving a $60 million referendum not after approving the referendum.

Staff to Teacher ratio

Several years ago, a study of California schools revealed that California public school had one staff employee for every teacher. The California parochial schools had one staff employee for every six teachers.  Obviously a much higher percentage of revenue went to hiring teachers in the parochial schools than in the public schools. What is the staff to teacher ratio in the Minneapolis public schools? Do you know, because I don’t know?  Shouldn’t voters know the staff to teacher ratio before approving a $60 million tax increase not after approving a tax increase?

Union Contract

The current contract with the Minneapolis teachers union severely restricts School Board and Administration’s ability and flexibility to change teacher assignments to improve student performance. The current union contract is designed to protect the established seniority system. Teacher assignments (which grade they teach, subject and school location etc.) are based on seniority; not experience in a specific subject or grade, interest in specific the subject or grade etc.

In business if a company has problems with quality and/or low productivity at a particular manufacturing plant; do they send their least experienced mangers and/or poorest performing managers to that plant?  NO!! The company sends its best, most experienced managers to “turn around” the poorly performing manufacturing plant. The current union contract forces the District to send its newest and least experienced teachers to the schools with the poorest performance. The current contract does not see having teachers high on the seniority list assigned to a poorly performing school as a badge of honor.

The union contract prevents the District from paying a bonus to the best teachers, whose students show the biggest improvement on test scores. Shouldn’t teachers, that are extraordinary, be paid more than poor teachers? The current contract does not allow merit-based pay.

The current union contract also prevents the District from holding teachers accountable when their students perform poorly.  If a teacher’s students perform poorly on standardized tests one year that is a matter of concern. If a teacher’s students perform poorly on standardized tests five years in a row, which is a problem. Teachers, that consistently underperform, cause problems for the teacher that gets those students the following year.  Good teachers, that get students from poor performing teachers, have to do double work teach current grade work plus teach prior grade work that students did not learn because of the poor performing teacher. Good teachers have to double work because they care about getting the students back learning at grade level. Is this fair to students and good teachers?  Teacher under performance needs to be addressed, perhaps by additional training, coaching from successful teachers etc.  If a poor teacher does not improve after being a given reasonable time to improve, then that teacher needs to be terminated for the benefit of students and good teachers.

The vast majority of teachers high on seniority list, work hard to be good teachers.  But there are a few bad apples that stop working or are just putting in their time until they retire.  The slackers know that they will never ever be laid-off because of their seniority.  The school district needs a union contract that allows them to lay off these few bad apples for the benefit of students and good teachers.

There are some senior teachers that have given up on black students. They feel no personal responsibility to go the extra mile to help black students who are behind catch up. They feel no personal responsibility if black students fail.  The School District needs a union contract that allows it to lay off teachers that have given up on black students for the benefit of students and good teachers.

The Minneapolis School District needs the leverage of passage of the school referendum to negotiate a more flexible and student friendly contact with the teacher’s union.  After the referendum what is the Union’s incentive to negotiate changes to the current contract? Voters deserve to know if the union will negotiate changes to the existing contract will allow performance-based pay, performance-based terminations and flexibility in teaching assignments before approving a $60 million referendum not after approving it.

These are the reasons I’m voting for Minneapolis school children by voting NO on the school referendum this year.  Children, parents and voter deserve more information and a better proposal than the current referendum. I hope that Minneapolis School Board, Administration and Teachers Union will provide Minneapolis voters and parents with the information we need to make an informed decision about voting YES next year.

Several years ago, the Minneapolis school district decided on the number of teacher to layoff, before even considering reductions in administrative positions.   To me this is backwards, decisions on the number of administrative positions are made first, before teacher layoffs are considered.