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Annette Meeks: Minneapolis schools haven't earned another handout

The district didn't use its last levy proceeds productively, so why would it now?

By ANNETTE MEEKS

Last update: October 30, 2008 - 7:32 PM

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Minneapolis voters have a choice on Tuesday: They can either approve the "Strong Schools Strong City" referendum -- thereby increasing their already sky-high property taxes another 6 percent by way of a $60 million-a-year levy -- or they can reject it. The stated goals of the levy, which the Star Tribune endorses on the opposite page, are simple: Get every child reading at grade level by third grade. Prepare every child for algebra by eighth grade. Provide updated technology and textbooks. And finally, dedicate half of the $60 million annually to better manage class sizes.

If that last part rings a bell, it's because the school district made a similar promise in 2000. That year, voters overwhelming approved a 10-year referendum for $30 million a year, 100 percent of which was intended to maintain small class sizes.

The results?

By its own admission, the district was able to keep its promise only until 2003, when class sizes again began to grow. In fact, since the 2000 referendum, average class sizes have increased from 19 to 26 students for kindergarten through third grade, from 25 to 32 students for fourth through eighth grades and from 27.4 to 35.8 for high school.

Yet according to the district, it bears no responsibility for this failure. Instead, it blames "inadequate state and federal financing." The fact is that the district made a promise to parents, a promise that was not contingent upon a specified level of state and federal funding, and it broke that promise.

This time around, the Minneapolis schools cleverly included a provision creating an independent Referendum Oversight Committee charged with "monitoring and ensuring referendum funds collected each year are used as intended and promoted." Unfortunately, this oversight is not as robust as advertised. The members of the five-member oversight committee are handpicked by the school district and have no legal or binding authority to prevent (or punish) the misuse of referendum funds. Instead, the committee will convene once a year, ask some questions about the district's expenditures, then issue a concise report to announce its findings. That's not true accountability and transparency, it's window dressing. And the creation of the committee is nothing more than a tacit admission of guilt regarding the district's previously broken promises.

Before handing over nearly half a billion dollars over the next eight years, Minneapolis parents and other taxpayers should ask what they will get for their money. It is, after all, reasonable for us to expect -- and demand -- results from the schools in which we are investing our time, money and children's futures.

If past is prologue, we're in trouble.

Currently in Minneapolis schools, only 53 percent of third-graders are proficient in reading, and just 35 percent of eighth-graders are proficient in math. According to America's Promise Alliance -- a dropout prevention group founded by Colin Powell -- Minneapolis' four-year graduation rate of 43.7 percent ranks 45th among the nation's 50 largest cities. And the district's severe racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps are clear signs that while education may be the great equalizer, an education in Minneapolis public schools is a great divider.

This is not a record of which we should be proud. When a school district with an abysmal graduation rate, sharply declining enrollment, unacceptably low student achievement and a history of breaking promises demands even more of your tax money, it is neither selfish nor callous to say no. To the contrary, rewarding the failing Minneapolis school system with even more money would mean doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. There's a word for that.

Annette Meeks is CEO of a think tank and a member of the Metropolitan Council.

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