A Note to My
Readers >>>>>
As you scroll on down
this blog, you will come to a bevy of articles that I am posting for a
multiplicity of reasons. The overarching
reason concerns the low-grade quality of most of what gets published in the Star Tribune pertinent to K-12
education.
Star Tribune editorialists and staff members themselves have very little
knowledge of K-12 education and are largely ignorant of the inner workings of a
local school district such as the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Those who write
opinion pieces and secure publication in the Star Tribune focus on particularistic concerns of the moment but
rarely discuss the most fundamental factors abiding in the education
establishment that impedes movement toward K-12 excellence.
Because of the lack
of knowledge betrayed by both Star
Tribune staffers and most of the opinion writers whom the editorial board
opts to publish, readers must ever be attentive to subtext and the underlying
issues. This blog provides the
information that readers need to be properly informed about K-12 education generally
and the locally centralized school district represented saliently by the Minneapolis Public Schools specifically.
As you scroll on the
blog, you will observe an article written by Katherine Kersten that drew two
counterpoints published by the Star
Tribune on Tuesday, 20 March (today as I tap out this note); and another
from Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius on
Wednesday, 21 March. Before I post my
own response and interpretation of the Kersten article, please read these
responses and evaluate the arguments of writers who pose themselves against Kersten
and the very conservative Center of the American Experiment , with which she is
associated..
The text of
Cassellius’s opinion piece is as follows >>>>>
Brenda,
Cassellius, “What Kersten Can’t Grasp
About Schools But Readers Should--- The
state Department of Human Rights is not
embarking on a campaign to allow chaos.
Violent offenses and criminal activity will always be taken
seriously. The focus is on lesser
infractions, which clearly produce an unequal pattern of suspensions.” (Star Tribune, Opinion Exchange, 21 March
2018)
While Katherine
Kersten’s divisive diatribes in the Star
Tribune have become all but predictable, the hateful premise in her most
recent commentary reaches a new low.
In “Undisciplined”
(March 18), Kersten stated that efforts by Minnesota’s Department of Human
Rights to identify and work with school districts with disproportionately high
rates of suspensions and expulsions of students of color will almost certainly
lead to “mischief and mayhem” in our schools.
She painted a grim picture of anarchy and lawlessness in our classrooms,
and bolstered her outrageous claims with strawman arguments, unsourced blog
posts and selectively cited statistics from reports that reinforce the fear she
incites.
Her arguments were
misleading, reckless and--- worst of
all--- flat out racist.
In previous articles,
Kersten has slammed efforts to make schools and classrooms safer for
transgender students. She has claimed
that the deep racial-equity work some districts are doing to break down
structural barriers that prevent kids of color from having access to the same
opportunities as their white peers is nothing more than coded “indoctrination
and intimidation.” She has opposed
efforts to integrate schools and complained that Minnesota’s 2014 antibullying
law went too far in trying to protect LGBT students from bullying and
harassment.
In her latest piece,
she once again has single mothers and black boys in her sights.
Enough is enough.
No doubt, every
student and teacher deserves safe and orderly classrooms. But Kersten is not an expert on our schools,
our teachers or our students. No reader
of this newspaper should accept the illusion that she is. Her unsubstantiated arguments, once and for
all, must be called for what they are:
falsehoods.
For instance,
Kersten’s complaints that Minnesota parents and community members cannot
access discipline data are
simply untrue. A simple search of the
Minnesota Department of Education’s Data Center would easily have confirmed
that the department reports discipline data every year and summarizes them in a
report to the Legislature. Both the raw
data and the report are public information that numerous organizations--- including civil rights groups and the Solutions
Not Suspensions coalition--- have used
to call for exactly the kind of attention to this issue that the Department of
Human Rights has now undertaken.
Had Kersten done any
legitimate research, beyond the reach of her favorite right-wing sources, a
close look at the data would have made it abundantly clear that a number of
Minnesota schools are suspending kids of color at far higher rates than their
demographic proportion. For example:
- American Indian students are 10 times more likely to be suspended or expelled than are their white peers.
- African American students are eight times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers.
- Students with disabilities are twice as likely to be suspended or expelled as are peers without a disability.
These figures, in and
of themselves, should make us want to pause and ask why. Instead, Kersten shifts to scare tactics
about crime in our communities, ignoring the fact that the MinnPost article she
references shows that the Department of Human Rights effort is focused on
suspensions that result from subjective infractions, such as talking loudly or
disruptive behavior for which students of color are treated more
harshly than their white peers.
Contrary to Kersten’s
claims, no one wants to take away a principal’s ability to suspend or expel a
student for violent offenses or criminal activity, which we all agree will never
be acceptable. The Department of Human
Rights is not calling for a moratorium on suspensions or expulsions. Instead, after removing violent offenses and
criminal activity from the data set, it is calling for school officials to
seriously examine solutions to suspension data that year after year demonstrate
significant and troubling disparities over time.
The data also show
that students with disabilities make up about 50 percent of all our
suspensions, a disturbing reality that is not even mentioned in Kersten’s
column.
In Kersten’s world,
all we really need to do to eliminate unruly behavior in children is to make
sure that they all come from a two-parent household. But the real world isn’t that simple. As we begin to really dig into and understand
the root causes behind these large disparities, then engage in the hard,
uncomfortable work of dismantling the systems and behaviors that perpetuate
them, it is crucial that we embrace complexity and reject the temptation to
settle on simple solutions.
Minnesota needs an
educated, skilled population to ensure shared social and economic success. An education system that works for all
students must be our highest priority, and the truth is that currently, school
discipline practices are hindering too many of our children’s chances at academic
and social success.
It doesn’t have to be
this way. We can say: “Enough.”
We can set high expectations for acceptable behavior in our classrooms. We can hold all students accountable for
meeting them. We can defend teachers’
ability to maintain orderly classrooms where all students can learn. And we can reject the fearmongering and
racial resentments that Kersten and the Star
Tribune inflame when they give divisive and hateful words column inches and
oxygen.
This newspaper’s
readers deserve better. More important,
our children and teachers deserve better---
much better.
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