I. Academic Catastrophe
The
district of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) is academically disastrous and
has been for many decades.
For a
brief phase encompassing August 2022 through January 2024, the administration
of Interim Superintendent Rochell Cox and Senior Academic Officer Aimee Fearing
launched several initiatives--- Tutoring
Triads, online ACT tutoring, and online high dosage tutoring--- intended to address directly the key academic
vexations that had long haunted the district.
Cox and Fearing were also moving deliberately to implement
knowledge-intensive curriculum and to train teachers capable of imparting such
a curriculum.
But the
current administration of Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams, whose tenure began
in February 2024, abandoned all of those promising initiatives. The new reading curricula of the University
of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) and Arts & Letters were introduced in
response to State of Minnesota READ Act stipulations regarding the “Science of
Reading,” but in the absence of the aggressive initiatives of reference and
knowledge-intensive teacher training, the Sayles-Adams administration indicates
little comprehension of the program necessary to advance academics in the
Minneapolis Public Schools.
Below
readers may observe Minneapolis Public Schools student academic proficiency
rates overall for the academic year 2026 and disaggregated according to
ethnicity as measured by the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) for the
academic years ending in 2014 through 2026.
I then
give data that emphasizes academic performance of the schools of North
Minneapolis, for which readers may view student academic proficiency rates as
measured by the MCAs for the academic year ending in 2026 for all MPS North
Minneapolis elementary schools, middle & K-8 schools, and high schools.
Readers
should contemplate the consequences of the loss of momentum achieved during the
administration of Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox (August 2022 through
January 2024) and the lack of aggressive attention to academics during the
tenure of Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams from January 2024 through October
2026.
Minneapolis Public Schools Student Proficiency Rates for
Academic Year Ending in 2026
Given
below are academic proficiency rates for all Minneapolis Public Schools
students and for the academic year 2026, as measured by the spring 2026
Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs)
All
Students
Math Reading Science
37% 42% 22%
Minneapolis Public Schools Student Proficiency Rates for
Academic Years Ending
In 2014 through 2026 as Measured by Minnesota Comprehensive
Assessments
(MCAs), Overall and Disaggregated by Ethnicity
Given below are academic proficiency rates for all Minneapolis
Public Schools students and for student categories disaggregated by ethnicity
for academic years 2014 through 2026.
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
All
Students
Math
44% 44% 44% 42% 42% 42% 35% 33% 35%
35%
36% 37%
Reading
42% 42% 43% 43% 45% 47% 40% 42% 41% 40% 41%
42%
Science
33% 36% 35% 34% 34% 36% 36%
33% 31% 32% 23% 22%
Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs)
Student Proficiency Rates
Academic Years Ending in 2014 through 2026
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
2026
African
American
Math
22% 23% 21% 15% 18% 18% 9% 10% 8% 8% 11% 10%
Reading
22% 21% 21% 21% 22% 23% 19% 18% 16% 15% 17% 16%
Science
11% 15% 13% 12% 11% 11% 11% 8%
6% 6% 5%
4%
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
2026
American
Indian
Math
23% 19% 19% 17% 17% 18% 9% 9%
10% 12% 14% 14%
Reading
21% 20% 21% 23% 24% 25% 20% 22% 19% 18% 20%
21%
Science
14% 16% 13% 12% 14%
17% 9% 9%
7% 12% 8%
9%
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
Hispanic/
Latine
Math
31% 32% 31% 29% 26% 25% 12%
12% 12% 11% 11% 13%
Reading
22% 21% 21% 21% 22% 23% 19%
18% 16% 12% 14% 15%
Science
17% 18% 21% 19% 17%
16% 10% 11%
9% 8% 6% 7%
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
2026
Asian
American
Math
48% 50% 50% 49% 50% 47% 46% 39%
25% 26% 28%
30%
Reading
41% 40% 45% 41% 48% 50% 54% 49% 33%
31% 28% 32%
Science
31% 35% 42% 35% 37%
40% 43% 36% 27% 28% 20%
18%
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
2026
White
Math
77% 78%
78% 77% 77% 75%
62% 61% 65% 68% 68% 69%
Reading
78% 77%
77% 78% 80%
78% 74% 71% 72% 73% 75% 74%
Science
71% 75% 71% 70% 71% 70%
61% 60% 59% 61%
45% 44%
Minneapolis
Public Schools Student Proficiency Rates for Academic Year Ending
In
2026, as Measured by Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs):
North
Minneapolis Elementary Schools
Given
below are academic proficiency rates for all Minneapolis Public Schools
students at North Minneapolis elementary sites in the district as measured by
the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) for the academic year ending in
2026:
Bethune
Math Reading
Science
6.0%
9.3% 2.1%
(7)
(11) (1)
Bryn
Mawr
Math Reading
Science
22.2%
20.3% 4.9%
(42)
(38) (3)
Cityview
Math Reading
Science
12.0% 6.5% 14.8%
(11)
(8) (4)
Hall STEM Academy
Math Reading
Science
9% 13%
12%
(8) (11) ( 3)
Jenny
Lind
Math Reading
Science
17.2% 18.4% 3.8%
(15)
(16) (1)
Loring
Math Reading
Science
21.1% 22.9% 18.6%
(28)
(30) (8)
Lucy
Laney
Math Reading
Science
18.1% 23.7% 7.5%
(32)
(42) (4)
Nellie
Stone Johnson
Math Reading
Science
3.6%
8.7% 2.3%
(5)
(12) (1)
North
Minneapolis Middle School and K-8 Schools
Given
below are academic proficiency rates for all Minneapolis Public Schools
students at North Minneapolis middle school and K-8 sites in the district as
measured by the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) for the academic
year ending in 2026:
Anwatin
Middle School
Math Reading
Science
7.6%
11.7% 3.3%
(21)
(32) (3)
Franklin
Middle School
Math Reading
Science
10.9%
21.7.% 4.9%
(29)
(58) (3)
Olson
Middle School
Math Reading
Science
5.3%
10.7% 3.7%
(15)
(31) (3)
North
Minneapolis High Schools
Given
below are academic proficiency rates for all Minneapolis Public Schools
students at North Minneapolis high school sites in the district as measured by
the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) for the academic year ending in
2026:
Camden
Math Reading
Science
2.1% 14.5% 7.4%
(2)
(18) (37)
North
Math Reading
Science
3.3%
12.4% 4.9%
(3)
(13) (4)
II. Financial Irresponsibility
Four
Years of Abject Neglect:
Minneapolis
Public Schools Board of Education Members Have Known
About
a Looming Fiscal Crisis Since November 2022
On 29
November 2022, Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education Finance
Committee members received a clear warning from Interim Superintendent Rochelle
Cox, Senior Finance Officer Ibrahima Diop, and Executive Budget Director Thom
Roethke that MPS was facing a "fiscal crisis" that could reach
catastrophic proportions if drastic budgetary changes were not made.
At the
time, the approximately $960 million annual budget was balanced, in large
measure due to federal relief funds received during the Covid
pandemic; but those funds were slated to abate in 2024. Cox and
Finance Division officials warned that massive cuts would be necessary to avoid
dangerous depletion of the general fund that would put the district into
operating debt. The Finance Division’s five-year
financial projections indicated that even if enrollment
decline could be reversed, expenses would greatly exceed revenue. A
fiscal cliff loomed; doing nothing was "not an option";
Roethke said that maintaining the status quo in expenditures and revenue would
find the district running out of money by the end of fiscal year 2025.
At that
juncture in November, five newly elected board members--- Abdul
Abdi (District 1), Collin Beachy (At-Large), Sondra Emerich (At-Large;
later to change their given name to Joyner), Faheema Feerayarre (District 3),
and Lori Norvell (District 5)--- were due to join the MPS Board of
Education in January 2023. Kim Ellison, Board Chair at the time, observed
that Senior Finance Officer Diop had been warning members about the looming
financial crisis for years and that the issues must be addressed very soon to
keep the district sustainable.
Interim
Superintendent Cox and Diop conveyed to finance committee members that much of
the financial dilemma was due to decreasing enrollment, which at the time had
declined seventeen percent, from approximately 34,000 to 28,000 students, over
five years. Projections by Diop’s staff indicated that enrollment could
decrease to 23,000 students by the 2027-2028 school year.
The key
document presented at the November 2022 meeting stated that "MPS must
address both the quality of its product as well as work with policymakers and
city leaders to address factors outside of its control such as crime, housing
prices and transportation issues, if it hopes to stabilize.”
Roethke
emphasized that MPS spent $3,900 more on a per-student basis in general
operating costs than the average spent by the state's 15 largest districts,
largely due to Minneapolis's
substantially
lower student-to-teacher ratios compared with other districts. The
district’s relatively large number and small size of schools produced those
lower ratios. "Other districts simply operate fewer, larger schools,"
Roethke commented.
Interim
Superintendent Cox declared that as the next Board and long-term superintendent
made the needed changes, they should do so in a way that focused on improved
academic quality for the students of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
But the
administration of Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams, who began her tenure in
February 2024, has failed miserably to address the financial woes of the
Minneapolis Public Schools.
Retrenchment
by Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams from Her Own
Administration’s
Plans for Closing or Repurposing Schools
On Tuesday,
13 October 2026, Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Superintendent Lisa
Sayles-Adams recommended that plans to close as many as 16 schools should not
occur “at this time.”
The MPS Board
of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night to scrap plans to close or
consolidate schools next fall, shelving what was to be a November vote on a
proposal that could have shuttered as many as 16 buildings. This announcement by the superintendent
surprised Greta Callahan and Sharon El-Amin, who were poised to propose a
resolution to pause the closures pending more community consultation.
El-Amin
commented that she felt “blindsided” and that Sayles-Adams making her opening
statement without discussing her retrenchment with board members was “unacceptable.” “I hope as we’re talking about mo ving
forward, it’s moving forward for the collective and not for a grandstanding
moment,” continued El-Amin, who represents District 2 centered on North
Minneapolis.
The Board,
though voted unanimously for the resolution proposed later in the meeting by
Callahan and El-Amin that nixed any closures for the 2026-2027 academic
year. The resolution also included
language articulating the need to growing enrollment, provide school choice,
and expand early learning options.
The
Minneapolis Federation of Educators (MFE) and their allies in the organization
Minnesota Families for the Public Schools were elated at the decision; union president Marcia Howard had spoken
during Public Comments, as had several their of the allies. Over twenty parents and teachers asked the
board to delay the vote.
I alone spoke
in favor of plans to close the schools.
I praised the plans as extraordinarily thoughtful but lamented the
Sayles-Adams and Board retrenchment as cowardly.
And, indeed,
given the actions that marred the process that brought Sayles-Adams to the
Minneapolis Public Schools and the abominably petty and ethically corrupt moves
made by the superintendent, both she and the members of this inept Board should
resign. The imperative for ridding the
district of Sayles-Adams takes added impetus for the unconscionable maneuvers
detailed below
Disastrous
Leadership
An
Ineffective and Irresponsible Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education
The
Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education is comprised of ineffective
and irresponsible members who are at fault for the many facets of district
catastrophe detailed in this article.
Board
Chair, at-large member Collin Beachy is an authoritarian defender of the status
quo.
Vice-Chair,
at-large member Kim Ellison has been chronically weak and ineffective for the
lamentable fourteen years that she has been a member of the assemblage.
At-large
member Joyner Emerick cares deeply about special education and gives appearance
of knowing that improvement in many aspects of the Minneapolis Public Schools
need attentive change; but, while
conducting considerable research and coming well-prepared to meetings, Emerick
has not been an effective agent for needed change.
District
1 member, Finance Committee Chair Abdul Abdi has not exhibited the necessary
knowledge necessary to address the fiscal woes of the district and he has
passively observed Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams as she has attempted via
misrepresentation and falsehood to shift the blame to previous financial and
other central office staff.
District
2 member Sharon El-Amin is a major disappointment who with Greta Callahan led
the retreat on the building closing and repurposing plan.
District
3 member Lisa Skjefte has been a non-entity, frequently absent and never
effective since gaining appointment to replace Fahima Feerayarre when the
latter resigned early in her tenure.
District
4 member Adriana Cerrillo is another major disappointment, a self-styled
radical activist who has demonstrated none of the descriptors of such a changemaker
in a tenure marred by months of absences;
lack of research and preparation;
and analytically non-incisive comments.
District
5 member Lori Norvelle has been largely connected to Beachy, with many of the
same faulty inclinations; aside from
seeming open to a plan to close and repurpose schools, she nevertheless
participated in the ultimate retreat from the plan and has otherwise been a
stalwart defender of the status quo.
District
6 member Greta Callhan is mostly concerned with the welfare of the Minneapolis
Federation of Educators that she formerly led and opposes all of those changes
necessary to genuinely transform the Minneapolis Public Schools; she was the most vigorous opponent of school
closings and repurposing.
As
terrible as is the existing membership of the MPS Board of Education, prospects
are even worse for the Board upon arrival of January 2027, given the results of
the 3 November general election, as follows:
Results
of the 3 November General Election,
Minneapolis
Public Schools Board of Education
At-Large
(Two
seats were available; those now go to Christin Crabree and Collin
Beachy.)
Christin
Crabtree
89,822
(36.93%)
Collin
Beachy
74,208
(30.31%)
Stephanie
Johnson
47,893
(17.69%)
Michael
Baskins
29,619
(12.18%)
Write-in
1,673
(0.69%
District
1
(One seat
was available; that seat now goes to Abdul Abdi.)
Abdul
Abdi
13,899
(59.18%)
Ben
Lattimore
9,465
(40.38%)
Write-in
122
(0.57%)
District
3
(One seat
was available; that seat now goes to Shannon Gibney.)
Shannon
Gibney
14,135
(98.26%)
Write-in
250
(1.74%)
District
5
(One seat
was available; that seat now goes to Becca Dryden.)
Becca
Dryden
21,285
(64.72%)
Molly
Chase
11,392
(34.64%)
Write-in
211
(0.64%)
Christin
Crabtree (replaces Emerick), Sharon Gibney (replaces Skjefte), and Becca Dryden
(replaces Norvell) are firmly connected to the Minneapolis Federation of
Educators (MFE) and were heavily supported in their campaigns by that union and
by the Minnesota Families for the Public Schools, which sided with the MFE to
oppose the plans for closing and repurposing schools. The members of this organization are stout
defenders of the status quo who would oppose all of those changes needed for
genuine transformation of the district.
With such
dim prospects for effective leadership from the MPS Board of Education, the
district needs an ethically upright, intellectually astute, and courageous
leader; Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams
possesses none of those qualities and for specific misdeeds should resign.
Minneapolis
Public Schools Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams Should Issue Apologies and
Resign
In a
series of events dating from May 2025, Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS)
Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams issued false statements regarding three MPS
finance officials (Senior Academic Officer Ibrahima Diop, Executive Finance
Director Tariro Chapinduka, and Director of Finance/Controller Aaron Gilbert)
that foreshadowed the current dilemmas of the district.
Diop’s
policies, since arriving at MPS in autumn 2015, had raised the district’s
investment grade from A-4 to A-1;
returned the unassigned fund balance to at least 8% of reserves; inaugurated a lower-premium self-insurance
fund; and made adroit investments of
liquid funds, thus receiving the 2022 Council of Great City Schools Bill Wise
Award for excellence in public school finance.
After such a stellar performance under four different superintendents,
Diop recoiled at two wildly inappropriate reprimands and resigned in December
2025. In response, Sayles-Adams issued
conflicting claims that she was terminating Diop’s employment; accepting his resignation; and suspending him indefinitely.
Sayles-Adams
then proceeded to hire three outside agencies (paying a total $1,288,286.25)
for investigations based on unfounded accusations regarding the MPS finance
division, focusing on the following:
Director of Finance/Controller Gilbert’s transferring 5% ($3,000,000) of
monthly deposits from a health care account, VEBA (Voluntary Employees Benefits
Association), for investment purposes;
the morale of the finance division under Diop’s leadership; purported errors in coding special education
categories that were deemed to have cost the district $11 million in funding
from the state; and incurrence of IRS
penalties from late filing.
The
imputations by Sayles-Adams regarding these matters are contravened by the
following facts:
1) The transfer of health account funds by Aaron
Gilbert was approved by Ibrahima Diop, standard practice, permissible according
to district documents pertinent to liquid funds, and transferred in this case
to an account known as the Minnesota School District Liquid Asset Fund used by
many Minnesota school districts for increasing revenue via investment.
2) Special education coding errors costing the
district $11 million were in fact those of the human resources division, led by
Senior Human Resources Officer Alicia Miller, whereby employees had been
assigned multiple ID numbers and staff without license were teaching in special
education. And unreported by
Sayles-Adams was a total of $15 million in overpayment errors by the operations
division under Senior Operations Officer Tom Parent for transportation and food
services.
3) IRS penalties were incurred when an
understaffed finance division (specifically in payroll, which had sustained
mass resignations after a spring 2022 teachers strike) prioritized other
responsibilities (especially making sure that staff was paid), resulting in
late filing. Large public and private
entities frequently incur such penalties, negotiate the amount to be repaid,
and in the end sustain negligible
losses; Chapinduka had overseen such a process before
his dismissal in spring 2025.
Responsibility
for the current financial dilemma of the Minneapolis Public Schools, which
faces a $40 million deficit, falls squarely on the Sayles-Adams administration
and the MPS Board of Education, both of which recently retreated from the
administration’s own plan to close or repurpose sixteen school buildings that
over time would have saved many millions of dollars in maintenance and cleaning
costs and turned property liabilities into assets by selling the buildings or
renting them to outside agencies.
The MPS
Board of Education has long known of the grave financial condition of the
district: In November 2022 then Interim
Superintendent Rochelle Cox and Senior Finance Officer Diop warned that MPS was
facing a "fiscal crisis." They
emphasized that MPS was spending $3,900 more on a per-student basis in general
operating costs than the state's 15 other largest districts due to the
district’s excessive number and small size of schools; drastic budgetary changes were imperative.
Sayles-Adams
and the Board have now squandered the only hope for reducing MPS financial
pressures. Demographic realities are
grim for increasing enrollment, and students currently exercising charter,
private, or open enrollment options are unlikely to flock back to a district in
which less than 42% of students are proficient in reading and mathematics; curriculum is knowledge-deficient; and the quality of teaching is extremely poor
(too many video and free days, inadequately planned and educationally questionable
field trips, overreliance on group work, projects assigned in the absence of
contextualizing information, long-term teacher absences without suitable
substitutes).
Sayles-Adams
should resign, current members of the MPS Board of Education should do the
same, and apologies should be issued to Ibrahima Diop, Aaron Gilbert, and
Tariro Chapinduka for an unconscionable attempt to shift the blame for the
plight of this failed school district.
…………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………….
My own
advocacy will be for those bold measures necessary to actually transform the
Minneapolis Public Schools, as follows:
Transformation
at the Minneapolis Public Schools Should Now Involve
Ousting
Lisa Sayles-Adams as Superintendent, Installing New Leadership, Then Focusing
Keenly on Knowledge-Intensive Curriculum and the Training of Teachers Capable
of Imparting Such a Curriculum
The
Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams
administration and MPS Board of Education should have moved forward with plans
to close at least 16 schools and thus achieve millions of dollars in cleaning
and maintenance costs and to position the district to realize an abundance of
revenue from the sale or rental of buildings.
Thereafter,
the focus then should have been to providing students with a
knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education, necessitating the training of
teachers capable of delivering such a curriculum.
Rochelle
Cox would have, as long-term superintendent, long since induced the Board to
act on the financial crisis about which she, Senior Finance Officer Diop, and
Executive Directo Thom Roethke had warned. And she would have moved
forward with her Tutoring Triad interventions, online ACT preparation, and
online high dosage tutoring. She and then Senior Academic Officer Aimee
Fearing would have continued to invite such proponents of broad knowledge for
intrinsic value and improved reading ability as Natalie Wexler and then
skillfully induced teachers to undergo the training necessary for the provision
of a knowledge-intensive curriculum.
The
process that denied to Cox and Fearing the opportunities to continue their
promising initiatives was deeply corrupt. The Superintendent Lisa
Sayles-Adams administration has been deceitful and irresponsible in seeking to
blame former Finance Division officials for the crisis about which they had
warned and sought so skillfully to mitigate. Sayles-Adams is an
intellectual lightweight who somehow gained doctoral committee approval at
Minnesota State University/Mankato for the worst dissertation that I have ever
read, yet insists on staff and Board members addressing her as “Dr.” Her
administration has taken no action to improve academic quality, lacking the
comprehension and courage to take necessary action.
In the
aftermath of the Cox and staff presentation on MPS finances in November 2022, I
analyzed building usage and published suggested closings and re-purposed
buildings that closely resemble the plan presented at the 15 September 2026
meeting by the Sayles-Adams administration, while also continuing in Public
Comments and on my blog and other platforms to expose the academic failure of
the district.
The MPS
Board of Education was at least three and a half two years too late in moving
on the building usage and financial issues; Sayles-Adams moved too slowly
on the building usage issues since her assumption of her position and she
irresponsibly has blamed the district financial crisis on people who were
confronting that crisis forthrightly.
Genuine
Transformation would entail the changes necessary to provide
knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education to children of all demographic
descriptors.
……………………………………………………………………….
The most
important part of the overhaul of the district will come with the retraining of
teachers capable of imparting knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum to
students of all demographic descriptors.
College
and university scholars should be commissioned to provide subject area
instruction to both elementary and secondary teachers, all of whom either
majored in education or matriculated in academically weak departments, schools,
or colleges of education to gain certification, then in many cases sought
insubstantial Master’s Degrees in education.
The
scholars would give elementary teachers and principals instruction leading to a
Masters of Liberal Arts degree, for which they would receive rigorous academic
training in mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, history, government,
geography, economics, world and English language literature, and the visual and
musical arts; they would then write an academically substantial master’s
thesis in one of these key subject areas.
Scholars
would also provide instruction to secondary teachers and principals in a field
of their certification, leading to a master’s degree in mathematics, biology,
chemistry, physics, history, government, geography, economics, world and
English language literature, and the visual and musical arts.
Given
such training, teachers would (as in the case of college and university
professors) return to the classroom ready to impart subject area information
constituting knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum, and they would be
expected to demonstrate the pedagogical ability for transmission of their
knowledge to students of all demographic descriptors.
……………………………………………………………………….
With the
prevalence of teachers and principals of requisite knowledge and pedagogical
ability, a bevy of offices, departments, divisions, and staff could be
eliminated; these include the Office of Black Student Achievement
(approximately nine [9] staff members), the Office of Latine Student
Achievement (approximately seven [7] staff members), and the Department
Academic Core and Instruction (approximately twenty-three [23] staff
members.
None of
these offices, departments, divisions, and staff would be any more necessary
than they are on college and university campuses: Teachers and principals
would now have academic expertise comparable to their college and university
professorial counterparts. The four associate superintendent positions
would also be eliminated, now that principals would not need the mentoring that
is the putative function of associate superintendents.
The
Minneapolis Public Schools Department of Indian Education is legislatively
mandated and thus will have to be retained; however, this department
should be reduced in staff to a contingent of subject area experts positioned
to bring greater academic rigor to indigenous students.
……………………………………………………………………….
With such
an overhaul, the MPS administration can make an appeal to individual donors and
foundations with the message that the Minneapolis Public Schools is positioned
to deliver a nonpareil excellence of education to students of all demographic
descriptors. Families will opt to send their students to the Minneapolis
Public Schools, rather than to charter and private schools, in part mitigating
the demographic trends pertinent to lower birth rates and a declining student
age population. Donors and foundations will be eager to be part of this
exciting revolution in public education, so that the additional funds necessary
to supplement federal and state sources will be forthcoming.
With all
of the above actions, the Minneapolis Public Schools could become a model of
excellence in public education that would in the course of time extend the
revolution to districts throughout the United States--- and also induce
comparable action worldwide.
