macgeek’s Neighborhood

What's one of your favorite quotes? 
Submitted by Georgie-boy. 

"We don't know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future"

Show us a candle burning.

PC310100

I read this article this morning in the StarTrib and thought it was interesting....

http://www.startribune.com/357/story/991049.html

Nick Coleman: Memo to Samuels, Rybak: Do your duty and help fix schools
Public schools are in trouble around the country, and in many cities, elected officials have taken charge of efforts to fix them.

By Nick Coleman, Star Tribune

Public schools are in trouble around the country, and in many cities, elected officials have taken charge of efforts to fix them.
In Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty has proposed to take control of the schools. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has already engineered a takeover and appoints the chancellor of the schools. And in Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley has put education at the top of his political agenda.

But in Minneapolis? A City Council member suggested torching a public school and the mayor shared his outrage over problems in the schools.

It's not the rhetoric that is inadequate here. It is the action.

Council Member Don Samuels has apologized for saying North High School should be burned, but he has stuck by his incendiary criticism of the public schools, which, as we shall see in a moment, badly exaggerated the learning gap between whites and blacks.

After Samuels got in hot water for his remarks, his close ally, Mayor R.T. Rybak, whose children attend private school, gave him a rhetorical backup: "I share his [Samuels'] very real outrage for a learning gap that has left too many African-American students behind," Rybak said.

OK. We're all outraged. Fine. Now let's get something done.

Samuels says 72 percent of African-American boys in the Minneapolis schools are failing. His claim is being quoted as gospel in some quarters, such as this letter to the editor in the Star Tribune: "More than 70 percent of black kids are not graduating high school."

Nope. Not true.

Not even close.

The truth, required by the No Child Left Behind Act: In the city's seven high schools -- Edison, Henry, North, Roosevelt, South, Southwest and Washburn -- 72 percent of black kids graduated last year.

That's far behind the white graduation rate of 92 percent and all public officials should be trying to find ways to close the gap.

But a 72 percent success rate is the inverse of the number being used by the school-burning crowd. The schools are not failing 72 percent of black kids; they are succeeding with 72 percent. The graduation rates for all races are lower when you include alternative school programs, but North (which has the largest percentage of black kids), is one of the most successful schools, graduating 82 percent of black kids. Only Washburn, with 84 percent, scores higher.

For a politician to attack one of the schools that is doing best with black kids is flat-out irresponsible.

But I don't endorse the demand of some community leaders that Samuels resign. I believe that Samuels, like the schools, is 72 percent successful and has room to improve.

Unlike Samuels and Rybak, I have enrolled a child in the Minneapolis public schools. Three, in fact. They went all the way -- from kindergarten to diploma -- and got great educations. That doesn't make me an expert, just a consumer.

But when I hear people attacking city schools in order to serve their own agenda, it ticks me off. And there is an agenda at work, make no mistake.

A weird coalition of bedfellows -- ranging from anti-government activists on the far right of the ideological spectrum to sincere reformers -- have targeted public schools in the hopes of prying loose tax dollars to fund their own educational experiments.

Samuels' wife, Sondra, an organizer for the Black Alliance for Educational Options, which grew out of the school vouchers experiment in Milwaukee and which is financed largely by right-wing foundations, is involved in those efforts.

School change is necessary and fair-minded criticism is healthy. But the attacks on Minneapolis schools have become deliberately destructive. For elected leaders to participate in those efforts is a disservice to the city.

If Samuels and Rybak -- neither of whom made the schools an issue when they were running for reelection 15 months ago -- are outraged by public education in Minneapolis, then it is their clear duty to improve the schools.

Not to burn them down.

Nick Coleman • ncoleman@startribune.com

I would go back to the last time I saw Marnie and Andrew.  I would give them one more hug just a little bit tighter.  :)

If you were told you could relive a moment in your life, which would you choose?
Submitted by Slight Diffusion.

What's something that you're really proud of, which most people in your life don't know about?
Submitted by CosmicBabe.

My senior year of high school I took my lyrical solo in dance to nationals.  Not only did I get 1st place in my category, but I got second place overall for all the teen solo's in the competition.  I was so excited about that.  I was actually athletic once. :)

Happy birthday to my favorite sister who doesn't read this but who I love dearly! One more and she turns the big 30! ;) 

What were your top 5 TV shows of 2006?

1. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

2. Lost

3. Heroes

4. So you Think You Can Dance

5. Sex in the City (finally saw it on DVD)

6. And I watched West Wing Season 7 on DVD.......breathtaking

Some just feel a bit too far out of my reach.  And some are just so darn confusing. Hmph. Life.