Minneapolis
is world class city but it will not maintain its status without a
strong public education system. I believe we all can agree that if we
don't educate all of our students well, our collective prosperity will
be greatly diminished.
Many of you have been involved in debates about whether
education is a right or a privilege. I believe that as a school system,
we must operate on the principle that every child has a right to an
excellent education, although my perspective is that access to a useful
education is truly a privilege. Every immigrant I know understands that
Americans do not have the right to succeed, but we do have the
opportunity - the trick is seizing that opportunity.
The
task and responsibility in empowering individuals to have the necessary
knowledge and skills starts with the students themselves as well as
their parents or guardians - to ensure every student is ready to learn
every day.
I
realize that our society does not offer equal footing for all.
Therefore, my expectation is the district will do a good job of
equalizing opportunities to deliver for all of our students a high
quality education. If we don't someone else will - other school
districts or charter schools.
Since
I took my seat on the Minneapolis School Board on Tuesday January 11,
2011, I have worked to understand the budget of the district and how we
allocate money among school sites and programs. This has certainly been a
frustrating task to try and figure how our this system works. This is
not based on any unwillingness by the superintendent and her staff to
share the financial documents, but simply the district does not have a
good system of accounting for every penny that comes in and where it
goes. We are running a $650,000 million district without a robust
financial system beneath it. It is a recipe for financial ruin.
As a member of the Board's finance committee, I have been asking a lot of questions about our finances and I
will continue asking them. I believe the days in which we do not
account for how our dwindling dollars are being allocated are over. We
have a long way to go to have a credible budget for this district. It
is time the money follows the students in a way that we the board and
the public can understand how the district spends its resources.
