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Related Story Minneapolis School Board "Struggles" to Fix Ballooning Budget Deficit

December 18, 2002 According to budget analysis, the Minneapolis Public Schools need to cut $25,000,000 from their 2003-04 budget. The school expects to see increasing health care and energy costs, as well as difficult negotiations with the teacher's union, all of which will make this process more "difficult" and uncomfortable. In fact, the budget also contains textbook bills and other expenses from the current school year that the school board put off payments on in last years' fiscally irresponsible, gimmick-filled budgeting process.

In fact, despite the fact that the district budget is nearly $700,000,000(!), district insiders maintain that they have no idea WHAT to cut! District COO David Jennings (who is raking in a handsome salary himself) says that "This [year] there are no good choices. None at all." Really? What about cutting back on building-level administration, which spends most of it's time organizing meetings for teachers...forcing the teachers to waste their time listening to garbage from the admins instead of grading papers or planning lessons? Did you know that each high school has at least three assistant principals, in addition to the actual principal and intern principals and intern A. P's! And while we're at it, what about the bottomless moneyhole at 807 NE Broadway, known by the district as the "Educational Service Center", (referred to by SouthHighSucks.com regulars as PencilPusher Central)? Is it really vital to the education of our city's youth that we have a bunch of losers qualified to appear on UglyPeople.com sitting in posh offices composing forms for teachers, parents and students to fill out? These are the questions you'd better ask yourself before you let the district spindoctors hookwink you into accepting another tax hike or reductions in classroom-level school funding.--Staff Writer Tee Doff covers PencilPusher Central and is the director of Vinny's Education Coalition's Wasteful Spending Patrol. Send him tips and story ideas through our comment form in the right margin of this page.

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