SouthHighSucks.com > News Archive >

Have You Visited minneapolispublicschools.com lately?

The Minneapolis School District Is Mad At A Site Other Than Ours!

July 3, 2002: Minneapolis, MN On Sunday, June 30, a resident looked for school information on the internet and typed in the URL www.minneapolispublicschools.com. The resident expected school information, but instead was redirected to www.abortionismurder.org, an anti-abortion website with graphic depictions of abortions, which the site calls murders. The resident complained to a school board member, who told other school officials, who are trying to determine what kind of legal recourse they might have to drive away this site.

John Barry, owner of the minneapolispublicschools.com domain name, could not be reached for comment at this time. The owner of the Abortion Is Murder site, Thomas Fitch, said he does not own the minneapolispublicschools.com domain, and does not know who owns the domain either. But he says that it is common for like-minded people to purchase domains and redirect them to his site as a way of supporting his organization. And he certainly does not discourage this practice. "...if a child sees our site -- good!" Fitch opines. "Let them get a taste of the truth. Like a drop of honey in a bucket of manure."

Minneapolis District Chief Operations Officer David Jennings is less amused. Jennings' thoughts on the matter: "...we are disturbed that families who are looking for information on our school district may somehow associate Minneapolis Public Schools with the material and opinions presented on this site." Jennings and his staff are now busy trying to decide whether to buy other domains that may be associated with the district. The district does encourage the public to find information about them on their own site: www.mpls.k12.mn.us.--The Doc, Staff Writer

Editor's Note: The Minneapolis Schools ended up gaining ownership of the domain after Mr. Barry lost the lawsuit. Click here to read the follow-up story.

Lynne Cheney Believes We Teach History Badly

June 14, 2002: Minneapolis, MN Dick Cheney's wife Lynne told a group of business and community leaders in Minneapolis that she thinks students have an abysmal knowledge of American History. She cited statistics from the National Assessment Governing Board that state that just 20% of 4^th & 8^th graders and only 10% of high school seniors were judged to be proficient in history. "We are not, unfortunately, doing a very good job of conveying America's story to the next generation," Cheney said. Cheney also believes some textbooks paint a negative and false portrait of American History. Cheney, author of a new "patriotic primer" for elementary students, did not offer useful ideas on how this history education improvement plan would be paid for.--The Doc, Staff Writer

Staff Development Days Should Feature Curriculum Improvement Instead of Ranting Administrators

Editorial Board Commentary: Lynne Cheney is right that we don't learn a lot about history...after all, certain Social Studies teachers at South think that History Day, which teaches more about making a showy presentation than history, is a better use of time in our yearlong World Studies and U. S. History classes that are required for graduation. South actually has reasonably current history textbooks, but they are mainly used for completion of Paraphrase Sheets in World Studies and short-term memorization in U. S. History. Perhaps future staff development days can be devoted to creation of a better history program instead of administrator's rants about how students don't yet worship them as their Gods and bow down to them in the halls.--Vinny's Education Coalition Editorial Board

St. Paul Schools Choose Fiscal Irresponsibility Instead of Enough Administrator Pink Slips

June 19, 2002: St. Paul, MN...News+Commentary The Saint Paul School Board is taking $1.7 million from their reserves, which could cut their bond rating, and cutting a measly $1 million in central office expenses to bridge their budget gap. The gap was created when the board listened to public opinion and restored start times and incurred extra busing expenses. Some jobs effected by the cuts are school employees who are simply paid out of a different pot. Superintendent Pat Harvey declined to recommend cuts, presumably because the wisest cuts would be to fire wasteful cronies in the central office. Sounds like business as usual.--Vinny's Education Coalition Editorial Board. The Doc contributed research to this story.

NRC Says School Buses are the Safe Way to School

June 19, 2002: Washington, D. C. The National Research Council released a study finding that a school bus is the safest way for students to travel to school. According to the study, school buses account for 25% of all trips to school, but only 2% of deaths. Riding in a car driven by a teenager is the most dangerous way to get to school, accounting for 14% of trips, but 55% of traffic fatalities. 20% of deaths occur when riding in a car driven by an adult; 16% of deaths occur while students are walking to/from school, and 6% occur while biking. The study concludes that when students are unsupervised, no matter what the commuting method, they are more likely to face injury or death. The studies' authors think teenagers should have severe restrictions on their drivers licenses in order to reduce deaths.--The Doc, Staff Writer

Guest Commentator: Brats kill kids; Teen Moron Deaths Thin Herd

Guest Opinion: School buses, which are built like tanks, and are situated higher up than cars, account for only 15 annual casualties, 10 of which occur outside the bus due to careless motorists that plow through bus signal lights and school bus drivers that run over children while being distracted by noisy brats behind them. Recently, advocates of a nanny state designed walking school buses, where volunteers walk children to school in groups. Q: What should we conclude from this story? A: That children who are taught safety skills and common sense by their parents will be the safest of all, because lack of those skills is why a lot of kids died walking, biking, and driving themselves to school. And, because in the rush to keep their pencil-pusher jobs, administrators want to cut elementary school busing. High schoolers can continue to recieve busing, but if we need to, we could limit it more. If teenagers can't learn some safety skills then maybe their poor driving skills are a way to thin the herd.--Contributing commentator J. "The Man" lives in Saint Paul, MN

Minneapolis Public Schools Announces Voluntary Teacher Pay-for-Performance Plan

June 18, 2002: Minneapolis, MN The Minneapolis Public Schools have announced a new teacher pay system that emphasizes training and performance. The voluntary program creates a new base salary and pays teachers more money if they complete two courses at the new Minneapolis Public School Teacher Academy and demonstrate that this training has improved the performance of their students. Graduate school and national certification also add to a teachers' salary. Teachers also get a $500 bonus if district-wide goals are achieved - high school teachers should make increasing the graduation rate a goal, while elementary and middle school teachers are supposed to increase the amount of students who are on-track to pass the Minnesota Basic Standards Tests. At the same time, the district has negotiated a salary freeze for non-teaching staff.--The Doc, Staff Writer

Plan is Nice, But Flawed

Editorial Board Commentary: This is a decent idea, but the voluntary nature of it is a bit weird. Also, it is tiresome that all a teacher is judged on is test scores. If we hear one more thing about how great somebody thinks testing is, we're gonna scream!!! Also, we feel that the effectiveness and value of this training academy is gonna be very low. In our opinion, the qualities that make a good teacher are kind of immeasurable. Some people have an innate ability to be a great teacher, and some just don't. That is just how it is. But as far as determining performance objectively, you look at unique and innovative teaching techniques. Any more detailed ideas about how to improve the pay system? Please post them to our visitor forum right now!--Vinny's Education Coalition Editorial Board

Comment on this in our Message Board!