David Brauer wrote: > The Strib had a story this morning on students who moved from public to > private schools. Though it led with a Minneapolis mom of 3, it wasn't > really Minneapolis-specific. > > However, there's a chart (more extensive online) that listed the > percentage of each city's students in private schools. (Cities in this > chart are those with more than 10,000 people.) > > Minneapolis ranked 29th (my count) of 83 communities, with 12.7 percent > of kids in private schools; St. Paul has 15.4 percent, by the way. (The > top community, Mendota Heights, has a mind-boggling 47 percent of kids > in private schools. St. Cloud, Roseville and Golden Valley all had > higher percentages of kids in private schools; Apple Valley, Brooklyn > Center and Lakeville were far lower.) > > Our city's ranking was lower than I thought, and I'm guessing there are > explanations that favor the current system's fans (Minneapolis schools > are doing a good job) and foes (our kids are too poor to move, but would > if they could; Minneapolitans aren't as religious as our neighbors in > St. Paul).
Yes, it certainly would be "guessing." Actually, it would probably be more like wild speculation. That's the problem with raw data it's nearly impossible to make causal connections without a context. Here's some wild speculation of my own. Mendota Heights ranks in the 90th percentile of median income for the state ($66,939) and Minneapolis ranks in the 8th percentile ($22,883), so possibly there are more kids in private schools in Mendota Heights because more parents can afford it. The point is: who knows? You can't know without more formal analysis. Here's some more wild speculation: Maybe parents in Mendota Heights are afraid of the public schools because innovation and reform are stifled by Education Minnesota, the largest and most political powerful labor union in the state. See story in today's Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/3318328.html And, who knows, maybe the 44% failure rate in the MPS is perpetuated by the teacher's union, which is in turn responsible for the dismal median income in Minneapolis. Who knows? Of course I'm just guessing. Michael Atherton Prospect Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
