Abe Hammers Coleman

I'd meant to shred Nick Coleman's preening little column last Sunday.

Matt Abe beat me to it, and did it with style.

Abe responded to Coleman's screed about the difficulties "Veritas Academy" - a charter school and a project of former state GOP chair Bill Cooper - has been having on the "Gold Coast", along Lake Minnetonka.

Like parents everywhere, we Gold Coasters want the best for our kids. For most of us, including me, that means moving to and sending our kids to a public school district like Wayzata. Others will opt for open enrollment in a nearby district. Many of our neighbors' kids in the Hummer-and-cabin cruiser set will wear the uniforms of Breck, Blake, or Providence Academy. In other areas, charter schools may provide a viable alternative for poor-performing traditional public schools. In my neck of the woods, we don't "hate" traditional public schools, some simply want meaningful school choice. It's all about the kids. But choice in education is as foreign to Coleman as the "gilded lanes of Wayzata," to use his words.

Thankfully, there is more to the postponed first day of classes at Veritas Academy than Coleman's cursory (or selective) reporting reveals. The state education budget impasse and (at the time) possible state government shutdown moved up some key Minnesota Department of Education deadlines, the school parted ways with its first director, negotiations to secure a site for the school were not finalized, and a study of successful charters revealed that the most successful took an additional year of planning. These challenges and an enrollment target must be met before the fledgling charter school can open its doors next year.