{"id":14325,"date":"2010-10-14T07:35:09","date_gmt":"2010-10-14T12:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=14325"},"modified":"2010-10-14T07:35:31","modified_gmt":"2010-10-14T12:35:31","slug":"14325","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=14325","title":{"rendered":"Panic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Miller, guestblogging at MinnPost <\/a>as well as at his own Miller Stop<\/a>, ponders the future of North Minneapolis now that the Minneapolis School Board plans to shut down North High:<\/p>\n

North Side is across the river from where I live and it\u2019s an area I generally avoid. It\u2019s the city\u2019s crime center \u2014 have a look at this map of shots fired \u2014 and a less than ideal place to move your family or send your kids to school. That has to change. Great cities don\u2019t let entire neighborhoods die.<\/p>\n

Should North shut down, what will replace it?<\/p>\n

In Waiting for \u201cSuperman\u201d \u2014 yeah, I know, another tired reference \u2014 director Davis Guggenheim illustrates how a struggling school harms the overall health of a neighborhood.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The movie makes an interesting premise – but ignores an equally interesting one. \u00a0Do bad schools kill neighborhoods? \u00a0Or do schools reflect their neighborhoods?<\/p>\n

Students at North continue to show the lowest math and science proficiency in the city. In 2010, just eight percent of juniors were proficient in math while four percent of the student body was proficient in science.<\/p>\n

How do things improve for these students when their school shuts down? Where do they go?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I realize lots of people get nostalgic about their old schools. \u00a0Even utter failures like North.<\/p>\n

But just as the New Orleans city schools took the rebuilding from Katrina as a cue to try to fix their school system – which, to be fair, may not have been as bad district-wide as North is – perhaps it’s time for the Minneapolis Public Schools to try something new.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the city must destroy and rebuild the North Side. Maybe that starts with closing the doors at North and exploring innovative solutions to educate and mobilize North Side youth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where will they go? \u00a0Probably to one of the other <\/em>Minneapolis schools – huge, anonymous factory schools.<\/p>\n

We’ll talk “innovative solutions” below.<\/p>\n

Maybe we need to take some of the tax dollars spent on crime enforcement and invest in neighborhood programs to keep today\u2019s youth from being tomorrow\u2019s felons. Maybe the school district needs to realize you can\u2019t go $10 million over plan on a project many deemed frivolous in the first place.<\/p>\n

The North Side has been at a crossroads for years and it\u2019s beyond me how cozier digs for the Minneapolis School District leads to better education for area youth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s beyond anyone who pays attention to how education really works. \u00a0But it does <\/em>reflect Mark Dayton’s education plan; throw more money at the status quo, where administration trumps teaching every time.<\/p>\n

North High School is the story of a community in peril and a community in need of action.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right. \u00a0But the “ac \u00a0tion” is what’s important.<\/p>\n

This’d be a great opportunity for Minneapolis to try to try a different tack than the one that’s failed most urban school districts.<\/p>\n

Here are a few suggestions:<\/p>\n