{"id":25520,"date":"2012-01-11T12:00:10","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T18:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=25520"},"modified":"2012-01-10T23:30:28","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T05:30:28","slug":"crocodile-tears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=25520","title":{"rendered":"Crocodile Tears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats and the DFL have been trying to kill off charter schools ever since the idea hatched in Minnesota in the late eighties.<\/p>\n<p>This effort has taken so many forms:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=6920\">DFL placed bizarre restrictions<\/a> on charter schools&#8217; ability to bond for buildings, forcing them to either lease cheap commercial space or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=6978\">let bonds at pricy, junky rates<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=14518\">Attempted to slash the lease aid<\/a> that charter schools <em>do <\/em>get..<\/li>\n<li>Attempts, even as the number of families fleeing the inner cities&#8217; wretched, failing public schools explode, to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=641\">cap the number of charter schools<\/a> (opposed on a straight ticket by the GOP.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?s=%22the+hit+is+out%22&amp;submit=Search\">Pelt charter schools with yappy harassment<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now, as part of trying to balance the budget, the GOP in the Legislature &#8220;borrowed&#8221; money &#8220;from the schools&#8221; &#8211; i.e., pushed back state payments to the schools. Which is an inconvenience to public schools &#8211; and a brutal smack to many charter schools.<\/p>\n<p>It was too much for on charter &#8211; General John Vessey School in Inver Grove Heights, which closed after Christmas break. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4919\">I&#8217;m familiar with Vessey<\/a> &#8211; whose model was to bring a military-style education focusing on discipline, hard work and self-respect (as opposed to self-esteem) to students, some of whom commuted from Monticello and Taylor&#8217;s Falls to attend. \u00a0The school will be sorely missed.<\/p>\n<p>But the closure prompted one &#8220;Alec&#8221;, writin at\u00a0the <em>Minnesota Progressive Project<\/em>, to have\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mnprogressiveproject.com\/diary\/10751\/mngop-budget-shutters-another-charter-school\">an attack of unjustified self-righteousness<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The obvious and inevitable result happened again as Vessey Leadership Academy Secondary School closed its doors unexpectedly over the winter break.<\/p>\n<p>As a Charter that leased their facilities, Vessey has no collateral to secure a loan. A loan they needed because the state was withholding 40% of their funds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Wow. That sounds like a great argument to allow charter school boards the same financial flexibility that district boards have to bond for buildings? \u00a0And most of the other restrictions on charters?<\/p>\n<p>No worries &#8211; if &#8220;Alec&#8221; suggested that at a DFL meeting, he&#8217;d have his giblets removed and stuffed into his chest cavity.<\/p>\n<p>Which is a shame &#8211; for the DFL. \u00a0Because charter schools&#8217; biggest proponents are the thousands of traditional DFL constituents &#8211; \u00a0latino, asian and especially afro-American families &#8211; in the cities. \u00a0It&#8217;s an un-tapped opportunity for the GOP.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, &#8220;Alec&#8221;, great to see you&#8217;re suddenly a &#8220;charter school supporter&#8221;. It&#8217;d be about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?rlz=1C1CHKZ_enUS440US440&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;q=%22charter+school%22+site%3Awww.mnprogressiveproject.com\">first positive thing anyone on <em>MPP <\/em>has ever said about charter schools<\/a>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;presuming you have the foggiest idea what you&#8217;re talking about.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ll see, \u00a0huh?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats and the DFL have been trying to kill off charter schools ever since the idea hatched in Minnesota in the late eighties. This effort has taken so many forms: The DFL placed bizarre restrictions on charter schools&#8217; ability to bond for buildings, forcing them to either lease cheap commercial space or let bonds at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-school-choice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25523,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25520\/revisions\/25523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}