Chaos at the top causes black families to flee the city schools in Minneapolis

Katherine Kersten:

The three-ring circus surrounding Minneapolis school superintendent Thandiwe Peebles' resignation last week is a symptom of a school district in crisis.
It's a bad time for chaos at the top.

Problems abound: Last year, only 28 percent of black Minneapolis eighth-graders passed the state's basic skills math test, and 47 percent passed the reading test. In 2004, the black high school graduation rate in the district was 50 percent. The racial achievement gap remains distressingly wide.

A dysfunctional school board is charged with turning this unacceptable situation around. Change is coming at a glacial pace. That's one reason some vocal African-American leaders have been calling the board on the carpet.

Folks who dismiss all their complaints as noisy rabble-rousing had better listen up. Otherwise, there may soon be little left of the district to salvage.

Louis King, who served on the Minneapolis school board from 1996 to 2000, is one of those critics. "Today, I can't recommend in good conscience that an African-American family send their children to the Minneapolis public schools," says King. "The facts are irrefutable: These schools are not preparing our children to compete in the world."

Remember "white flight" from big-city schools in the 1970s? Well, today it's black families who are fleeing fastest. In Minneapolis, those families can now opt out of troubled district schools, thanks to an explosion of school choice options, including charter schools and open enrollment in suburban schools.

Ironically, the district's white enrollment, as a portion of all students, has increased slightly in the past two years after decades of falling. It's black families from high-poverty neighborhoods -- North Minneapolis, Phillips, Whittier -- who are leading the exodus.

Louis King puts it this way: "The best way to get attention is not to protest, but to shop somewhere else."

"Black flight" is a serious and growing problem for the Minneapolis district. It has contributed to cuts in funding and staff and led to shuttered classrooms.

In 1999-2000, the district had about 48,000 students. Enrollment in 2008 is projected to be only about 33,400. Part of the loss is caused by lower birthrates. But in the early 1990s, district kindergartens were capturing around 70 percent of kids born in Minneapolis. Today, it's only about 50 percent.

The bulk of departing students are choosing charter schools, which are opening in Minneapolis at a rapid pace. In a 2003 Minneapolis district survey, black parents were noticeably less satisfied with district schools than other parents. But charter-school parents were very satisfied with their schools.

King has a message for the Minneapolis school board: "You'll have to make big changes to get us back." He says the district needs board members with extensive business experience, who view families as customers and understand that competition has changed the rules of the game.

Such a board, King says, will be in a position to give Minneapolis' new superintendent a mandate to shake up an entrenched system, and stand behind him or her when the going gets rough. Many critics would say this means working to change work rules and other obstacles that hamper academic progress, including policies that often lead to the least experienced teachers being placed in the most challenging school environments.

"I'm a strong believer in public education," King said. "But this district's leaders have to make big changes or go out of business. If they don't, we'll see them in a museum, like the dinosaurs."

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