Minneapolis Schools: End Of Integration Aid An "Opportunity"

Integration funding, long a major pillar of Minneapolis Public Schools's budget, is expected to disappear in 2014 as a result of the shutdown-ending budget deal signed earlier this week.

Rather than eliciting  from public schools, as happened with an earlier proposal to eliminate the program, the move has been cautiously welcomed. 

"Integration, like any other funding source, has some good things and some things that need to be improved," said James Burroughs II, Director of the district's Office of Equity and Diversity. "I look at it as an opportunity to mend rather than end integration."

Part of this reaction, Burroughs said, is because money that funded integration aid will continue to flow to public schools. Under the K-12 buddget approved by the legislature earlier this week, Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius and leaders of both parties are directed to appoint a 15-member committee to design a replacement program. A majority of appointees will be selected by the commissioner, with the remainder split evenly between DFL and GOP representatives.

In theory, this means that popular magnet programs like Windom Spanish Dual Immersion School or Whittier Elementary's International Baccalaureate program will be able to continue to operate, despite their heavy reliance on integration funding to bus children from across the city.

In addition to the changes to integration funding, the budget deal included legislation that will force districts to evaluate teachers. A similar proposal passed the legislature during regular session, but faced opposition from the state teachers' union because it would have done away with so-called “last in, first out” laws that mandate firing on the basis of time spent working for a district. A number of Southwest Minneapolis parents and activists for a similar law that evaluated teachers based on their classroom performance and performance reviews from administrators. 

"It was probably the best deal we’re going to get," said Bill English, a Plymouth resident and founding member of the group. "We did get teacher evaluations, we did get student achievement to be part of any evaluation."

Minneapolis schools and the local teachers union are already collaborating on an evaluation measure that broadly fits the state definitions, according to schools officials.