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Saturday, February 10, 2007

Black Leadership On Black Schools

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posted by Bob at Saturday, February 10, 2007

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Blogger Bob said...

Feb. 2: Nick Coleman: So, North High has troubles? Let's torch it
By Nick Coleman, Star Tribune
Last update: February 07, 2007 – 4:27 PM


Nick Coleman
Nick Coleman: Memo to Samuels, Rybak: Do your duty and help fix schools

Feb. 2: Nick Coleman: So, North High has troubles? Let's torch it

Nick Coleman: ShotSpotter is not going to save the day
Burn it.
That's City Councilman Don Samuels' suggestion for Minneapolis North High School: Burn it down.

Someone please call the Fire Department and ask if they have anything to spray on dangerously overheated rhetoric.

Samuels, whose ward includes North High, is profiled by David Brauer in this month's Mpls.-St. Paul Magazine. Watch you don't get your eyebrows singed off by this:

"I've said burn North High School down! I can't be paying as a taxpayer for the education of my neighbors and 72 percent of them are failing -- meaning the black boys."

Samuels says he read that 72 percent figure somewhere. I can't find it. As far as I can tell, North is not the worst high school in the city. In fact, it has some good things going for it, including a dynamic principal who is making changes. In my mind, public schools need help from public officials. They don't need a kick in the teeth.

North High Principal Mike Favor, a 1984 North High grad, says Samuels' flame-throwing is not aiding efforts to bring improvements to the school of 1,000 students (68 percent are black).

The school has been an anchor of the African-American community for decades.

"It's damaging," said Favor, who plans to meet with Samuels early this morning, before Samuels meets with the school's faculty to try to explain himself. "To hear something like that is offensive. I feel like I have to apologize to every North High graduate and to anyone who sends their kid here. It's disheartening."

By the way, Samuels is a close ally of Mayor R.T. Rybak. I called Rybak's office to ask where he stands on his friend's proposal to burn down a high school. I didn't get an answer.

Samuels isn't backing down

Favor, in his third year as principal, is proposing lots of changes: An extended school year, rigorous class requirements and the wearing of a school uniform. Samuels, who has not set foot inside North during the school day, supports those changes. But the black elected official (he is a native of Jamaica) refuses to withdraw his comments.

"I'm not here to be liked," Samuels said Thursday. "I'm against anything that tolerates the failure of black people. This is the most important conversation we can have, and I meant it [his remarks] exactly as I made them, in order to make people angry and raise concern to a visceral level. I'm speaking forcefully against the current way of doing things."

Samuels' attack seems linked to his advocacy of school vouchers -- the controversial proposal to let families use public tax dollars to pay for private schools. A Baptist minister, Samuels sends his children to Ascension Catholic School. His wife, Sondra, works as a local organizer for the Black Alliance for Educational Opportunities, a Milwaukee-based group that is pushing for school vouchers.

That group is largely funded with grants from right-wing foundations -- including the Bradley Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation -- considered by some to be hostile to all public education.

"My children will not darken the door of a Minneapolis public school," Samuels was quoted as saying. Other black leaders have said such things. But it is shocking, coming from the official who represents the North High area.

"The North Side has a resilient history, and we are a resilient people," says Favor. "For him to just throw in the towel like this -- well, maybe he doesn't understand the history of the North Side. We are not above criticism; we have to do better. But we are a pillar of the North Side and this is about our community. 'Burn it down?' Come on in, before you start going after us."

Samuels did not make vouchers an issue in his campaigns (he won a special election in 2003, then won a four-year term in 2005). So his incendiary words blindsided many, including the students.

I met with a dozen North High kids. All are getting passing grades, some are on the honor roll, most hope to go to college. Some are basketball players, some are Wallin Scholars, some are both.

'How can he say that?'

And all agreed: Don Samuels doesn't know enough about North High to burn it down.

"Burn our school down? That's like taking a shot at us -- like saying tear us down, too," said Jeremiah Moore, a junior.

"Nobody here has met the man, so how can he say that about us?" asked Troy Miller, a sophomore. "He's playing it safe, blaming the school because it has a stereotype and a stigma against it."I think he based that on what happens around the community, not at North High," said Ronald Buck, a senior. "It's a cop-out. It shows he doesn't want to put the work in to make our school progress."

By accident or on purpose, Don Samuels has started a conflagration. I hope the fire doesn't get out of control.

Nick Coleman • ncoleman@startribune.com

6:15 PM  

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