Minneapolis schools - will the last one out turn off the lights?

Rambix has an aquaintance from Los Angeles who was trained as a commercial airline pilot. In the early/mid 1990s, when the airlines were laying off pilots, he took a temporary job as a teacher in one of the Los Angeles public schools. He had no training whatsoever, but the schools were so desperate for teachers they were taking essentially anyone who was willing. He's a smart guy, but you can imagine the mess in that school system with the untrained teachers, unruly kids who didn't care about learning, and all the other distractions.

The Minneapolis schools are certainly not to that point, but the the downward slide is leading them in that direction. The Red Star reports today on the massive outward migration of teachers from Minneapolis to the suburbs and hinterlands in this story: "Urban teacher exodus swells".

The migration out of Minneapolis has swelled as falling enrollments have forced layoffs for hundreds of teachers. But it's been exacerbated by others, like Kaari, who'd prefer to stay but say they are discouraged by ever-tightening budgets or disheartened by building or district leadership they find inadequate.

Tim Kaari's moving from Minneapolis to Bloomington.Kyndell HarknessStar TribuneThe city's loss is the suburbs' gain.

"When Minneapolis has a mass layoff, we benefit," said Dan Walker, an assistant superintendent in St. Louis Park.

Licensing records show that 238 teachers and administrators who worked in Minneapolis in 2003-04 worked elsewhere last school year. Suburban districts hired two-thirds of them.

Rambix has reported previously on the follies of the Minneapolis school board and superintendant, the improbably named Thandiwe Peebles, in this post: "Got Her Mind Right, She Did...".

Conservatives have always been outsiders when it comes to Minneapolis politics and the Minneapolis education establishment. The liberals own these systems lock, stock, and barrel. That's the bad part. The good part is that they also own the results. The liberals, and no one else, are responsible for the mess they've created in the city of Minneapolis, and the school system. They alone are responsible for driving good taxpayers out of the city. They alone are responsible for driving good teachers out of the city. They are unrestrained and unaccountable.

As we follow this story, you will see the liberal socialists blame everyone except themselves for the hole they've gotten themselves into. It will be governor Pawlenty's fault, it will be the Republican's fault, and, somehow, it will be President Bush's fault.

The liberals are reaping what they've sown.