District, union seem bent on going out of business

How would you know if an organization was hellbent on putting itself out of business?

First, it would drive a huge share of its customers away. That would result in a dramatic drop in revenue.

Next, it would purposely not match the revenue decline with a comparable drop in expenses — assuring that it would suffer a perpetual state of fiscal crisis.

Third, it would redesign its operations in a way that would drive even more customers away. On top of that it would adopt a new strategy that would largely abandon any commitment to quality or accountability.

And to cap it all off, the employees of this sinking vessel would go on strike — because they could not get the 12%-20% pay increase they wanted but which the organization could never afford.

This is the story of the Minneapolis Public Schools.

In the late 1990s, following a commitment to a singular mission to “ensure that all students learn,” the Minneapolis Public Schools were growing — attracting 85-90% of all school-age children in the city — with an enrollment of about 50,000 students.

Today the district attracts only 55-60% of school-age children and enrolls only about 29,000 — a 40% reduction.

Eligible children have left in favor of surrounding districts, to private schools, to religious schools, to charter schools, to home schooling. They left because 1) they did not feel MPS would deliver the quality of education they expected and 2) because they were given the chance to choose — through open enrollment, the expansion of charter schools, and the creation of programs like The Choice is Yours aimed specifically at Black families in north Minneapolis.

For decades the district lost students but did little more than wring its hands. Two results followed. First, the district’s revenue was crushed — in Minnesota school funding follows student enrollment.

But the district did not shrink its operations as fast as it lost students. Nobody wanted their school or their program closed, so they couldn’t reduce costs overall. They hoped and prayed the students would come back. They didn’t. This set up a perpetual fiscal crisis in which every school suffered gradual cuts to staffing and programs. Ultimately these cuts drove still more people away.

Then last year the district rolled out what it called the Comprehensive District Design, that involved moving programs around the city and then limiting people’s choices in order to get more students into buildings with low enrollments. A month ago, the district reported that it has lost 4,000 students in just two years and now expects enrollment to keep falling every year.

Following the design of 2021 came the strategic plan of 2022. Up until last month the declared mission of the Minneapolis Public Schools had been “to ensure that all students learn.” That mission was clear, concise and unambiguous. It meant that the schools were accountable for every child learning and growing at least a year’s worth every year they spent in the schools. Those furthest behind should learn more, but no one should learn less.

The strategic plan the board adopted last month largely abandons the accountability and the commitment to every child, gaining at least a year’s worth of learning for a year in school.

The mission now says the schools will “provide” an “education to every Minneapolis student.” It does not commit to ensuring learning. By implication it is saying the schools will serve up an education — the chance to learn — but not ensure that the learning actually takes place.

While the new mission speaks of “every” student, the plan’s section on “commitment” narrows the focus. It says the district will reallocate resources to “Black students, Indigenous students, students of color, and their families.” Of course, it should do that to ensure that they achieve at least a year’s worth of learning. But that should be equally true for every other child — white, Asian, English-language learners, children with disabilities, LGBTQ students, those in poverty and any other student. The focus should be on what each child needs, not who the students are.

The lack of accountability is made most obvious by the new goals of the district. Buried in the data tables are goals that suggest that rather than all students achieving growth targets each year, only about 60% will. That means that 40% of the time the schools will fail to deliver on what should be their minimum expectation, to ensure that all students learn. This is not a strategy for success, but for accommodating the continued decline of the schools and people’s confidence in them.

As if all that was not enough, in the face of plummeting enrollments, declining revenue and lost faith — Minneapolis teachers are now on strike. Their chosen path to significantly higher pay — pay that would be justified if they and the system of which they are a part were actually ensuring that all students learn — is to demand things the district cannot supply and that, if it tried, would ensure continued decline and probable demise.

This sure seems like an organization hellbent on putting itself out of business. It is already almost halfway there. Instead, it should be hellbent on ensuring that all students learn, every student, no exceptions. So, what should the district and its teachers do?

The district has millions of dollars it received from the federal government for COVID relief. Those funds can only be used one time. They cannot be used for salaries or any other recurring expenses. The district should use that money to do three things right now:

First, provide individual or small group high-dosage tutoring to every Minneapolis student who suffered learning losses from COVID or who is more than a year behind. High-dosage tutoring has proved to be the one intervention that works to overcome the losses students have suffered.

Second, provide intensive professional development to every Minneapolis teacher between now and the opening of school next fall. Focus on dramatically improving the quality of teaching. Require every teacher to participate, provide high quality feedback and coaching to track and support their development, and pay them for successful completion.

Third, commit to sharing with the teachers the increased revenue the district will earn as it increases enrollment. Great teaching and yearly growth for every student is the key to winning back the confidence of students, families and the community. Teachers should share directly in the success their efforts will produce.

Declining enrollment is a symptom of a fundamental breakdown in our schools. Accommodating it will only lead to more decline.

Peter Hutchinson is a former superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools, former state commissioner of finance and former deputy mayor in the Minneapolis Mayor’s Office.