Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Two or three Strib editorialists are incompetent!

We have it on good authority. We just don't know which ones they are. Oh sure, we could speculate, at least based in this editorial: Reject status quo in Minneapolis schools.

Taking a much-needed break from flakking the sale of some real estate owned by the Strib, the editorial writers turn for relaxation to things like pulling the wings off of flies, and of course, beating up Minneapolis teachers. But if you ever thought that writing an editorial had anything to do with gathering news, this should disabuse you of the notion:
But Bill English, one of the people who signed the Contract for Student Achievement, estimates that 200 to 300 teachers who are known to be ineffective are assigned to classrooms anyway. Dismissing them, he said, would allow the district to use the money spent on their salaries and benefits for programs and teachers offering better results.
Apparently, Bill English knows that 200 to 300 Minneapolis teachers are ineffective. But who the #$%^& is Bill English? The editorial doesn't say. And where did Bill come by this information? The editorial doesn't say that either. But here's a tip for you boys and girls: he doesn't have any education credentials, at least I can't find any. And he's certainly not privy to any inside information about the Minneapolis schools.

If you go to the link in the quote above, you'll see that the people behind this initiative include some of the movers and shakers in the "destroy public education movement," like MinnCAN, (The Minnesota Campaign for Achievement Now) and Valley Varro, its executive director, about whom blogger sidekick Rob has written quite a lot.

Reporting bullshit like this is simple yellow journalism. Just as the case of the stadium, the editorial board is whoring for somebody, and it ain't the public.

Update: The link to the Strib editorial mocked herein has been fixed.

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