By Michelle Griffith | Reporter
Good morning, Reformers.
Minneapolis Public Schools is taking the first steps toward closing as many as 16 school buildings after years of declining enrollment has left it with an expansive real estate portfolio that includes more than 12,000 empty desks, Melissa Whitler reports.
District leaders unveiled Tuesday three options for closing at least a dozen schools, which they say will allow them to provide more consistent educational offerings, like art and music, across schools. School leaders didn’t mention the budget concerns looming over the district — a $39.7 million deficit this year — or even how much the proposals might save.
At the earliest, the board will vote to select a plan in November, after school board elections, but before families begin the enrollment process for next school year.
School closures face fierce opposition from many parents, who don’t want to see their neighborhood school shutter, as well as the powerful teachers’ union, which fears consolidation will lead to further enrollment declines.
The district has been beleaguered by budget problems and suffered a collapse in enrollment in the past 25 years — and the state and local funding tied to student population. In addition, the Reformer has uncovered a bevy of multi-million dollar blunders since the district’s three top finance leaders left in January.
Kudos to Melissa for uncovering these financial blunders through public records requests.
Onto today’s Reformer.
(Photo by Will Jacott/Minnesota Reformer)
By Alyssa Chen
Minnesotans bought over $150 million worth of recreational cannabis products in the first year of sales at state-licensed stores, the state’s Office of Cannabis Management said on Tuesday.
The state’s 90,000 registered medical cannabis patients also bought over $100 million of medicinal weed, adding to a total of at least $250 million of cannabis sales since last September.
The state’s first non-tribal recreational marijuana shops opened about a year ago, two years after state legalization. Tribal nations were able to move quicker by opening stores on reservations and then negotiating compacts with the state to open off-reservation dispensaries.
By Jennifer Shutt
The cost of U.S. military operations in Iran has exceeded $40 billion and the war will continue to cost taxpayers between $2 billion and $3 billion per month, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The ongoing bombing campaign, which President Donald Trump launched alongside the Israeli government in February, has also significantly reduced American military weapons stockpiles, according to the analysis.
CBO Director Phillip L. Swagel wrote in a letter accompanying the report that “the main opportunity cost of the conflict thus far has been the large expenditure of missile defense interceptors, which will leave the United States with a reduced inventory of interceptors for several years.
“The shortfall would become especially problematic if a conflict arose with an opponent whose arsenal included large numbers of ballistic and cruise missiles.”
By Thomas Lane
Healthcare analyst Thomas Lane argues that the public option healthcare proposal known as “Medicare for all who want it,” has worse prospects than a single-payer system and may even be worse than the status quo.
The public option’s premise is that by offering a publicly run competitor to private insurance, like an option for Americans of all ages to buy into traditional Medicare, private insurance will have to reduce healthcare costs or go out of business. But the public option threatens to make public health insurance look artificially expensive and dysfunctional, Lane writes.
IN OTHER NEWS
Doctors say children of immigrants are missing healthcare | Reformer via States Newsroom
FBI’s Patel dodges questions on election interference at rambunctious US Senate hearing | Reformer via States Newsroom
Jared Kushner’s dollar diplomacy | New Yorker
Have a great Thursday!
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