Minneapolis was recently named one of the “happiest places to live in the United States” by Outside magazine, Bring Me The News recently reported. Green spaces, bikes, and a devotion to diversity were some of the criteria used to determine the city’s high ranking.
If you wonder whether the state of the city’s schools were taken into consideration when determining that ranking, you’re not alone. I wondered the same thing. And based on the available data, my guess would be no.
According to the Minnesota Department of Education, 2023 statistics show that only 41.4% of Minneapolis students are proficient in reading, 35.1% are proficient in math, and 31.7% are proficient in science.
Surprisingly, 76.7% of Minneapolis students graduated in 2022. If the academic proficiency rates are as low as those listed above, one has to wonder how the graduation rate can be that high!
At least some parents and students seem to realize that something is wrong in Minneapolis’ public schools, for as Minnesota Reformer reported in June, “The district had a 17% decline in student enrollment between 2017 and 2022 and is expected to drop to about 23,000 students by 2027.” That’s a pretty big group to vote with their feet in only five years.
Minneapolis may be one of the happiest cities in the U.S., but when it comes to the city’s public schools and academic outcomes, it seems parents are anything but happy.
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Image Credit: Flickr-Enrico Fuente, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
