Vote 2010 St. Paul / Coleman scores a 2nd term as mayor

The fact that Elona Street-Stewart got reelected means that we can expect an open purse policy with the next school superintendent. The parade of opportunistic superintendents that both Mpls and St.Paul have had recently points to a selection system that is deeply flawed. The top heavy administration in St. Paul schools needs thinning out. There also needs to be a revamping of the superintendent's compensation to bring it down from the pay and perks stratosphere inhabited by CEOs and Ramsey County commissioners.

Congrats, Jean!

It's nice to see the underrepresented Chris Coleman represented on the school board. I'm sure he'll turn everything around and we'll replace school busing with school training (yes, pun intended). Hold on to your wallets and be prepared for the political food fight.

I'm glad Goldstein is out, but we just replaced him with someone who has been, in part, responsible for the mess we're in. Why do the ones who are so entrenched in the system they are now expected to lead with objectivity keep getting elected? If my son doesn't get into the high school of our choice, we'll either be in a charter high school or move. Either way, the district won't get our student's money. It will go elsewhere. I know it's not much, but apparently enough families have done it that their enrollment shows the flight out of the public schools in St. Paul. The people of Saint Paul are afraid of true change: a businesswoman (gee, a female minority with actual business experience should have been the sweetheart of the liberals!), and parents with no other agenda than to improve the schools can't get elected. If you're not a 'contractor' or an 'organizer' or previously involved in this embarassment of a school district, you can't get elected. Well, the people of St Paul will get exactly what they voted for...MORE OF THE SAME.

Goldstein is a poster child for what is wrong with the public schools. The fact that his defeat was ever in question, along with the re-election of street does not speak well for the people of St. Paul.

Hollow victory here, with the least culpable (and least capable) of the odious Carstarphen enabler board members given his walking papers, while the worst offender slides squealing into her same old trough on Coleman's slimy coattails.

Just watch the City's school administrative costs soar while we
pursue another superintendent even less qualified and more expensive than the last. Small wonder our schools are failing in their job of educating.

Wow, so this is where all St. Paul Republicans come and vent their inability to sell their ideas to the voters of St. Paul, eh?

No, it's where I come to vent my outrage over incompetent mayors trying to expand their power by seizing control of the schoolboard. First Norm, now Chris (no relation, thank God). I want an independent schoolboard, not another sandbox for the usual suspects, both Republican and DFL.

Glad I don't have children and if I did, I'd home-school them. I am tired of the b.s. that parochial schools are so much better (if you are willing to stomach the indoctrination) and the public schools need money (as it is, a student checks their civil liberties at the door). I grew up lower-middle-class, blue collar family (no college graduates when I was young) and knew the basics before I even hit Kindergarten.

Lewis Sinclair wrote:

No, it's where I come to vent my outrage over incompetent mayors trying to expand their power by seizing control of the schoolboard. First Norm, now Chris (no relation, thank God). I want an independent schoolboard, not another sandbox for the usual suspects, both Republican and DFL.

Give it up, the people have spoken, and their voices rule the day. The only way to argue with that is to get yourself elected. If you can't, well, that's democracy...and you have only yourselves and your ideas (or lack thereof) to blame!

St Paul Parent wrote:

If my son doesn't get into the high school of our choice, we'll either be in a charter high school or move.

You hit the nail on the head with the problem in Saint Paul: choice. Too many choices and an entitlement mentality that if one doesn't get their choice, they threaten to leave. Not that many people actually leave...a misnomer...and many return once they experience the discipline of private school or the glamor of a charter wears off.

Overall, there are just fewer kids being born state-wide...and in Saint Paul.

Jean O'Connell will be an interesting addition to the school board. She has private sector experience, two kids who attended/graduated from both public and private schools in St. Paul.

Look forward to hearing her voice on the panel.

Hardly anyone voted. 34,000 votes for mayor? 25,000 for school board? The lack of voter enthusiasm is outstanding ... way to go, St Paul!

Oh Where wrote:

<quoted text>
Give it up, the people have spoken, and their voices rule the day. The only way to argue with that is to get yourself elected. If you can't, well, that's democracy...and you have only yourselves and your ideas (or lack thereof) to blame!

Unfortunately, the operative word in your post is "rule". You
appear to be another in a long line of folks in that town who
believe you can "rule" others for no other reason than there
are more of you than there are of them. And you are right,
that IS democracy; keeping in mind, of course, that democracy
in its purest form is nothing more than mob rule.
(there'e that word again..........rule)
I grew up in St. Paul and am one in a long line of folks
who have left (pardon the pun :)) the city to you. You just
go on with your "ideas"; a lot of us have taken ours
elsewhere and are a lot better off for it.

And would you mind answering a question that none of your
leftist friends will? Why is it that anyone who is not a
Democrat is automatically a Republican? Are you another
one who believes that people can't think for themselves
and needs a party to tell them how to think?

Right-O wrote:

<quoted text>
You hit the nail on the head with the problem in Saint Paul: choice. Too many choices and an entitlement mentality that if one doesn't get their choice, they threaten to leave. Not that many people actually leave...a misnomer...and many return once they experience the discipline of private school or the glamor of a charter wears off.
Overall, there are just fewer kids being born state-wide...and in Saint Paul.

Then why the cry for more money all the time?

And you are so right......don't give anyone a choice. They might exercise
it and leave the poor schools behind; then the house of cards crashes in.
:)

Clueless wrote:

<quoted text>
Unfortunately, the operative word in your post is "rule". You
appear to be another in a long line of folks in that town who
believe you can "rule" others for no other reason than there
are more of you than there are of them. And you are right,
that IS democracy; keeping in mind, of course, that democracy
in its purest form is nothing more than mob rule.
(there'e that word again..........rule)
I grew up in St. Paul and am one in a long line of folks
who have left (pardon the pun :)) the city to you. You just
go on with your "ideas"; a lot of us have taken ours
elsewhere and are a lot better off for it.
And would you mind answering a question that none of your
leftist friends will? Why is it that anyone who is not a
Democrat is automatically a Republican? Are you another
one who believes that people can't think for themselves
and needs a party to tell them how to think?

Being Clueless, having the ability to think for yourself, and "better off elsewhere," why do you care what happens in St. Paul? Can't get your half baked "independent" ideas sold where you are either? It's clear you're just here to vent your inability to be relevant. And all this time, I thought you had something at stake in St. Paul.

Oh Where wrote:

<quoted text>
Being Clueless, having the ability to think for yourself, and "better off elsewhere," why do you care what happens in St. Paul? Can't get your half baked "independent" ideas sold where you are either? It's clear you're just here to vent your inability to be relevant. And all this time, I thought you had something at stake in St. Paul.

That's it? Once again, ask a leftist a question..........
Never any answers, just insults.

Maybe I should use the name "insane"..........is n't the definition
doing the same thing the same way repeatedly and expecting different
results each time? Under that definition asking a leftist a question
is insane because asking a question assumes an answer comes next.
I'll go back to my padded room now and you can go back to your KoolAid.
:)

Oh Where wrote:

<quoted text>
Give it up, the people have spoken, and their voices rule the day. The only way to argue with that is to get yourself elected. If you can't, well, that's democracy...and you have only yourselves and your ideas (or lack thereof) to blame!

The vote that you talk about was one of the LOWEST turnouts in St. Paul history. No, only a minority of voter voices were heard.

People are taking things into their own hands. People are leaving SPPS in large numbers. They are going to charter schools, private schools. This is due to the policies of a failed school board. Unfortunate is the fact that the voters reelected the same old boobs that put these failed policies into effect in the first place.

Elona Street-Stewart has to be one of the biggest idiots on the board.

Voter wrote:

<quoted text>
The vote that you talk about was one of the LOWEST turnouts in St. Paul history. No, only a minority of voter voices were heard.
People are taking things into their own hands. People are leaving SPPS in large numbers. They are going to charter schools, private schools. This is due to the policies of a failed school board. Unfortunate is the fact that the voters reelected the same old boobs that put these failed policies into effect in the first place.
Elona Street-Stewart has to be one of the biggest idiots on the board.

Decisions are made by those who show up, doesn't matter whether it's at work, at the polls, anywhere!

People who live in St. Paul, don't vote, but complain about everything, and those in office...seems to me the real idiots.

If people like you actually care enough, get your ideas out to the public, put it to a vote, and get yourself elected! Oh yeah, forgot, you already did that, didn't work!

Clueless wrote:

<quoted text>
That's it? Once again, ask a leftist a question..........
Never any answers, just insults.
Maybe I should use the name "insane"..........is n't the definition
doing the same thing the same way repeatedly and expecting different
results each time? Under that definition asking a leftist a question
is insane because asking a question assumes an answer comes next.
I'll go back to my padded room now and you can go back to your KoolAid.
:)

Yes, go back to your padded room, where you practice your Cluelessness version of political activism...the neither Republican nor Democratic, no party party, write-in, perpetual complainer who can't make himself relevant anywhere...except maybe some attention in a Pioneer Press comment section.

What do you care about what happens in St. Paul, again?(Practice what you preach and answer the question!)