The answer is “15”

The question is: “How many more students have the Duluth Schools attracted this year over last year?

The story’s DNT Headline reads: “Duluth schools attracting more students”

It turns out that the District incorrectly assumed that this year would be like other recent years and there would be another 300 fewer students at the beginning of this school year. However their foercast was wildly off and no such enrollment decrease took place. Because the District didn’t lose the 300 students (and actually gained a negligible 15 students) the addled Headline writer is treating the nearly flat attendance as though 300 more students were actually enrolled in the District. School Board member Ann Wasson goes delirious over the illusion of 300 more students:

School Board member Ann Wasson said she was excited about the additional students.

“Duluth public schools have the educational facilities with the programs that all families are deserving of,” she said. “I’m thrilled to see the public is understanding this. Certainly, it doesn’t correct the problems we have with funding at the state level, but it helps. We’ve waited long and worked really hard.”

Today’s DNT has this story on its backpage: Report: Most Americans claim they wouldn’t miss their local newspaper.

The DNT has the good sense not to have put this on their website I found it elsewhere on the web. It was brave of the Trib to put it in newsprint. In my opinion it would be a shame to keep losing local newspapers. Sadly, the Headline above undermines my opinion.

If you visited my blog two days ago you got a heads-up about this nonsense. At least I seem to have a pretty good handle on our schools. And I haven’t taken any tours of the new buildings yet.

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