Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education Authorized by Alternate Universe MPS Superintendent Gary Marvin Davison, with Priority Given to Defeat of Rebecca Gagnon, Nelson Inz, and Don Samuels in November 2018 Election and Ongoing Assessment of the Jenny Arneson and Siad Ali Candidacies

As Alternate Universe MPS Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) I have authorized the formation of the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education, the first major activist initiative of which will be the defeat of Rebecca Gagnon, Nelson Inz,  and Don Samuels in the November 2018 Election.  The Committee will also be conducting an ongoing assessment of the Jenny Arneson and Siad Ali candidacies.

 

Most school reform efforts involve individuals and groups who have no clear definition of an excellent education, very little idea of what constitutes the excellent teacher, or any organizational ability to achieve change.  This is true of Michelle Rhee’s nearly moribund StudentsFirst and the Minnesota-based entities MinnCAN and Generation Next.

 

I have authorized the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education to proceed with the organization lacking in these entities, toward the recruitment of candidates for the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education who embrace my definitions of educational and teaching excellence, and the three main purposes that I have identified for K-12 education.

 

Remember, then, the following:

 

An excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum in the liberal, technological, and vocational arts in grade by grade sequence to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.

 

An excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge, with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to students of all demographic descriptors.

 

The three great purposes of an excellent K-12 education are cultural enrichment, civic preparation, and professional satisfaction.

 

                                      ……………………………………………………………………………………

Five members of the current Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education will be up for reelection in November 2018:  Rebecca Gagnon, Nelson Inz, Don Samuels, Jenny Arneson, and Siad Ali.

 

Priority will be given to the defeat of Rebecca Gagnon and Nelson Inz. 

 

By November 2018, Gagnon will have served on the MPS Board of Education for eight years.  She has served as chair of the finance committee and is currently the chair of the MPS Board of Education.  Gagnon is a master of the system as it is, with deep knowledge of public school finances, but she is deeply connected to the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) and the Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party. 

 

The MFT is affiliated with Education Minnesota, which invariably opposes change in K-12 education and is the most powerful lobby funding DFL politicians.  Accordingly, DFL politicians Al Franken, Amy Klobuchar, Keith Ellison, Bobby Joe Champion, and Jeff Hayden---  while better than their Republican counterparts on most issues--- are all bought and paid for on education issues, always acting as retrograde opponents of changes that could move us toward excellence in K-12 education.  Politicians of the DFL can always be counted on to do the bidding of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Education Minnesota.

 

And so Gagnon also does the bidding of the MFT and Education Minnesota.  Gagnon is weak in her knowledge of pedagogy and philosophy of education.  She frequently mouths the shibboleths of the MFT and Education Minnesota.  She did the dirty work of those two entities in working to defeat Tracine Asberry in the school board elections of November 2016;  Asberry, who represented District 6, was the foremost advocate for change and the most persistent critic of the MPS administration for the district’s abysmal academic performance.   

 

Similarly, Nelson Inz is firmly connected to the MFT, Education Minnesota, and DFL establishments.  He also did the bidding of these entities by working to defeat Josh Reimnitz, who had stunned the MFT by winning without the endorsement of that organization in November 2012.  Inz endorsed the candidacy of Bob Walser, who is the silliest and most frivolous school board member I have ever witnessed, opposes objective measurement of student performance, and serves as a willing mouthpiece for the most harmful notions of the MFT, Education Minnesota, and those campus low-lifes known as education professors.

 

Don Samuels is disappointing for different reasons.  He is a member of the DFL but did not run for a seat on the school board with the endorsement of that party or with the backing of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers.  Samuels is given to bombastic statements but is lazy in his preparation, weak on matters of educational philosophy and pedagogy, and ineffective as an agent of change.  His defeat in November 2018 is a secondary priority behind only the defeat of Gagnon and Inz;  his replacement with a candidate backed by the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education would greatly abet the journey of the Minneapolis Public Schools toward educational excellence.

 

                                      …………………………………………………………………………………………………

The Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education will also be monitoring the positions of candidates Jenny Arneson and Siad Ali.  By November 2018, Arneson will have served eight years on the MPS Board of Education;  thus, she bears much responsibility for the terrible academic performance of the district.  She is also intimately connected to the MFT, Education Minnesota, and the DFL Party.  But she was adroit in her conduct of meetings during her tenure as MPS Board of Education chair, presiding over the tumultuous gatherings covering the two-phase search for a superintendent from spring 2015 into winter2016.  There is also something in Arneson’s demeanor that gives me and the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education some hope that she can be moved to embrace our definitions of educational and teaching excellence, according to the defined purposes of K-12 education.  But that hope may prove forlorn;  if so, we will also work for the defeat of Arneson as a tertiary but definite priority.

 

The candidacy of Siad Ali is also problematic.  He is a strong advocate for the Somali community and for immigrant communities and English Language Learners in general.  He frequently engages me in conversation and seems open to my message.  But he actually works professionally for the DFL and is strongly tied to the MFT and Education Minnesota.  He must distance himself from these entities and openly embrace my definitions of educational and teaching excellence and K-12 purpose that guide the work of the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education---  or face our opposition to his candidacy in November 2018.

 

                                ……………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

Keep these identifications in view as you work with the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education to overhaul the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education in November 2018:

 

>>>>>   


Rebecca Gagnon will be running again citywide as an At-Large candidate.

Nelson Inz will be running again for the District 5 seat, geographically covering
South Minneapolis east of I-35.

 

These two are prioritized for defeat in November 2018.
 

>>>>>    Don Samuels will be running again citywide as an At-Large candidate.

 

His defeat is a secondary but definite priority, behind only the defeat of Gagnon and inz.

>>>>>   


Jenny Arneson will be running again for the District 1 seat;

Siad Ali will be running again for the District 3 seat.

These two will be given a chance to embrace our definitions of educational excellence,the purposes that we have identified for K-12 education, and the five-point program that we are advancing for bringing education excellence to the Minneapolis Public Schools;  failure to embrace these positions will result in our working for their defeat in the elections of November 2018.

 

                                     ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The on-the-ground movement for education change that I am advancing via the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education at the level of the locally centralized school district is unprecedented in the United States.  For that matter, inasmuch as change in the United States must occur according to the nation’s stated preference for local control, our movement has no precedents in those nations that feature the best systems of public education, all of which are centralized at the national level.  

 

The K-12 Revolution in the United States will thus begin with overhaul of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education in November 2018.

 

With the victory of candidates backed by the Committee on Knowledge-Intensive Education in that November 2018 election, we will then have a majority of members on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education who embrace educational and teaching excellence and the great purposes of K-12 education.

 

At that point the changes that I have already made via my five-point program articulated and implemented as Alternate Universe Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent will move into the universe of conventional reckoning, thereby transforming K-12 education in the United States.