Key Tasks for the K-12 Revolution in Summer 2018 >>>>> Publication of My Book, >Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect<; and Vigorous Organization to Defeat Rebecca Gagnon and to Elect Those Who Will Counter the Current MPS Board of Education Assemblage of Political Hacks

Summer 2018 will be an important juncture in the K-12 Revolution.

 

Before calendric summer ends, I will present my new book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect.  In the book I shine a harsh light on curricular weakness, teacher mediocrity, and wretched student academic performance at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS).  I also give credit to Superintendent Ed Graff for slimming the central office bureaucracy and making adroit personnel decisions.  I detail the program for bringing genuine educational excellence to MPS, based on knowledge-intensive curriculum, thorough teacher retraining, aggressive skill remediation, resource provision and referral, and continued reduction of the central office bureaucracy.

 

By midsummer, I will also be making the rounds in churches, community centers, and other public gathering places to advocate for the defeat of Rebecca Gagnon, who after failing to get endorsement for her aspiration as a candidate for the Minnesota State Legislature has retreated to run for a third term on the MPS Board of Education:

 

Rebecca Gagnon is a shameless political hack whose defeat should be our paramount goal in the coming November 2018 election.

 

Unfortunately, we have apparently lost our chance to oust the second worst political hack, Nelson Inz, who is running uncontested for his District 5 seat, as are Jenny Arneson and Siad Ali for the District 1 and District 3 seats.

 

For the coming election, then, the candidacies that are our best possibilities for getting members on the board who are not controlled by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) and Democrat Farmer Labor (DFL) party are found in the two at-large seats.  The general election will list two candidates contesting for each of these positions, so there will a run-off to eliminate one of the candidates given below in the at-large category.  Here is the line-up as matters now stand, including the uncontested seats for districts one, three, and five:

 

School Board At Large (2 seats – going to Primary)

 

Doug Mann

Sharon El-Amin

Kimberly Caprini

Josh Pauly

Rebecca Gagnon

 

School Board District 1

 

Jenny Arneson

 

School Board District 3

 

Siad Ali

 

School Board District 5

 

Nelson Inz

 

……………………………………………………………………………………..

 

Ed Graff has been a good administrator but needs lots of guidance on matters of curriculum, teacher quality, skill remediation, and family resource provision and referral.  Graff, Eric Moore (Chief of Research, Assessment, and Accountability), and other members of the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway) cabinet understand the need for objective assessment of student performance, but such assessment is strongly opposed by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, which currently strongly influences all school board members but Don Samuels, who is not running for reelection to his current at-large position.

 

Jenny Arneson and Siad Ali may be able to resist some MFT/ DFL pressure to support objective assessment, knowledge-intensive curriculum, and teacher retraining.  But current board members KerryJo Felder, Bob Walser, Ira Jourdain, Nelson Inz, and Rebecca Gagnon consistently do the bidding of the MFT/ DFL cohort.

 

We must defeat Gagnon and get the best two candidates for the two at-large positions that we can, impressing upon them the need for knowledge-intensive curriculum and teacher retraining.

 

This summer I will bring out the new book, make numerous public appearances, and do a great deal of organizing in looking toward the August primary and then the November general election.

We are at major juncture in the K-12 Revolution.

 

If you care about K-12 education, you must get to work.

 

The time is now and, in the spirit of Malcolm X, we must stare straight at reality and say “no more” to matters as they exist:

 

A change must and will come.