Importance of the Primary in August 2018 for Establishing the Slate of Candidates to Vie for MPS Board of Education in November

Please be aware that next month (August) there will be a primary that will winnow down to four a list of five candidates hoping to compete in November for two at-large seats on the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education.

 

We have apparently lost our chance to oust the second worst political hack on that board, Nelson Inz, who is running uncontested for his District 5 seat.

 

Jenny Arneson and Siad Ali are also running uncontested, for the District 1 and District 3 seats respectively.

 

Rebecca Gagnon is the most shameless political hack on a board that generally does the bidding of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) and the Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party.  Her defeat should be our paramount goal in the August primary.  Gagnon, having hoped to secure Democrat Farmer Labor (DFL) party endorsement for a seat in the Minnesota Legislature, had decided against another school board campaign;  but when she failed to secure the endorsement, she decided to make the school board run, after all.

 

For the coming elections, the candidates who are our best possibilities for getting members on the board who are not controlled by the MFT-DFL cohort are found in the two at-large seats.  Here is the line-up of five that will appear on the ballot for the August primary, to be pared to four for the general election:

 

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

 

Doug Mann

Sharon El-Amin

Kimberly Caprini

Josh Pauly

Rebecca Gagnon

 

Be prepared to vote against Gagnon. 

 

I will then be making recommendations for the general election.

 

Caprini and Pauly are the DFL-endorsed candidates.  Gagnon is heavily tied to both the DFL and the MFT, both of which called and canvassed heavily for her in her 2010 and 2014 campaigns;  presumably, such political assistance will not be forthcoming in 2018, given the formal support already tendered to Caprini and Pauly.

 

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.

 

School board contests are the most important in any general election: 

 

Were school board members to do their jobs properly, seeking superintendents who understand the need for curriculum overhauled for the delivery of knowledge and skill sets specified grade by grade;  and retraining teachers capable of imparting such a curriculum;  we would lift citizens in the United States from the abyss of ignorance in which they are now mired, toward an elevated standard of citizenry, the members of which make decisions not on the basis of emotion and fear, but rather on firm bodies of information pertinent to the array of issues currently facing our society.

 

People who desire change must commit their own energy to make change happen.

 

In a nation possessing a governmental framework with for the potential realization of democracy, government can never be the problem: 

 

Citizens are the government;  they are the society.

 

That government and that society are as good or bad as their citizenry.

 

Right now both government and society in the United States are at a low point.

 

The needed transformation will only occur with the achievement of knowledge-intensive education for all of our precious children.  That means electing school board members who will seek and support administrators who are ready to design and implement programs embodying the needed change.

 

This means you should be highly attentive to the August primary and the November general election.

 

You are the government.

 

You are the society.

 

You must dedicate yourself to making the needed change, beginning with the ouster of Rebecca Gagnon in August and an astute casting of your vote in November.