Very possibly a mass movement for change in
the Minneapolis Public Schools began on 30 October 2018.
And fortuitously, a candidate once again
distinguished herself among four contestants vying for one of two At-Large
seats up for election on 6 November 2018, igniting a voluble response from
those in attendance and demonstrating that she has the vision to be one of the
leaders of this potentially transformative popular activism.
The event at which the mass movement likely
began was the Parent-Led School Board Candidate Forum, held at the University
of Minnesota Urban Research and Outreach Engagement Center in North Minneapolis
(2100 Plymouth Avenue, across from the Minneapolis Urban League), and sponsored
by the following groups: KWST Behavioral
Development Group, Little Earth of United Tribes, STANDUP, Centro Tyrone
Guzman, Latino Youth Development Collaborative, UPLIFT-MN, the Northside Achievement
Zone (NAZ), and Voices for Effective Change.
This was an event wholly dissimilar to the
first event held at South High School and, especially, the second and third
events held respectively at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church (15 October, sponsored
by the Isaiah group and others) and at Franklin Middle School (22 October,
sponsored by Pollen Midwest in conjunction with the Graves Foundation); these latter two events were highly
controlled affairs that afforded no opportunity for audience participation.
How different was the event of 30 October, moderation
of which was ably led by a representative of Latino Youth Development Collaborative
and by Keary Saffold of KWST Behavioral Development Group. These two very avidly encouraged participation
by members of the audience, who expressed themselves with emoji signs of
frowns and smiles, applause, groans, cheers, and questions written down on
notecards and posed to the candidates.
Salient questions focused on academic achievement
levels, school staff insensitivity, and suspension policies for Somali, Latino,
Native, and African American students.
Candidates were in their typical modes in addressing these issues: Rebecca Gagnon (the only incumbent in the
race) referred to programs already in place that need more staffing, monetary resources,
or emphatic acceleration; Josh Pauly as a
Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) endorsee and former teacher at Sanford
Middle School also emphasized programs already established that need to be
more fully implemented, such as training for cultural competency; Kimberly Caprini (the other MFT endorsee)
stressed her experience during a decade of involvement as parent and education
activist, now energetically charged to bring the advocacy that she exhibited at
site-based councils to policy implementation and creation at the level of the
school board.
But the night belonged as candidate to
Sharon El-Amin.
Clearly, this is a leader who has emotional
resonance with many different constituencies in North Minneapolis, the
Cedar-Riverside area, and an expanding base throughout the city. The Somali community was out in force at this
gathering, clearly listening intently to each statement from El-Amin. This was true, too, for the sizable Native,
Latino, and African American contingents in the audience.
El-Amin answers questions honestly,
clearly, and from the heart. She speaks
as a parent of two children who attended and graduated from MPS schools,
and another who is currently a student at North High School. When asked those salient questions
concerning academic achievement levels, school staff sensitivity, and
suspension policies for Somali, Latino, Native, and African American students,
her responses came as one whose children have experienced the indignities of
responses from school officials, as one who currently leads the North Polar Parent organization, and who does not shy away from exposing the inadequacy of
the academic program, school climate, and behavioral policies at North High
specifically and the district in general.
And very significantly, the majority of the
audience of 75-100 attendees demonstrated that they also chafe at these
deficiencies in the Minneapolis Public Schools and are positioned to make
themselves heard.
The organizers of the forum on 30 October
can be very proud. They got the word out
very effectively and motivated diverse constituencies to attend this event. They gave those constituencies an opportunity
to make themselves heard. In doing these
things they did what great leaders of the overlooked and dispossessed always do,
animating response from a seemingly inert population of morally abused people,
converting the latent energy of resentment into overt demand for change.
The 30 October 2018 Parent-Led School Board
Forum could serve as a foundation for a mass movement for change in the
Minneapolis Public Schools, shaking current district officials and board
members to their own rickety foundations.
Sharon El-Amin’s emergence as a leader of
wisdom and emotional resonance gives great credence to the possibility of
popular agitation for fundamental change in the programs and processes of the
Minneapolis Public Schools.
And inasmuch as the locally centralized
school district must be the focus of the next great advance for social justice
in the United States, this forum and this leader may very well have launched a movement of national significance.
