Siad Ali represents Minneapolis Public
Schools (MPS) Board of Education District #3.
Ali is originally from Somalia, studied in India (where he obtained a
master’s degree in business), and speaks Hindi, as well as Somali and English,
at a high level of fluency. Ali gained
election to the board in 2014 and was reelected without opposition in
2018. In his successful run, Ali
replaced fellow Somali Mohamud Noor, who had gained controversial appointment
when the previous District #3 representative died in office. District #3 is centered on the
Cedar-Riverside area wherein a large Somali population resides. The district will for the foreseeable future
most likely be represented by a member of the Somali community, with much
discussion therein as to who will run for the position.
As is the case with all members of the
current iteration of the MPS Board of Education, Ali has firm ties to the Minneapolis
Federation of Teachers (MFT)/Democrat-Farmer-Labor cohort that determines most
elections to school boards in Minnesota.
Ali is in fact employed by the DFL and has worked for Amy Klobuchar. He gives no evidence as yet of finding fault
with either group in the cohort. Like so
many, he appreciates the greater propensity of DFL politicians to provide
generous funding for education, by comparison with Republicans, and to assume
that more funding in the absence of meaningful
change is a good thing. He does not
understand or does not want to think about the deleterious effect that DFL administrations
(e. g., Mark Dayton with his Minnesota Department of Education [MDE] Commissioner
Brenda Cassellius; Tim Walz with his MDE
Commissioner Mary Cathryn Ricker) have on enforcement of state academic standards
and objective measurement via the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs).
Thus, Siad Ali bears the same taint of
political corruption that is true of all members of this board. And he gives no indication of having any more
knowledge of the history and philosophy of education in the United States than
do the others. But he is an amicable,
proverbial “Hail Fellow, Well Met” who professes love for everybody and seems
to mean it. He does not do his homework very
well to apprise himself of policy details, but neither does he make clearly lamentable
judgements. In support of the work of Ed
Graff and especially Chief of Finance
Ibrahima Diop, Ali voted with the minority to uphold the budget as presented in
spring 2018, losing in the 5-4 vote to the contingent led by Rebecca Gagnon to restore
$6.4 million that upon budget trimming had engendered opposition by affluent parents
whose students’ high schools had been affected.
Although he has as yet to take meaningful
action, Ali listens more empathetically than do most other board members to
Public Commentators such as the Hispanic
parents who have appealed for “priority enrollment” giving their children the
option of attending schools perceived as “higher performing.” He also listens to my Public Comments and is
the only member of the MPS Board of Education who still approaches me
personally (and only one of three whose approach I would welcome). But in private conversation, Ali is a
terrible listener who, despite understanding the main thrust of my advocacy for
a knowledge-intensive curriculum and the paramount importance of academics, cannot
get far enough beyond the MFT/DFL party line to digest cognitively my comments.
Like Ira Jourdain, Siad Ali has faint
potential to become a better board member.
But Ali must do more homework, read tracts
on the history and philosophy of education in the United States, stiffen his
spine, and lend a more careful ear in assessing words of dissent and advocacy. Should he do these things, Ali has a slight
chance for becoming a more thoughtful and independent voice on the MPS Board of
Education; that slight chance is more
than can be assigned to Bob Walser, Nelson Inz, Kim Ellison, Jenny Arneson, Kim
Caprini, and KerryJo Felder.
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