Analysis of the
Members of Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education as to
Specific Nature of Culpability >>>>> Six Who Should Resign Immediately and Three
Who Give Faint Hope
Two
Members of the MPS Board of Education Who Gave Faint Hope as of Spring
2020: Siad Ali and Josh Pauly
The following article is among
those posted in this series that is adapted from the chapter on the Minneapolis
Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education in my book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, future Prospect.
At that time, Ira Jourdain, Siad
Ali, and Josh Pauly represented slim reeds upon which to hang some slight hope
for the evolution of decent members of the Minneapolis (MPS) Board of Education. Yesterday I adapted my article on Ira
Jourdain for present consideration, leaving in those parts that seemed
favorable last spring but indicating that since that time Jourdain has proven
himself ever more inept. He no longer
can be considered to have much potential to become a somewhat effective board
member.
Siad Ali and josh Pauly are as
good as it gets on this board, but that’s not very good. Ali is not diligent and Pauly has no sound philosophical
base from which to work.
The abysmal quality of this
iteration of the MPS Board of Education makes all the more imperative that we
work hard to elect Sharon El-Amin for the District 2 seat to remove KerryJo
Felder from the board, and to work just as assiduously to elect Adriana
Cerrillos to the District 4 seat mercifully abdicated by Bob Walser.
Here I give an adaptation of the
analysis on Siad Ali’s potetential that I rendered when I wrote the pertinent
chapter: >>>>>
>>>>>
District
#3 Member Siad Ali
>>>>> Hail Fellow,
Well-Met Needs to Develop Diligence and Philosophy While Stiffening His Spine
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 in fact works 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.
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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