Incompetent, Corrupt Members of the Current Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education Each Collect $20,000 Annually from Public Coffers >>>>> With Assessment of the Shortcomings of Each Member

Before promising new members Sharon El-Amin and Adriana Cerrillo, elected to the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education on 3 November, take their seats at the board’s regular meeting in January 2021, we are stuck with the membership that I assess at the end of this article. 

Of these current members, KerryJo Felder lost her District 2 (North Minneapois) seat to El-Amin and Bob Walser did not run for the District 4 (Bryn Mawr, Uptown, and surrounding areas) seat he now holds;  Cerrillo will now take that seat in January.  Unfortunately, Kim Ellison rode her name recognition (she is the ex-wife of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison) to victory over Michael Dueñes.  But El-Amin and Cerrillo, both of whom I backed with great enthusiasm in the 3 November election, will be powerful additions to the MPS Board of Education.  Unlike the present members, all of whom are politically indebted to the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT)/Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) party cohort, El-Amin and Cerrillo will arrive on the board uncorrupted by such indebtedness.

Keep in view as you consider the following presentation that fewer than 70% of MPS students graduate in four years, that one-third who do matriculate on college and university campuses need academic remediation, and that MPS curriculum is so weak that students who do manage to graduate walk across the stage to receive a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only.  During my six years of investigating the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools, only one member (Tracine Asberry, defeated in her reelection bid in 2016) has asked consistently and persistently discerning questions of Eric Moore, the district’s senior tracker of student academic performance.  Not a single member of the current board has asked such questions, and no one among these members has questioned weak curriculum and low teacher quality, unsurprising since these members owe their positions to MFT/DFL backing.

Keeping these comments in view, be reminded that these board members each take $20,000 from public coffers per annum for such negligence.  Accordingly, each bears responsibility for their collective incompetence and corruption, and they manifest particular faults, in order of offensiveness, as follows.  These assessments are very concise versions of those given in detail in my book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect, now circulating among select staff members at the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway) and the general public:

Current (November 2020, Post-Election But Before January 2020 Seating of New Members) Membership fo the MPS Board of Education.

Perpend, in order of offensiveness  >>>>>

MPS Board Member                    Annual Salary

Bob Walser                                          $20,000

The silliest, most trivial member of the MPS Board of Education I have witnessed in my six years of investigating the district’s inner workings;  blessedly, Walser decided not to run for reelection.

Nelson Inz                                            $20,000

A corrupt politico and MFT/DFL sycophant first elected in 2014;  he has throughout his tenure, which included a stint as board chair, failed to address the district’s most vexing dilemmas pertinent to curriculum and teacher quality.

Kim Ellison                                           $20,000

The current board chair, Ellison is another MFT/DFL politico who brings nothing of any merit to the board;  unfortunately, we are saddled with Ellison for another four years, given the name recognition that she was able to ride in prevailing in the 3 November election.

Jenny Arneson                                    $20,000

Immensely adept presider at meetings who has done stints as chair and vice-chair, Arneson’s mastery of factual detail goes to no positive purposes due to her own political corruption and inability to drive to the core of the dilemmas plaguing the district.

KerryJo Felder                                    $20,000

A false claimant to North Minneapolis leadership given to spouting data that she has failed to digest, Felder’s chief virtue has been willingness to be a thorn in the side of Superintendent Ed Graff;  she is blessedly on her way out the Davis Center door come January.

Kim Caprini                                          $20,000

Has developed some of the technical competence associated with Arneson but hamstrung and corrupted by her ties to the MFT/DFL cohort.

Ira Jourdain                                             $20,000

A member of the Red Lake Ojibwe, Jourdain makes occasional noises in the interest of equity but demonstrates little grasp of the district’s main vexations and is corrupted by his MFT/DFL associations.

Siad Ali                                                   $20,000

Hail fellow, well met, Ali occasionally gives lip service to the need for better academic performance but frequently does not do his homework and never demonstrates in-depth knowledge;  like his fellow ne’er and seldom do-wells, Ali also bears the MFT/DFL taint.

Josh Pauly                                             $20,000

Admirably concise in his comments and questions, with some indication of concern for better academic performance, Pauly nevertheless is limited by his MFT/DFL association:  Backing from that cohort was the only reason that, given the fact that at the time he was a nonentity, Pauly won his  election in 2018;  that he is the best of this corrupt assemblage is a tellingly sad comment on the corrupted nature of this current composition of the MPS Board of Education.

Thus will the arrival of Sharon El-Amin and Adriana Cerrillo in January 2021 bring integrity and independent judgment to a Minneapolis Board of Education so decidedly lacking in those qualities.