Article #19 of a Multi-Article Series >>>>> Origins and Maintenance of a Corrupt System of Public Education in the United States

The Travesty That Is the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education

 

District #6 Member Ira Jourdain  >>>>>  Error-Prone, Philosophically Bereft, and Politically Tainted

 

Ira Jourdain was suspect from the beginning of his tenure on the Minneapolis Public Schools(MPS)  Board of Education for running against Tracine Asberry in November 2016.  Asberry was the best participant that I have witnessed on this or any other school board.  She did not have a clearly expressed dedication to the knowledge-intensive preK-12 education that I advocate, but she did manifestly care about fundamental skills in mathematics and reading.  Whenever Chief of Research, Evaluation, Assessment, and Accountability Eric Moore would deliver the latest round of bad news regarding MPS student academic performance, Asberry would ask detailed questions pertinent to plans for improvement.  When Moore or others would offer double talk or pleasing promises, Asberry would ask why we inevitably get the same vows for future progress that we’ve gotten before but little of substance to warrant confidence.

 

Asberry made a nuisance of herself by not walking the party line of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT)/Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL), calling failure as she did by that name, and implying that better instruction was needed.   As detailed above, board members Kim Ellison,  Rebecca Gagnon, and Nelson Inz acted at the behest of the MFT/DFL cohort to recruit opponents to run against Asberry and Josh Reimnitz.  Inz endorsed Bob Walser against Reimnitz;  Gagnon endorsed Ira Jourdain against Asberry.  Both endorsees won narrowly.

 

Thus Jourdain is politically tainted. 

 

He also is philosophically bereft, giving no evidence of any knowledge of the history of education or any coherent views of his own. 

 

As a matter of particularly great irritation to me, Jourdain has stated that he signed waiver forms for his children (he has two, one in elementary and one in middle school, enrolled in the Minneapolis Public Schools) to opt out of taking the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs);  moreover, when he did this at a regular meeting of the MPS Board of Education, Jourdain looked out at the audience and advocated letting other parents know that they had the right to allow their children to opt out.

 

The MCAs are linked to the Minnesota State Academic Standards and are the most objective way of assessing student mastery of the standards.  When students opt out in significant numbers, as they have done at Henry, South, and Southwest high schools, this vitiates the pool of students assessed and skews the accuracy of the results.  Allowing and encouraging students to opt out is irresponsible.

 

Jourdain bears the political taint of MFT/DFL backing, he is philosophically bereft, and he is error-prone.  Urging students to opt of the MCAs went beyond error to indication of political taint (the MFT rails against standardized testing) and philosophical waywardness. 

 

Jourdain voted with a 5-4 majority led by Rebecca Gagnon to restore $6.4 million dollars in funding that had been cut in a well-crafted budget emanating from Chief Ibrahima Diop’s Finance Division in spring 2018.  Gagnon was putting herself in the service of her affluent constituency in Southwest Minneapolis (she occupied an At-Large position but counted voters in that area as key supporters);  Jourdain voted with the slim majority roused by his campaign endorser and mentor Gagnon.

 

Lamentably, Jourdain was unopposed for the District 6 seat in the 3 November 2020 election;  we must make sure that a candidate advocating for overhaul of curriculum and teacher quality replaces Jourdain should he decide to run again in 2024.