The Travesty That Is the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education
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 two 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.
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.
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