This year I stood for election to a seat on the Minneapolis City Council as a Green Party candidate and bypassed the local Green Party endorsement process. I decided to stand for election in early May, after being informed that the Green Party steering committee had recruited a candidate who I could not support.
At two GP membership meetings in 2002, before and after the primary election, 50% supported my candidacy for a seat on the Minneapolis School Board. I won the primary election. At a meeting in 2004 I sought endorsement for the same office and received support from only about 10% of the members in attendance. I didn't seek the GP endorsement this year because, in 2004, my criticism of statements by another school board candidate seeking the GP endorsement was considered "beyond the pale," a cardinal sin, according to many GP members. The discussion which followed my presentation including the airing of many criticisms of a personal nature directed at me, and no discussion of the issues raised in my presentation or of the issue that I raised in opposing the endorsement of the other candidate (who fell one vote short of the two-thirds supermajority needed for endorsement). I criticized the other candidate for saying that the school board could not be faulted for a significant part of the "black-white learning gap," and that most African American students are "hard to educate." In my opinion, the so-called "racial learning gap" in the public schools is mostly the byproduct of an education access gap. Simply put: Students enrolled in the strongest educational programs achieve the most, and students enrolled in the weakest educational programs achieve the least. African American students are heavily concentrated in the weakest programs. The school board is perpetuating the education access gap by its actions, and inaction. For example: There were fewer than 1,700 full time teaching positions budgeted for the 2003-2004 school year. In 2004 the school board planned to cut about 150 full time teaching positions, but laid off 608 teachers. That drives up teacher turnover rates, especially at schools with a high concentration of low seniority teachers. In my opinion, the school board can quickly and dramatically reduce the education access gap by not laying off teachers they plan to rehire or replace, by desegregating the district's least experienced teachers, and by phasing out all but college bound curriculum tracks for the general student population. -Doug Mann, King Field http://educationright.com/blog REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@mnforum.org Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
