The Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce is showing how much it
values public education by interrupting it.
Tomorrow, February 14
th, the Chamber will hold an event that
is part of its
Leadership Twin Cities
program in the Media Center of Roosevelt High School.
This is during the students’ day, from 7:45
a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Students will be
unable to access the books, computers, and other resources in the Media Center before, during, or
after school.
You might think teachers and students would have enough
notice so they could work around it. It
would not be that big of an inconvenience.
Of course you would be mistaken.
The history teachers had already scheduled the Media Center for their
students’ History Day projects, including using it on February 14th. They were told last week that they would have
to make other plans. They and their
students are being booted so future business leaders can “reach a greater
understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing today’s schools.”
The program flyer claims they are trying to understand
educational issues in the community, so it makes sense to visit a public school,
interact with the students, talk to teachers and understand what they face
everyday. Unfortunately, that is not why
they are there. The schedule lists a
“Tour of Roosevelt High School” from 12:30 – 1:00 p.m., but staff was told that
item had been cancelled.
So how will they learn about the “challenges and
opportunities facing today’s schools?”
From people who are working the hardest to destroy teachers’ collective
bargaining, de-professionalize teaching, and privatize public schools. The agenda includes the following speakers:
·
Pam Costain – Former Minneapolis School Board
Member, now CEO of Achieve Minneapolis.
On the school board she worked aggressively to strip seniority rights of
teachers with regard to transfers, and has used her new position to fight to
end seniority layoff protections (LIFO).
She is an advocate for more charter schools and Teach for America
(TFA).
Costain was a key
supporter of Josh Reimnitz.
Reimnitz is our newly
elected school board member who learned how to run a large urban district by
teaching for two years as a TFA teacher.
Josh
is also listed as one of the planners of tomorrow’s event.
·
Jon Bacal, is the “Chief Entrepreneurship Officer
and Founder” of
Venture Academy, a new Minneapolis charter school scheduled to
open this fall (yes, that really is his title).
He has made a living promoting charter schools including his two years
serving as Executive Director of the Office of New Schools for Minneapolis
Public Schools (2009-2011).
His talk is
titled “Charter Schools’ Role in Education.”
·
Kerry Muse is the Chief Learning Officer and
Head of School for the same
Venture Academy charter school.
He has spent the last six years as a math “teacher”
at KIPP Bay Area Schools.
His Linkedin
page only identifies him as earning a Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts.
That’s it.
No educational degree.
No math
degree!
·
Daniel Sellers, the Executive Director of
MinnCAN, will finish the day discussing “Issues in Education Reform.”
According to his Linkedin page, starting in
2006, Daniel was a Teach for America teacher in Eastern North Carolina.
He taught 6th grade math, and by his second
year, he had “essentially eliminat[ed] the achievement gap between [his]
students and their peers in wealthier communities.”
This despite no evidence of earning a
teaching degree or license, and teaching math having earned a B.A. in sociology
and anthropology!
The other speakers are Sondra Samuels, President and CEO of the
Northside Achievement Zone, Rob Grunewald, an economist, and Adrienne Jordan, Assistant
to the Superintendent/Liaison to the Board of Education for Minneapolis Public
Schools. None of these three have ever
taught or earned a teaching license.
So why hold this meeting at Roosevelt High School when
students are in class? Roosevelt is one
of the many urban schools that “reformers” like these label a “failure.” They have a simple plan for failing schools –
close them and replace them with a charter school. Tomorrow, Roosevelt students will not have their
Media Center. If many of the people
involved in this meeting get their way, they will not have Roosevelt High
School.
Posted by: Rob Panning-Miller
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