MINNEAPOLIS – Last week marked the beginning of contract talks between Minneapolis Public Schools and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, the local teachers union.

But this time around there’s a third voice that wants input at the bargaining table.

A coalition of concerned citizens is hoping to pressure the school board and the teachers union into changing the way teachers are hired, fired, evaluated, and assigned to classrooms.

The coalition, known as Contract for Student Achievement, is comprised of parents, pastors, business leaders, elected officials and taxpayers who want MPS’ staffing decisions to reflect the best interests of students, instead of school employees.

They say past teachers contracts have created a system that ignores the academic needs of students, particularly minority children. They believe that has led to an unacceptable achievement gap that must be addressed in the new collective bargaining agreement.

In other words, the taxpayers are reasserting ownership of the under-performing Minneapolis school district, despite the objections of the self-serving teachers union and the reservations of the school board. It’s a story that could – and should – be playing out in school districts across the nation.

Minneapolis schools facing a ‘human crisis’

Contract for Student Achievement members correctly see contract negotiations as the ideal time to have their voices heard in how local schools are run.

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Thursday:

Wow, you can really feel the energy here in Minneapolis at Netroots Nation 2011 – the vibe is so much better than at Starbucks where that fascist Mr. Rodriguez keeps oppressing me by insisting that I get to work on time!  Because of the capitalist system under whose yoke we all groan, I had to get the money to come from my parents, which is only fair since they have money and because of George Bush I don’t.  I heard Dad joking about how he was “delighted to have that 30-year old bum out of my basement for a weekend.”  Mom gave me a ride to the airport in the Explorer and on the 747 I had time to write up a Daily Kos post about the need to ration carbon credits to control global warming – I mean “climate change.”

I went to check into my hotel room and the guy at the front desk complimented me on my clothes.  “Nice Che tee,” he said.  “Funny coincidence – my family is from Cuba.  So, will you be wearing your Mao t-shirt tomorrow?”  How did he know?  Anyway, I was a little unhappy with my room – it was on the top floor between the elevators and a guy who turned out to be the drummer for Anthrax.  He sure had a lot of loud parties.

Off to the convention center for to help build a socialist future – oh wait, I’m not supposed to say “socialist.”  Andrew Breitbert’s operatives are in the area and according to Markos, “We’re still keeping our real goal on the down low until after the reelection.”   Shhh – mum’s the word, fellow “progressives!”

By the way, I thought I saw Markos himself, but it turned out to be a guy dressed as an elf from the Dungeons & Dragons convention down the street.  My mistake!

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From KMSP Minneapolis:

Your home is supposed to be your castle. That is, until the government needs to buy it for a road project. So, what’s the fair price for your property when it comes to eminent domain? Maybe less than you think.

Minnesota has declined to make public its list of recommended projects for the first round of broadband stimulus funding until Washington announces the lucky recipients beginning in early November.   Sure, many other states have released their prioritized lists of applicants for a $7.2 billion jackpot.  And sure, the secretive nature of the process seems at odds with the high level of transparency that was promised to accompany the even higher level of stimulus funding.

A cursory review by the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota of the projects under consideration, however, indicates there’s plenty of reasons to avoid public scrutiny.  

Leading the list of dubious projects is a $5.2 million proposal by the city of Minneapolis to provide laptops or iPod Touches to “underserved” residents, courtesy of taxpayers.  Of course, many taxpayers would no doubt appreciate receiving an iPod Touch themselves and there’s no indication of how handing out iPods and laptops would help create or save jobs, or spur economic recovery. 

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There was one man who paved the way for ACORN, its agenda and its tactics, and he rose to prominence a good twenty years before Saul Alinsky. His name was Arthur Townley.

Please bear with me for a bit of history.  A.C., as he was more popularly known, was a member of the Socialist Party in North Dakota.  At the time, grain prices were manipulated, in his view, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  What put him over the edge was when he overextended himself in an attempt to reap a hefty profit on flax, only to have the price drop, along with a bad crop.  He lost a substantial amount of money.

As a socialist, he naturally blamed the out-of-state capitalists and sought to do something about it.  His solution: A state-controlled grain industry.  According to “Political Prairie Fire,” written by Robert L. Morlan in 1955, Townley had a multi-point list of demands, including “State ownership of terminal elevators, flour mills, packing houses, and cold-storage plants,” as well as “Rural credit banks operated at cost.”

When his Socialist Party wasn’t interested in his plan, Townley set out and created The Nonpartisan League in 1915, a mode for organizing farmers into a political constituency to be reckoned with.  See, Townley lacked one key ingredient: power.

His theory was that in order to enact his plan, he needed to create the sufficient pressure on elected officials in meet his demands or face the consequences.  His group also worked to elect candidates that agreed with its views.

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I first experienced ACORN in post-Katrina New Orleans. I was part of a relief organization, Common Ground Relief, which  had been delivering much needed aid to the 9^th Ward, an area that had been hit especially hard by the flood waters and by neglect. Rumors immediately began surfacing, questioning our motives and intentions. I was very confused by these rumors. Who was behind them? How could anyone question the vital work we were doing in the community?  We lived and worked in the 9^th Ward. We suspended our regular lives and, in many cases, left our families to travel to New Orleans to help those affected by Katrina and poverty. We slept on dirty plywood floors and shared everything we had with the residents.  Most of us were white. Was our skin color the issue? I knew from personal experience that the majority of the Black 9^th ward residents didn’t care what color our skin was. It took me awhile to get over the hurt I felt at such allegations and to find out where they were coming from.

In the following weeks, I was made aware of the fact that ACORN had reopened its New Orleans office (several months after the storm). Various groups from around the city informed me that Acorn was upset with us because we were in “their” community and had not sought approval from ACORN to operate there. I was told that ACORN said that we were “privileged white people who had come to a Black community as saviors and we refused to work with local Black leadership.”

The more I pondered the matter, the more I realized what was happening. As usual in marginalized and impoverished communities, a small group of radical self-proclaimed leaders was insisting that all local aid and relief came through them—even if they were AWOL for several months. Though the majority of residents either hadn’t heard of ACORN or simply disagreed with their politics- ACORN insisted that they were THE Black leaders. This was upsetting to me. Sure, the local pastor we worked most closely with was Black; but that didn’t matter to ACORN. It was as if Pastor Johnson didn’t count because he didn’t evoke the name of Elijah Mohammed or Malcolm X. It was as if Pastor Johnson didn’t count because he didn’t submit to ACORN’s mandate that ACORN was the sole leadership of Black New Orleanians.

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