Twin City Business invites all candidates and elected officials to voice in their words why the community should support and vote for them. For more information email us at info@ibnn.org – or call 612-986-0010.

We must stop failing the children of our city!

Hello I am Kari Reed and I teach my five beautiful children at home. I am a college graduate (degree in Spanish from Goshen College) and have lived in Minneapolis for eleven years. I am running for the school board because I care deeply about children and for the kids in my neighborhood who are in high school yet can’t read as well as my seven and nine year old! I began to realize that the public school system is failing the children of Minneapolis.

Unlike many who run for public office, just because I desire a place on the school board doesn’t mean I think I have all the answers. I do, however, believe that one of the biggest problems with the school district is its leadership. The school system is stuck in a horrible rut and it has grown too large and bureaucratic. There has not been any meaningful reform and results are worse every year. The lack of meaningful change in our school system has produced low test scores, a 47% graduation rate and most embarrassingly the Minneapolis school district is rated 45 out of 50 major city school districts according to a recent education study. The current school board leadership has not come up with an aggressive plan for improvement, they are just (again) begging for more money which they claim will solve their problems). It would be sad to see more money wasted on a failed system with the same leadership. If money were the answer Minneapolis would already have the top schools in the state. I am the only candidate running that is offering a different philosophy and some new ideas.

I thought about how we could fix this mess and I thought it would be wise to look at other big cities that have had similar problems, but have tackled the problem head-on. One city that has had difficult problems, has come up with some great ideas, and is now getting some very positive results is Chicago and their Renaissance 2010 project. They have a goal of starting 100 new charter schools in the worst performing areas of the city. They have partnered with business and the teacher’s unions to get this done. I have spoken with people familiar with what is going on in Chicago and the people are thrilled with the progress and results so far. The beauty of charter schools is they get the money into the classrooms more efficiently. They operate independently and therefore compete for the students. They tend to smaller, neighborhood schools with more parent involvement. They also offer a variety of curricula and a variety of start times and areas of focus, and most importantly they offer real choices for parents. I believe this concept can work in Minneapolis as well. Minnesota already has laws in place to make this even easier to achieve then it was in Chicago. The school district can of course have a role in charter schools and work to assure that a variety of charter schools with quality leadership are opened in not only the worst performing neighborhoods but all over Minneapolis. Charter schools also represent an ideal that we value in this country – individual freedom, choice and people solving problems locally. We should embrace this ideal of freedom in education, just as we do in other areas of our lives.

All of the other five candidates for school board support and wish to continue the current failed ideas and programs – in fact they propose more quick fixes, more bureaucracy, more band aids; while more and more children are not getting the education they deserve.

I am the only candidate with different ideas. And I promise I will be the voice for these ideas on the school board.

Thank you for your consideration.

Please vote for Kari Reed on November 4th

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