Our goal is to hold the district and the board to their own equity and diversity policy which states, "MPS is committed to identifying and correcting practices and policies that perpetuate the achievement gap and institutional racism in all forms.”
We are a group of organizations from across Minneapolis that represent and share the interests of students of color. Our goal is to create a voice for students and communities often overlooked by the Minneapolis Public Schools district. We meet on a monthly basis to review district policies, plans, and procedures in an attempt to hold the district accountable to its own stated equity policies (listed above).
The member organizations of the Advancing Equity Coalition are Coalition for Asian American Leaders, Educators for Excellence, HACER, Integrated Schools Minneapolis, Isuroon, J. D. Graves Foundation, MIGIZI, Minnesota Literacy Council, Mortenson Family Foundation, Northside Achievement Zone, Parents Radically Organized, Students for Education Reform, and Voices for Racial Justice.
What We’ve Done:
We held our first meeting in March 2019, and continue to hold monthly meetings. We meet with district staff, leadership, principals, community leaders and coalition members. We also meet with individuals and member groups to digest and share the complex information the district distributes. We attend open board meetings, listening sessions, and report on these publicly through Twitter and Facebook, as well as in summaries to our members. Our goal is to distill information so community members can easily stay informed.
We believe:
Rapidly declining enrollment at MPS among families of color is the result of systemic racism in our schools. The decline contributes to budget shortfalls that threaten to remove financial stability of our district. The boundaries and offerings in our city are inequitable directly correlating along lines of class and race, with white students and white neighborhoods receiving disproportionate resources, quality teachers and opportunities. If we continue on our current path, our district could become financially insolvent in less than five years. To prevent this, and maintain the health of Minneapolis Public Schools, the district needs drastic but strategic change, . All students in our city deserve a well-rounded education, and resources should be equitably shared across our city. In order to better serve students of color, we believe MPS should:
-Invest in school communities in N/NE, which have been systematically disinvested in over the last 20 years;
-Create policies and practices that ensure students of color receive high-quality instruction;
-Establish policies that will ensure fiscal sustainability for Minneapolis Public Schools.
