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Doug Mann for Minneapolis City Council, Ward 8
A 4-page print version to be ready for distribution by June 1
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On September 13, vote
Doug Mann for
City Council, Ward 8
Enforce fair employment & housing laws!
(See page 2)
Close the education access gap!
Education is a right, not a privilege! (see page 3)
No local sales tax for a new Twins Stadium
without a referendum!
The City Council should try to kill the Twins stadium deal if a sales tax is imposed on Hennepin County residents without a decisive vote.
Increase affordable* housing stock!
(*Affordable to households with low to moderate incomes)
The city has been investing way too much money in big downtown projects (like the Twins Stadium) and high-priced housing.
Mayor R.T. Rybak has taken credit for expanding the stock of "affordable" Housing." However, "affordable housing" is defined as housing that is affordable to a 4-person household with income of up to $70,000. "Affordable housing" isn't necessarily affordable to households with low-to-moderate incomes.
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[page 2]
Enforce fair employment & housing laws!
Discrimination on the basis of race & gender in the job market has created a large pool of last-hired, first fired workers, which depresses wage-rates for a large majority of Minneapolis residents.
"Equal Opportunity Employers" are required to develop plans to attract job seekers from protected classes, such as minorities and women, but may hire a very small proportion of job applicants who are from protected classes.
However, no government agency at the federal, state or county level is doing much to enforce the law. There are no government-sponsored programs to detect and prosecute illegal discrimination in the Job and housing markets. "Equal Opportunity Employers" may therefore discriminate against members of protected classes, up to a point, so long as they do it covertly.
The latest housing market survey done by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, in 2000, found discrimination against African Americans to be very widespread in the Twin Cities housing market.
I advocate the creation of survey programs to detect illegal discrimination in employment and housing markets, and to prosecute discriminators. These programs should initially focus on detection of discrimination against African Americans, who face discrimination that is deeply rooted in American culture.
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[page 3]
Close the education access gap!
Education is a right, not a privilege!
The "education achievement gap" between "races"& ethnic groups in the public schools is largely a reflection of unequal access to high quality instruction. The following steps must be taken to make high quality instruction accessible to all on an equal basis:
The school board must end the practice of laying off teachers it intends to rehire or replace, which greatly increases district-wide teacher turnover rates. In 2004 the district laid off 608 teachers, more than one-third of the district's full-time teachers. Yet the district administration planned to eliminate about 200 full-time teaching positions.
Desegregate teachers with less than 5 years of experience. The district's 23 "racially identifiable" schools generally have a very high concentration of inexperienced teachers and extremely high teacher turnover rates. The Minneapolis School District and the Minnesota Dept. of Education are not in compliance with state's school Desegregation Rule, which requires that racially identifiable schools, where the proportion of minority students is more than 20% above average for grade levels served, have educational inputs comparable to schools that are not racially identifiable.
Phase out "low ability" curriculum tracks for the general student population. Unbeknownst to many people, the Minneapolis Public Schools has a tracking system, in which the general student population is divided into classes for `fast', `medium', and `slow' learners. This is commonly done for reading instruction in Kindergarten or grade one. A large majority of students do not get College-bound reading instruction and do not thrive academically. The District is not in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires evaluation of ability grouping practices.
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[page 4]
Doug Mann
Biography, Education & Experience
Age: 48
Married, parent of 14 year old (entering South High next year).
Languages spoken: English, French, Spanish
*3 years college: U of MN and Mpls Community & Technical College
*Graduated with honors from MCTC Practical Nursing Program (3.51 GPA)
*Licensed Practical Nurse since 1991; Charge Nurse positions from 1992 to 2003; currently employed by a home health care agency (bedside care).
*Occasional news reporter, articles published in MN Spokesman-Recorder, Pulse of the Twin Cities.
*School Board candidate, received over 20,000 votes in the 2002 general election
* Mpls Parents' Union Board of Directors (1998-2000)
* Mpls NAACP K-12 Education Advocacy Committee (1998-1999)
*Plaintiff, NAACP/Xiong et. al. v. MN - educational adequacy lawsuit (1998-1999)
*Northside Neighbors for Justice activist in 1999
*Author of "The Fight Against Urban Cleansing and Gentrification in Minneapolis"
*On the Job paralegal training (1993-1994), assisting an attorney with legal research, investigations.
*Served as bargaining committee delegate, griever, and shop steward, 1974-1978 United Food & Commercial Workers local 789
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