Madison school board member Ananda Mirilli’s platform to help Jalen & Jasmine learn to read
⇒ Blaska Theorem #62: If a community is home to any five progressives, four of them will find their way onto the school board.
Wisconsin has the widest achievement gap between black and white students of any state, according to the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, WI Public Radio reported.
So the question was put to Madison school board member Ananda Mirilli: What is she doing to change that? A fair question, especially given her day job at Gov. Tony Evers’ old shop, the WI Department of Public Instruction. Ah-NAHN-duh’s response, via social media, is to play the race card as if it were your lottery ticket to Heaven. The following is Ms. Mirilli’s response (identity politics buzz words highlighted):
Multi-racial AND cisgendered
What do we want to change? I am fighting for our entire state, I am fighting for educational justice, I am fighting to dismantle the system that put us all here!
Madison Board of Education: Ananda Mirilli, Cris Carusi, Gloria Reyes, Kate Toews, Ali Muldrow, Savion Castro, Nikki Vander Meulen
#1 Individual Level – As a immigrant, multiracial, light skin cisgender woman, I intentionally seek opportunities to understand systems of oppression in the US and the historical context that upheld and sustained current racial disparities. I engage authentically in a multiracial movement to address individual and systemic oppression towards people like me, dark skin folks and folks with oppressed identities.
#2 Relationships Level: I have a circle of white colleagues that I invest time, energy and love to build their capacity as leaders to both identify and address individual and systemic racism. I have circles of people of color and indigenous people that I often exchange learning, experiences, love, compassion and support to sustain us in the work to address individual, institutional and systemic racism.
#3 Community & Organizations: Continue to understand systemic power and privilege that impacts me, my family and my circles positively and negatively. Channel the spaces where I access those system and leverage JUSTICE.
#4 Structural: My work at the department is to address racial disproportionately in special education, I support Wisconsin educators and pre-service teachers to build their internal and building capacity to address systems of oppression and elevate justice.
My work at the school board is to make visible structural racism, address policies and procedures that disproportionality impact groups historically oppressed (students of color and indigenous students, students with IEPs, students experiencing poverty, LGBTQ+ students).
Lastly, everyday I wake up with a purpose to engage people in and out of my circles in efforts to foster belonging for all of us!
Chock full o’ Jargon
That’s more P.C. Woke, identity-politics boilerplate per square inch than a Grievance Studies syllabus! Assuming literacy, of course. Ms. Mirilli then asked Blaska to respond:
“How about you, David Blaska, what are you doing or have done so Wisconsin is not the #50?”
Blaska answers:
• Scrap the dysfunctional behavior education plan that has resulted in more chaos in the classroom and less accountability for the student.
• Put teachers back in control of their classrooms and principals in the schools — not Doyle administration building. I ran to keep school resource officers in place and to add them to the middle schools.
• Instill discipline — to teach kids they cannot F-bomb their way through life, that they have to show up on time and ready to learn and work. To follow directions. To contribute, not take.
• Increase the number of district charter schools so that reformers like Kaleem Caire can deploy innovative solutions instead of the one-size-fits all approach of MMSD.
• Break the disempowering victim narrative Mirilli and Muldrow espouse that tell children of color that it’s someone else’s fault if they fail, to blame someone else if they offend, that preaches they are victims of an unjust, racist society and therefore, cannot succeed until Mirilli and Muldrow work their magic.
Notice, Dear Ananda, not a single buzz word in sight!
The Madison Metropolitan School District is a progressive dream, spending an average of $15,241 on each of its more than 27,000 students. That’s a higher per pupil price tag than any comparably sized district in Wisconsin. Despite this avalanche of cash, Madison schools are in crisis, plagued by one of the worst racial achievement gaps in the state and perhaps the country.
Of the Wisconsin school districts with an achievement gap, Madison’s is one of the worst. According to 2018-19 Forward Exam scores, only 34.9% of Madison students are proficient in English, well below the statewide average of 40.9%. But in Madison only 10% of African-American students are proficient in English, compared with 57.2% of white students. Only 79% of African-American students graduate from Madison public high schools within five years, compared with 94% of white students.
The district’s leaders have moved the school system to the left. A recently enacted policy prohibits teachers from telling parents if their child wants to change genders…
For Extra Credit: After … teaching to the test, this tiny Wisconsin school district now ranks among the state’s best.
Only 79% of African-American students graduate from Madison public high schools within five years,
FIVE YEARS????
Without the facts at hand, I’ll bet at least 25 cents that 90% of AA students in Milwaukee graduated in FOUR years during the 1950’s/1960”s–and maybe even the ’70’s.
Ms. Mirilli’s self-righteous screed does indeed contain a cornucopia of “PC woke identity-politics boilerplate,” but then again that’s the lingua franca of Madison liberals. And trumpeting one’s race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc. is mandatory since it signals–assuming that those markers identify one as a minority–an instant immunization from criticism, especially from criticism by straight white males (sorry, Dave). The excerpt from the WSJ hits the nail on the head, but of course such arguments would have no effect whatsoever on MSD policy. Never was the old definition of insanity–doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results–more aptly applied than to the policies that have not only widened the racial achievement gap but perverted educational principles and goals for all students. When a school system sees as its sacred task to produce a generation of SJWs rather than to empower individuals with the mental equipment to think critically and argue logically, it is bound to produce a generation of brainwashed ideologues–for whom Ms. Mirilli serves as the perfect role model.
Excellent comment GLK. I presume you summoned the discipline to attend class and pay attention. Perhaps there is utility in that.
As for Mirilli’s enumerated agenda:
What a bunch of frontier gibberish!
She is obviously confused about how best to prepare kids to succeed and thrive in a rapidly evolving world. Clearly she perceives her role as a SJW incubator while seriously hindering the youngsters she wants to help. She doesn’t see it, she is oblivious.
Mirilli’s agenda is political not educational.
I beg you to stay away from our children.
The regressive radical Left ruins everything they touch and damn proud of it.
“She is obviously confused about how best to prepare kids to succeed and thrive in a rapidly evolving world.”
Madison School Board, am I right?
Seriously, these aren’t results oriented people; if they were, you’d think that after ALL this Lefty-centric EPIC FAIL and the kinda-difficult-to-hide Achievement Gap, they’d chart a different course, am I right?
Anywho, she’s a useful idiot…sent by grocery clerks…to collect a bill.
Put another way; her intent is to herd today’s youth toward The Road To Serfdom.
Thanks. Yes, I did in fact summon the discipline to attend class and pay attention, in part because I knew that my parents and teachers would take the necessary measures to help me do so and to punish–yes, punish–me if I didn’t. And the last thing I expected was for the adults in charge to make excuses for my bad behavior.
How can Oostburg possibly have one of the best school systems in the state; they’re rural, Conservative, and traditional.
Steve Salerno’s superb Quillette.com piece (Mediocrity For All) is a MUST read (with GREAT links) for anyone that wants to know where these morons are getting their…um…cutting edge slobberings.
The Next Big Thing headed this way is SEL, or Social Emotional Learning.
Scary enough is it being the wicked Red Headed Stepchild of the Self-Esteem Centered approach to education, it also happens to be all the rage in NYC, with DeBlasio planning to “roll it out” with all deliberate speed.
Since he’s no longer burdened with trying to become the Leader of the Free World, he can focus his energy on making the Big Apple’s abysmal school system even worse, am I right?
”The Brookings Institution 2006 Brown Center Report on American Education found that NATIONS IN WHICH FAMILIES AND SCHOOLS EMPHASIZE SELF-ESTEEM CANNOT COMPETE WITH CULTURES, mostly throughout Asia, where NO ONE WORRIES MUCH ABOUT cute emojis or those ‘non-cognitive’ factors.” (bolds/caps mine)
They don’t say?
13 years have passed; you think it’s gotten better, stayed the same, or gotten worse?
Blaska has good ideas that are clearly off Mirilli’s plantation. I’m sure he promoted these ideas when he was running against Mulrow for a set on the school board, but I can’t understand why he didn’t promote these ideas when he was interviewed by Muldrow during the past week on the WORT radio station. Might have been a missed opportunity, but not so if just about everyone who listens to WORT agrees with Muldrow in the first place. If that, then why did Blaska bother to be interviewed there?
If something more is required, veteran teachers should be interviewed. Most of what I have heard on WIBA about education in the past three years is from folks who have never spent a even a week as a teacher.
Never having taught even one semester at the high school level, the conservative voices on WIBA have prescriptive reforms that veterans could never understand. Ha. Top-Down analysis and prescriptive reforms of the outsiders have become the accepted path to reform.
Sorry. Unless one has spent several years in “the system,” observations from outsiders necessarily ignore so many realities that really affect educational outcomes.
My reply is …..”OK, Whatever.”
No point in arguing with the fans in the cheap seats. No debate; they know more than the professional players.
Gud luk. Ain’t no progress on the horizon…..fer many reasons, not that it really matters. Walk away from the dysfunctional swap. The future is Asian.
Dave. Take out all the duly noted buzz words and make a MMSD Mad Libs Game. Second edition for the woke word salads coming out of the UW.
Hilarity would ensue. Then watch the Progs have it explained to them (humor, that is) and take the show on the road around Wisconsin.
Boffo box office. I especially like Act Two when the above picture of the MMSD includes gaping jaws, heavy mouth breathing and utter bewilderment.
[…] Werkes that the futility of Madison WI public schools are written on whiteboards across America. Blaska’s Theorem #62 says that no matter the town, village or city, wherever there are 5 progressives, 4 of them will find […]
That’s more P.C. Woke, identity-politics boilerplate per square inch than a Grievance Studies syllabus! Assuming literacy, of course. Ms. Mirilli then asked Blaska to respond:
Blaska Policy Werkes 
14 responses to “Dismantling the system for ‘folks with oppressed identities’”
Only 79% of African-American students graduate from Madison public high schools within five years,
FIVE YEARS????
Without the facts at hand, I’ll bet at least 25 cents that 90% of AA students in Milwaukee graduated in FOUR years during the 1950’s/1960”s–and maybe even the ’70’s.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ms. Mirilli’s self-righteous screed does indeed contain a cornucopia of “PC woke identity-politics boilerplate,” but then again that’s the lingua franca of Madison liberals. And trumpeting one’s race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc. is mandatory since it signals–assuming that those markers identify one as a minority–an instant immunization from criticism, especially from criticism by straight white males (sorry, Dave). The excerpt from the WSJ hits the nail on the head, but of course such arguments would have no effect whatsoever on MSD policy. Never was the old definition of insanity–doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results–more aptly applied than to the policies that have not only widened the racial achievement gap but perverted educational principles and goals for all students. When a school system sees as its sacred task to produce a generation of SJWs rather than to empower individuals with the mental equipment to think critically and argue logically, it is bound to produce a generation of brainwashed ideologues–for whom Ms. Mirilli serves as the perfect role model.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent comment GLK. I presume you summoned the discipline to attend class and pay attention. Perhaps there is utility in that.
As for Mirilli’s enumerated agenda:
What a bunch of frontier gibberish!
She is obviously confused about how best to prepare kids to succeed and thrive in a rapidly evolving world. Clearly she perceives her role as a SJW incubator while seriously hindering the youngsters she wants to help. She doesn’t see it, she is oblivious.
Mirilli’s agenda is political not educational.
I beg you to stay away from our children.
The regressive radical Left ruins everything they touch and damn proud of it.
Let us pray
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Batman;
“She is obviously confused about how best to prepare kids to succeed and thrive in a rapidly evolving world.”
Madison School Board, am I right?
Seriously, these aren’t results oriented people; if they were, you’d think that after ALL this Lefty-centric EPIC FAIL and the kinda-difficult-to-hide Achievement Gap, they’d chart a different course, am I right?
Anywho, she’s a useful idiot…sent by grocery clerks…to collect a bill.
Put another way; her intent is to herd today’s youth toward The Road To Serfdom.
“Let us pray”
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
The Gotch
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks. Yes, I did in fact summon the discipline to attend class and pay attention, in part because I knew that my parents and teachers would take the necessary measures to help me do so and to punish–yes, punish–me if I didn’t. And the last thing I expected was for the adults in charge to make excuses for my bad behavior.
LikeLike
How can Oostburg possibly have one of the best school systems in the state; they’re rural, Conservative, and traditional.
Steve Salerno’s superb Quillette.com piece (Mediocrity For All) is a MUST read (with GREAT links) for anyone that wants to know where these morons are getting their…um…cutting edge slobberings.
The Next Big Thing headed this way is SEL, or Social Emotional Learning.
Scary enough is it being the wicked Red Headed Stepchild of the Self-Esteem Centered approach to education, it also happens to be all the rage in NYC, with DeBlasio planning to “roll it out” with all deliberate speed.
Since he’s no longer burdened with trying to become the Leader of the Free World, he can focus his energy on making the Big Apple’s abysmal school system even worse, am I right?
”The Brookings Institution 2006 Brown Center Report on American Education found that NATIONS IN WHICH FAMILIES AND SCHOOLS EMPHASIZE SELF-ESTEEM CANNOT COMPETE WITH CULTURES, mostly throughout Asia, where NO ONE WORRIES MUCH ABOUT cute emojis or those ‘non-cognitive’ factors.” (bolds/caps mine)
They don’t say?
13 years have passed; you think it’s gotten better, stayed the same, or gotten worse?
The Gotch
LikeLiked by 1 person
….and Brookings is a notoriously Left-ish bunch!
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@dad29;
”Brookings is a notoriously Left-ish bunch!”
Do tell!
Rules for Radicals #4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
Lefty’s playing the long game.
“He Alone, Who Owns The Youth, Gains The Future.” A. Hitler
The Gotch
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Blaska has good ideas that are clearly off Mirilli’s plantation. I’m sure he promoted these ideas when he was running against Mulrow for a set on the school board, but I can’t understand why he didn’t promote these ideas when he was interviewed by Muldrow during the past week on the WORT radio station. Might have been a missed opportunity, but not so if just about everyone who listens to WORT agrees with Muldrow in the first place. If that, then why did Blaska bother to be interviewed there?
LikeLike
Are well-meaning intentions enough?
If something more is required, veteran teachers should be interviewed. Most of what I have heard on WIBA about education in the past three years is from folks who have never spent a even a week as a teacher.
Never having taught even one semester at the high school level, the conservative voices on WIBA have prescriptive reforms that veterans could never understand. Ha. Top-Down analysis and prescriptive reforms of the outsiders have become the accepted path to reform.
Sorry. Unless one has spent several years in “the system,” observations from outsiders necessarily ignore so many realities that really affect educational outcomes.
My reply is …..”OK, Whatever.”
No point in arguing with the fans in the cheap seats. No debate; they know more than the professional players.
Gud luk. Ain’t no progress on the horizon…..fer many reasons, not that it really matters. Walk away from the dysfunctional swap. The future is Asian.
LikeLike
”Are well-meaning intentions enough?”
If you ignore the Road To Hell parable and dwell in the Emotional Truth bubble, they are.
Heck, they’re more than enough; they’re the paramount Lefty catch-all-end-all!
However; when reality bats last, which she always does:
One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results. Milton Friedman
The Gotch
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[moi error]
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Dave. Take out all the duly noted buzz words and make a MMSD Mad Libs Game. Second edition for the woke word salads coming out of the UW.
Hilarity would ensue. Then watch the Progs have it explained to them (humor, that is) and take the show on the road around Wisconsin.
Boffo box office. I especially like Act Two when the above picture of the MMSD includes gaping jaws, heavy mouth breathing and utter bewilderment.
LikeLike
[…] Werkes that the futility of Madison WI public schools are written on whiteboards across America. Blaska’s Theorem #62 says that no matter the town, village or city, wherever there are 5 progressives, 4 of them will find […]
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