The most important issue for Latino voters nationally in almost every political poll we’ve read in the past year is education. Gente de Minnesota decided to interview this week all six candidates that are competing for three seats in the Minneapolis School Board. We decided it was important to endorse candidates so that issues that affect Latinos start getting a higher priority in elected officials agendas. We had the great pleasure of individually interviewing five of these candidates. Unfortunately we weren’t able to interview Sharon Henry-Blythe, the current chair of the school board, after several attempts to contact her.

Why is this election important to Latinos? Most immigrants with children that moved to Minneapolis have put up with a lot of abuse, hardship and sacrifice to provide a better future for their kids. It breaks our heart to see that over 60% of Latino students in the Minneapolis School district don’t graduate from high school in four years and don’t pass standardized tests in reading and math. It’s time to have a school district that at least will adequately teach most of our kids.

The last year was very tough for the Minneapolis School board. Since 1999 student enrollment in Minneapolis has gone down from 48,000 to 38,000, or down 20%. This has reduced the districts budget by $107 million, and personnel by 1,900. Just in the last year the district had to fire 500 teachers after loosing 3,000 students.

The School board also ran into serious image problems when they hired David Jennings as superintendent, without consulting the community or interviewing any other candidates. After having to fire 500 teachers this year, the board had to make the unpopular decision, for legal and union contract reasons, to realign teachers with seniority to classes they hadn't taught in years and replace newer teachers who were involved in popular and effective teaching programs. The board will also face the unfortunate reality of having to close several schools this year.

The Minneapolis school district currently has an image of chaos and disorganization, in which parents and teachers are constantly frustrated by the fact that most of their students are failing in school. It might be that this image isn’t entirely fair. There’s been some progress in the last few years in test scores. But the reality is that after its performance in the last year, the board needs change and new people.

We were surprised that when we informed most of the candidates that we had not been able to get a hold of Sharon Henry-Blythe, most of them had only good things to say about her, and informed us of how busy she had been. We were surprised of such positive comments from political opponents. We also admire that as chair of the school board Sharon has shown independence and willingness to reform.

But the board needs new blood. The following factors were used to determine our endorsement: More ethnic diversity in the board, candidate’s eagerness to reform education, an understanding of the needs of Latino students and parents, managerial skills, leadership, an understanding of the districts problems and solutions for those problems, and a new direction for the school district.

Peggy impressed us with her energy, and her ability and interest in understanding the different communities she will serve. We think Peggy will serve as a great liaison between the school board, the students (she’s only 25), the parents, the teachers, the teacher’s union, district employees, and the diverse communities in Minneapolis. These skills will be very important in getting all these competing constituencies to work together to improve education. She has a great passion to organize minority communities and listen to them. She feels she needs to bring the board back to reality. Peggy will bring new energy, diversity and a passion to help students to the board of education. She would be the only Native serving in the board.

Sandra Miller wants to return to the school board after having retired from it three years ago. She wants to return because she feels that a lot of positive changes that had made before in the board have been lost under the current leadership. We’re impressed she wants to return to the board, knowing how tough it is to serve in it. Sandra is African American, which will add more diversity to the board. Electing Sandra would result in the necessary change in leadership, while at the same time she would bring valuable school board experience. She demonstrates great passion for adequately educating children, and making the necessary changes to reform the district.

David Dayhoff also has a great interest in reform. He brings necessary experience to the board as a marketing manager at Cargill. These professional skills will come in real handy in a board that manages $600 million, 6,000 employees, and is in much need for positive marketing. David speaks Spanish rather fluently (some of his interview was in Spanish) and he has a great understanding of Latino culture, having lived in Latin America. He impressed us several weeks ago when one of our reporters found him campaigning in Spanish at the Mercado Central. We think David will have the most independence out of all the candidates to push the necessary reforms in the district. David is a licensed Spanish teacher.

Vote on November 2nd in this important election and let’s show elected officials that it’s worth listening to the Latino community.