Greta Callahan is president of Minneapolis teachers’ union. She is also a kindergarten teacher (on leave) while she works full time as the Minneapolis union leader.
Recently, she announced her candidacy for the open District 6 (southwest Minneapolis) on the Minneapolis School Board. This seat will be one of four elected this Nov. 5.
Her candidacy is notable for several reasons, the least of which is this: Callahan led the fight to increase Minneapolis teacher salaries two years ago. Also in that contract were some radical provisions, including a first for Minnesota: Minneapolis school district abandoned their “last in, first out “(LIFO) teacher layoff schedule. Instead, Minneapolis Public Schools adopted a policy that exempts certain racial groups from any future layoffs that may occur. You can read about this race-based policy HERE.
In one of her more prescient speeches during the three-week strike two years ago, Callahan told her fellow teachers that the strike was important: “Our fight is against the patriarchy, our first is against capitalism, our fight is for the soul of the city.”
That quote tells you quite a bit about her focus as a teacher: it’s not about teaching kids it’s about rectifying what she believes are historic “wrongs” in the city of Minneapolis
Perhaps if her campaign is successful, she will understand that the real fight in Minneapolis schools has nothing to do with the “patriarchy or capitalism” but it is about bankruptcy: the moral bankruptcy of promoting and graduating students who can’t read, write or do math at grade level and the actual bankruptcy of the local school district caused by decades of union leadership demanding more money, less accountability, and produced a bankrupt school district.