MinMon Audio: K-12 finance chair calls Katherine Kersten a ‘thug,’ says she should resign
Friday, May 09, 2008 at 10:26 am
- 6 Comments
When Minnesota Rep. Mindy Greiling, a Roseville DFLer who chairs the House K-12 Finance Division, recently went to Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), the majority-Muslim elementary school in Inver Grove Heights made infamous by a March Star Tribune column, what she discovered was entirely different from what writer Katherine Kersten had reported. In fact, what she saw — halal food among a broad array of school lunch options, religious after-school activities among a range of other activities, voluntary prayer time and policies that allow children who choose to fast during Ramadan to spend mealtime away from the lunchroom — seemed to be an exemplary model of how religious belief must by law be accomodated in a public school setting.
She wrote a letter to the editor of the Star Tribune on Wednesday, calling for Kersten’s resignation, citing “reckless journalistic standards” and “gross misrepresentation of the facts.” Her letter was picked up on Thursday by Power Line’s Scott Johnson, a friend of Kersten’s, who says publication of the letter is an “act of thuggery” by Greiling and the paper. I caught up with Greiling on Thursday to ask her about the letter, get her response to Johnson’s remarks and hear about her experiences as TIZA. She said she spoke up not only because she feels Kersten’s article was incorrect, but because she was amazed by the quality of the school. “I saw such well-scrubbed, beaming students,” she said. “It was just such an impressive school…. a school to be emulated, not hated. She’s been a thug herself, as far as I’m concerned.”
Listen: Rep. Mindy Greiling on Katherine Kersten’s TIZA column (8:23)
Read Greiling’s letter after the jump.
Earlier: Kersten column on Muslim school followed by threats, police patrols
In response to questions prompted by Katherine Kersen’s recent columns on Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), I decided to visit the school myself.What I learned during a tour late last month is that none of Kersten’s concerns that the charter school is promoting religion in violation of a state law that prohibits public schools from doing so is valid.
What I did see was excellent teachers hard at work in the classroom focused on improving student achievement. I saw engaged students of different religious and cultural backgrounds learning reading, math, government and science. I spoke with parents, teachers and administrators who all stressed their high standards for TIZA students.
While an outsider, or someone like Kersten who is trying to validate a predetermined conclusion, might be tempted to brand Tarek ibn Ziyad as an “Islamic School” because it leases space from the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, the school, like other charter schools in Minnesota that lease space from churches, is a separate entity. It does comply with federal law that requires all schools to accommodate a student’s right to practice his or her religion. And unlike other charter schools that have faced financial and other administrative challenges, the school was recognized with a 2008 School Finance Award from the Minnesota Department of Education for its “sound fiscal health and financial management policies.”
Kersten’s reckless journalistic standards have diminished this paper’s credibility. Worse, they have threatened the safety of the children and staff at the school, which has been forced to take extra security measures in the wake of recent death threats. While I value a broad range of opinions from a variety of perspectives, I value the facts even more. Kersten’s gross distortion of the facts in this case should compel Star Tribune management to ask for her resignation.
6 Comments
Comment posted May 9, 2008 @ 8:20 pm
Congratulations To get Grieling to give up a full five minutes of Education Minnesota’s time is pretty impressive, Paul.
This is the height of the big grab, and as I understand it, EdMN is pretty ruthless about getting it’s money’s worth out of it’s indentured legislators.
You must have pulled all the right strings!
Comment posted May 10, 2008 @ 12:12 am
Greiling’s right, and why does the Strib support this bullying of a minority? Representative Greiling is right. It’s about time someone made the Star Tribune management answer for why they are paying to broadcast Katherine K. Kersten’s racist paranoia. If you agree, sign the petition to can Kersten:
http://www.thepetiti…
Kersten’s two-installment assault on this grade school was a new low for her. Her columns stood on almost no reporting — just the word of a short-timer substitute teacher who was in the school for a few hours and apparently misunderstood what she saw. Kersten failed to disclose, and the Star Tribune still has not acknowledged, that the lone source was a Republican party activist who read Kersten’s first screed against the school shortly before her visit.
Other than hounding the school’s principal, Kersten made no real effort at balance:
–She might have interviewed Wayne Jennings, former St. Paul Schools administrator and longtime member of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who has visited the school many times in his role as an official monitor, and who, after Kersten’s first column, wrote the Strib saying Kersten’s allegations were bogus.
–She might have interviewed the leading charter school expert Joe Nathan: Nathan visited the school after the second column and told legislators Kersten was “wrong.”
–She might have mentioned that the school has many non-Muslim teachers and supporters; that it hosts a Boy Scout troop and Girl Scout troop. She could have discovered that the students’ families include several current and former American soldiers, workers in the justice system, and other public servants.
But that’s not Kersten’s style. She prefers to keep Muslims faceless and voiceless in her columns (although she will occasionally give glimpses of their feet in the midst of some bathing ritual that she finds alien). All the better for conjuring up the amorphous Muslim threat.
Trading in stereotypes with zero reporting in this manner is standard practice on the extremist blogs that devour Kersten’s every “expos
Comment posted May 12, 2008 @ 2:53 pm
Not THAT O’Connor FYI the Anne O’Connor who has signed this petition is NOT the same Anne O’Connor who used to work for the Star Tribune as a journalist. The latter asked me to clarify that she is not the former.
Comment posted May 9, 2008 @ 3:20 pm
Congratulations To get Grieling to give up a full five minutes of Education Minnesota's time is pretty impressive, Paul.
This is the height of the big grab, and as I understand it, EdMN is pretty ruthless about getting it's money's worth out of it's indentured legislators.
You must have pulled all the right strings!
Comment posted May 9, 2008 @ 7:12 pm
Greiling's right, and why does the Strib support this bullying of a minority? Representative Greiling is right. It's about time someone made the Star Tribune management answer for why they are paying to broadcast Katherine K. Kersten's racist paranoia. If you agree, sign the petition to can Kersten:
Kersten's two-installment assault on this grade school was a new low for her. Her columns stood on almost no reporting — just the word of a short-timer substitute teacher who was in the school for a few hours and apparently misunderstood what she saw. Kersten failed to disclose, and the Star Tribune still has not acknowledged, that the lone source was a Republican party activist who read Kersten's first screed against the school shortly before her visit.
Other than hounding the school's principal, Kersten made no real effort at balance:
–She might have interviewed Wayne Jennings, former St. Paul Schools administrator and longtime member of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who has visited the school many times in his role as an official monitor, and who, after Kersten's first column, wrote the Strib saying Kersten's allegations were bogus.
–She might have interviewed the leading charter school expert Joe Nathan: Nathan visited the school after the second column and told legislators Kersten was “wrong.”
–She might have mentioned that the school has many non-Muslim teachers and supporters; that it hosts a Boy Scout troop and Girl Scout troop. She could have discovered that the students' families include several current and former American soldiers, workers in the justice system, and other public servants.
But that's not Kersten's style. She prefers to keep Muslims faceless and voiceless in her columns (although she will occasionally give glimpses of their feet in the midst of some bathing ritual that she finds alien). All the better for conjuring up the amorphous Muslim threat.
Trading in stereotypes with zero reporting in this manner is standard practice on the extremist blogs that devour Kersten's every “expos
Comment posted May 12, 2008 @ 9:53 am
Not THAT O'Connor FYI the Anne O'Connor who has signed this petition is NOT the same Anne O'Connor who used to work for the Star Tribune as a journalist. The latter asked me to clarify that she is not the former.
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