Mysiki Valentine
From Ballotpedia
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Mysiki Valentine ran for election for an at-large seat of the District of Columbia State Board of Education. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Valentine completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Valentine was born on March 16, 1990, in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Allen University with a bachelor's degree in 2012. His professional experience includes working as Advocacy Manager for the Fair Budget Coalition. He also has worked as a public school teacher and Constituent Services Coordinator on the DC Council. Valentine has been affiliated with the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America and Many Languages One Voice.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: District of Columbia State Board of Education election, 2020
General election
General election for District of Columbia State Board of Education At-large
The following candidates ran in the general election for District of Columbia State Board of Education At-large on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jacque Patterson (Nonpartisan) | 32.1 | 83,782 |
 | Mysiki Valentine (Nonpartisan)  | 19.4 | 50,610 | |
| Dorothy Douglas (Nonpartisan) | 18.3 | 47,865 | ||
| Ravi Perry (Nonpartisan) | 11.3 | 29,529 | ||
| Christopher W. Martin (Nonpartisan) | 10.6 | 27,619 | ||
| Troy Murphy (Nonpartisan) | 6.8 | 17,789 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.5 | 4,023 | ||
| Total votes: 261,217 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
To view Valentine's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Mysiki Valentine completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Valentine's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I'm a native Washingtonian, a graduate of DC public schools - DCPS and public charter schools. It was my time as a student that inspired me to start a career as an educator. After graduating from Friendship Collegiate Academy, I attended Allen University, a historically Black university in Columbia, South Carolina. I spent several years teaching in public schools in Columbia, South Carolina; Elizabeth, New Jersey; and in Washington, D.C. When I left the classroom 3 years ago, I promised my students that I would commit to doing work to tear down the systemic barriers I saw keeping them from achieving their full potential. Since that time I've served as an after-school program manager, Constituent Services Coordinator on the DC Council, and advocacy manager working with progressive nonprofits for the Fair Budget Coalition. I currently serve on the board of Many Languages One Voice (MLOV) an immigrant-led and immigrant-based advocacy organization. As a Black gay man, I've also spent a great deal of my time advocating for Black gay youth on issues like housing and health care. In my free time, I enjoy biking and running along the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail.
- Opening DC's public education system to residents of all ages is of the highest priorities to me. As a graduate of DC public schools, I know that we can be doing more to ensure that from birth to adulthood our residents are provided with the opportunity to be lifelong learners. As a member of the State Board of Education, I will advocate to ensure the Birth-to-Three for All Act is fully funded, and that early childhood education for our most vulnerable residents is of the highest quality. I believe our high school students deserve pathways beyond college. I also want to work to ensure our adult education and workforce development are actually preparing people for the workforce.
- As a member of the SBOE, I want to solve DC's teacher retention crisis by ensuring we're actually giving teachers the resources they need to actually grow in their fields. I believe we can do this by replacing the IMPACT evaluation, providing teachers with longer contracts, and ensuring they have good mentorship and professional development opportunities.
- I believe we must bring democracy back to our public school system. I will be a staunch supporter of fixing the Public Education Reform Act of 2007 and ending mayoral control. We need to listen to parents and students and bring greater light on what's happening in the places where decisions are being made, as well as give them a seat at the table when those decisions are coming together.
Much of my adult life has been dedicated to closing the gaps that exist between Black and brown youth and their peers. Ending the school-to-prison pipeline, tackling childhood homelessness and hunger, ensuring that adults are foreclosing on a child's future by closing their school, or ending LGBTQ+ youth homelessness. These are just few of the things I've worked on, but at the core of each is my passion for eradicating systemic oppression from our society. Closing the opportunity gap in the District of Columbia will take bold ideas and bold action, and the way to do that I've done that is by focusing in on our families and children.
The ability to take and accept feedback - good or bad - from constituents.
A willingness to strengthen governmental operations and resources in the best needs of the most impacted. A drive to eliminate any oppressive system that fosters injustice, inequity, or other imbalances in society. A belief that all people are made equal and thus all deserve equal rights, protections, housing, education and health care.
A willingness to strengthen governmental operations and resources in the best needs of the most impacted. A drive to eliminate any oppressive system that fosters injustice, inequity, or other imbalances in society. A belief that all people are made equal and thus all deserve equal rights, protections, housing, education and health care.
The statutory responsibility of the DC State Board of Education is to advise and approve policies put forward by the Office of the State Superintendent for Education, but I believe the primary responsibility of a SBOE representative is more than just advising and approving policy. We serve as advocates for the dozens of traditional DCPS and public charter schools across the District. Members of the State Board have an obligation to speak up for students, parents, and teachers during budget season and they are expected to keep an open ear and door to the concerns of all stakeholders. That's the principal job of a State Board of Education representative - to be a bullhorn for families and teachers.
My constituents would be every resident, teacher, parent, and student in the District of Columbia.
By the end of my first term, I hope to have visited - either in person or virtually - every public school across the District of Columbia. I will make myself available to every ward-level education group, school PTA/PTO, and civic association as well. As the only At-Large candidate endorsed by the Metro DC AFL-CIO Labor Council, Washington Teachers' Union (WTU) and the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU) I intend to work with faculty and staff closely including members of the Council of School Officers, DC Nurses Association, and members of SEIU Local 1199.
I want community stakeholders to know that I intend to represent all DC families and students. As a graduate of a DC public charter school, I intend to make sure our charter students, parents, and teachers know they have a friend and ally in me. As a Black gay man who grew up in DC, I want to ensure our LGBTQ+ youth of color are represented and engaged. I experienced homelessness twice as a child, and 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ+, so I will be hyperfocused on ensuring they are getting the resources they need inside and outside the classroom to be productive and successful. I also want to focus on engaging with our returning citizen population that is newly re-enfranchised. Ensuring that this population has access to education opportunities while incarcerated and upon returning to society is critical, and I want to be a champion for them.
Parents deserve to be in the driver's seat. I believe that to really put parents in the driver's seat we must end unitary mayoral control over public education in the District of Columbia. No one person should have total control over a public service. It is a system ripe for abuse and poor oversight, which has been the case here in DC. If elected, I will work to build a coalition that will dismantle mayoral control through legislation. Parents come to the SBOE with the hope that we will listen to their problems, concerns, and solve them, but the reality is that we can do nothing but act as bullhorns under the current system. To adequately serve parents, we must do away with mayoral control.
I offer an emphatic yes. While DC has a racially diverse teacher and administrator workforce, we have not done enough to have teachers that look like our Latinx students and families. We also have an issue of retaining teachers and administrators that look like our Black students. To combat both of these challenges, I will work with my colleagues to close the representation gap by figuring out why DCPS and DC charters are struggling to recruit Latinx talent, and why we as a school district are struggling to retain teachers of all backgrounds.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 26, 2020
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