About PELSB

PELSB (the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing Board) was created in 2017, replacing and taking over duties regulating teacher licensure (that had been split between the "Board of Teaching" and the former licensure-training-related division of the MN Department of Education) as part of the authorized scheme to reorganize licensure and implement a tiered system (1-4) of licensure, which continues today.  

The current controversial PELSB rulemaking (R-4615) seeks to implement systemic CRT, which PELSB designates "CRTP," "Culturally Responsive Teaching Principles." This pending proposal, Rulemaking (# R-4615), would, in the words of PELSB, reorganize the whole of required teacher training as "CRTP."

Its theory for implementing CRT is that within the current education policy and operations of Minnesota government there is a "system of oppression at work (George Floyd Pronouncement, June 12th, 2020)." PELSB claims the pedagogy standards and other rules implemented by the "Board of Teaching" are "systemically racist rules that prevent or make accessing teaching a barrier (George Floyd follow-up Letter of November 24th, 2020)."

This casting of aspersions against the Board of Teaching epitomizes the capricious prejudice of PELSB, dangerous to the teaching profession and the quality of education for Minnesota's next generation. The PELSB prejudice is arbitrary and capricious, in violation of rulemaking procedure, and PELSB never even attempts to back up this derogatory indictment of the Board of Teaching's standards as being unaware of implicit bias or any other woke crime. As is all too often this case in this age superpoweful press/media collusion--crime/sin does not require an actual specific accusation of violation or proof of guilt or error.

Indeed, the facts are that the Board of Teaching's "Diverse Learners" policies (the current standards) are better diversity training than the PELSB proposal, even though the PELSB proposal is supposed to be based on prioritizing its theory of diversity training, cultural responsiveness, as the number one qualification for a teaching license in Minnesota.

PELSB has described that its mission in the R-4615 Rulemaking as being to "transform our piece of the larger institutionalized problems that lead to repeated racial injustice and that disproportionately impact the lives of Black people in this country (George Floyd Pronouncement, June 12th, 2020)."

While PELSB had the blessing of certain politicians to restyle itself on its George-Floyd-dedicated social justice mission, this is not the mandate it received from the Legislature (see the PELSB-authority section). The Office of Administrative Hearings and PELSB need injunctive correction from the duly vested Court system, to correct PELSB assigning itself its own modified mission to "upend oppressive systems...[to which] we are comitted....diligently embracing this necessary challenge by:...pinpointing and revising systemically racist rules that prevent or make accessing teaching a barrier (George Floyd Follow-up Letter, November 24th, 2020)."

Whether or not PELSB has a sound theory of social justice and is correcting diagnosing racism or bias or whether or not PELSB should be overhauling pedagogical requirements on a theory based on such diagnoses need not be the controlling issues, here, the Legislature did not change the substance of the policy and did not authorize PELSB to implement a written procedure implementing its policy.

Both PELSB and the Office of Administrative Hearings need to be disabused of the notion that teacher licensure is a "piece" of larger institution of government that it is up to PELSB to change, by their own leave. Specific legislative authorization is required for changes and substantive policy, such as the pending PELSB antiracism implementation, must come from the Legislature's authorization to PELSB, not the events of George Floyd uprisings.

PELSB is composed of persons holding a variety of positions relative to the education system, but they are largely recruited and all are appointed by the Governor without legislative confirmation. Below is an expandable window of current Educator "Board" makeup from the PELSB website:

External Links: to the PELSB homepage, rulemaking activities page, rulemakings update sign-up page, and the contact PELSB page. See their calendar for the listing of virtual and in-person meetings (there is an email updates list for that, as well), where the public is often allowed to comment, but where PELSB typically maintains a policy that it will not address or respond to public comments at its public meetings.

Education Standards of America operates under all Treasury and State regulations applicable to nonprofit entities.