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By Ken Epstein | Put up Information Group
Heading into the Fall 2022 college board election season, the political environment stays extremely energized within the wake of the community-wide rise up that began final yr when the varsity board, directed by state officers and their representatives, pushed the Oakland Unified College District (OUSD) to shut faculties and dramatically minimize college spending.
There are three seats which can be up for election on the seven-member board. Not one of the incumbents, who backed the varsity closures, are operating for re-election. There are a complete of 9 candidates, three in every of the three races. No less than six of the candidates, two in every race, self-identify as progressives who’re opposed to highschool closures and privatization.
The rise up within the college neighborhood erupted in early 2022 after the varsity board permitted the closure of 16 faculties final college yr and this yr. Faculties and communities responded with every day walkouts and marches, in addition to citywide mass marches and rallies. Two workers members at Westlake Center College held a chronic starvation strike that captured worldwide consideration.
Becoming a member of the opposition, the Oakland Metropolis Council handed a decision towards the closings, as did the Alameda Labor Council and the Alameda County Board of Schooling.
Presumably in response to the strain, the varsity closure checklist was lowered from 16 to 11. The choice to shut a number of the faculties that had been slated to shut final yr was postponed to this yr, giving websites time to arrange to avoid wasting themselves. No less than two faculties, Westlake Center and Prescott, had been completely faraway from the closure checklist.
Finally, three faculties had been closed in June.
Opposition to highschool closures gained power from a newfound alliance between rank-and-file lecturers and longshore staff, members of ILWU Native 10, who fashioned a brand new group, Faculties and Labor In opposition to Privatization (SLAP), has held joint actions towards college closures and the Metropolis’s proposed giveaway of public land on the Port of Oakland to the Oakland A’s company.
As well as, neighborhood anger ended the political profession of Alameda County Supt. Of Faculties L. Karen Monroe, who was voted out of workplace in November. It was Monroe, because the entrance individual for the state officers and the state-funded nonprofit Fiscal Disaster Administration and Help Crew (FCMAT), who threatened OUSD with direct takeover if it didn’t shut faculties and make finances cuts that officers had been demanding.
Inside these extremely charged unfolding occasions, at the very least six progressive candidates have stepped as much as oppose college closings and the privatization of colleges and public assets.
The candidates are optimistic, talking at varied neighborhood boards, saying they’ve an opportunity on this election to swing the varsity board majority towards privatization and shutting extra faculties. They are saying a change within the stability of energy on the board would make a dramatic change in Oakland’s academic leaders’ willingness to simply accept the decades-long dismantling of the general public college system.
Whereas hopeful that it is a second for change, many college advocates have a sober estimate of what it is going to take to undo the injury carried out to Oakland faculties by the onslaught of schooling privatizers that’s devastating public schooling throughout america.
There may be at the moment an understanding amongst many advocates that state Democratic leaders, who’ve operated via FCMAT and the County Workplace of Schooling at the very least since 2003, are deeply dedicated to an austerity agenda and never prone to again off just because there’s a new college board majority.
Many see that it’s going to take a resolute and united college board, allied with a robust citywide grassroots motion and neighborhood leaders with allies all through the state to dislodge the colonial regime that dominates and drains the assets of OUSD.
Because the State took over the district in 2003, greater than 30 faculties have been closed, money owed have soared and the ranks of high-paid outdoors consultants have burgeoned. Whereas the closing of colleges was justified as a path to monetary stability, there has by no means been an accounting of the financial savings and there may be at all times a brand new finances shortfall and a brand new checklist of colleges to shut.
At current, about 30% of Oakland college students attend constitution faculties, many situated at websites the district closed.
Talking at a gathering with candidates organized by SLAP, a number of candidates emphasised the significance of electing a board that’s linked to the neighborhood motion towards closures and privatization.
“This can be a second — college closures have galvanized your entire neighborhood,” stated District 6 candidate Valerie Bachelor. “We have to take (this) as a possibility to essentially have interaction our neighborhood in a a lot deeper approach, and this election is the best way to try this. We have to get a super-majority to the varsity board so we are able to finish this now and endlessly.”
Stated District 4 candidate Pecolia Mandingo, “Privatization is a a lot larger agenda than simply charters. (It’s about) actual property makes an attempt to promote district properties (and) privatization in district contracts. There may be an overuse of plenty of consultants and plenty of legal professionals.”
“She stated, “We’re attempting to get 4 votes if not 5” on the board. It’s about being clear in regards to the second we’re in, as a result of we might not have this second ever once more.”
Extra information in regards to the college board candidates and the place they stand on points will observe in coming weeks.
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