What’s new in Oakland Education wise?
OUSD Board Officer Elections– Director Harris retained the presidency (hands clapping) and Nina Senn took over as the Vice President.
Oakland’s common enrollment proposal was “debated” in the Contra costa Times, as we argued in Bad Arguments Against Common Enrollment Part 1, many of those critiques didn’t hold water.
We will publish our valid critiques of common enrollment soon.
The Board heard from KIPP about their expansion into elementary school in West Oakland, the district’s Effective Employee program, the quality school development process, and the equity pledge from charters- substantial back and forth on all of them. Though KIPP seems like a no-brainer.
Scoundrels stole bikes from Oakland’s kids—if you have a dusty bike (or cash) hanging around, maybe you can donate it—I have my old GT Mountain bike going in next week- you can donate or drop a bike off next week, though call about the drop off hours.
On the state level, the budget proposal is out and its pretty good for kids, but don’t get it twisted, California’s funding is pathetic and inadequate. And I am not one of these “throw money at the problem” folks, but in NYC we got roughly $16,000 per kid and special education students got more based on their needs, $23,000 above the per pupil for high needs and even more in some cases, and that extra funding actually covered costs.
In California, it’s around $10,000 per kid and from my work with schools it seems like they absorb the costs of high needs students, rather than being reimbursed—even with LCAP. This is the worst way to fund schools and set incentives one could imagine. Reforming Prop 13 has got to be a priority.
Mandatory sex education teaching affirmative consent is starting statewide-(woot woot)
And there is potentially huge case in front of the US Supreme Court challenging mandatory contributions to teachers’ unions in CA. It’s probably not as big a deal as people make of it since other states have already undergone similar changes and unions survived, but more to come from SCOTUS.
If you missed it, we also had a popular piece on how crazy you need to be to start a charter school.
Let’s remember Dr. King for the radical he was and not the sanitized figure he has become, not just on a day but in the year and beyond.