Last night, the presumptive frontrunners for Oakland Mayor – former longtime House Representative Barbara Lee and former Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor – met at Chef Michele McQueen’s Town Fare in downtown Oakland to state their case to be Oakland’s next Mayor.
Brought to you by Empower Oakland and Black Action Alliance, with recognized support from the 100 Black Men of the Bay Area, National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Black Women Organized for Political Action, the NAACP Oakland Branch, and the Brotherhood of Elders Network, the debate focused on critical topics including Oakland’s budget crisis and housing insecurity, while also getting the candidate’s perspectives on recalled Mayor Sheng Thao, the current President of the US, and alliances they have with other constituents in Oakland.
When it came to public education and Oakland schools, this is what both candidates had to say:
KTVU Anchor Dave Clark: Can you help Oakland schools? The school districts, Money, morale, anything?
Loren Taylor: Money, morale, anything. Can you throw them something? Yes. Can we help Oakland schools? We have to help Oakland schools. Our future as a city is tied to the future of our school district. We have way too many who are leaving our city because they don’t have confidence in our schools being able to educate their children. We also have too many who see the problems, the challenges in our city and they say, “Hey, you know what? If we can’t take care of business, if we continue to be on the brink of bankruptcy, I’m going to go somewhere where I get a better value for my money, where my kids don’t have to be afraid as they walk to school, where we don’t have extracurricular programs, parks without divots all over the baseball field or the soccer field.”
We have to do better.
And yes, the city addresses the wraparound services to support the students having their best possible education inside those school walls. Partnering with the school district on shared resources, partnering with the school district on how we augment the training and learn that’s happening in the schools. I am proud to be a product of Oakland Unified School Districts. I am proud to be the son of a retired Oakland Unified School District teacher. It is absolutely critical we prepare our students as they are prepared for life. That is our future.
And if we don’t have confidence in what we are giving them, then I fear for what Oakland will look like. So, yes, we have to partner. There are ways to collectively go after money. There are ways to advocate for improvements in the school funding formulas with the state. There are ways that we can augment. One of the conversations I’ve been having with school district officials is how we create a citywide conflict resolution de-escalation training where all of our students know how to resolve conflict without reverting to fights or guns because we know they’re too prevalent in our city.
Barbara Lee: First of all…I’m really proud to have the teachers supporting me in this campaign and the educators. But a couple of things about schools right now. We see that our public school student population is going down and school funding is based on average daily attendance. And this means so many of our young Black and brown students are left in schools with have a hole in terms of resources. And the city does not fund schools per se, but the city certainly can form stronger alliances and become better partners to the school district. There is a Committee that should have been enacted and worked with between the Mayor’s office and the school district, which is just sitting there.
So as Mayor, I would activate that immediately because it’s important for the city to provide what it can provide to fill some of the gaps. As an example, I carry legislation in Washington that I want to bring here for STEM education for our young people. Getting technology, getting tech companies, philanthropy to come to Oakland to help us with the schools. I can do that. I want to make sure that our labor unions enhance and work with young people going into apprenticeship training programs. I brought money in for that purpose. I want to see that acted on. That could help our schools, our young people. They deserve that. We need to make sure that the families of these students, that the city understands that families need housing, affordable housing. So many kids, our kids are homeless. Why can’t we do [more]?
In the past, federally, it just hasn’t happened here in Oakland yet, the Deposit Act, where we pay first and last month’s rent and security deposit through a revolving fund for teachers who aren’t making that much money [and] for students, families. So there are many, many things…the city can do to help with our schools, but we just don’t fund directly to the schools, but we can certainly fill the gaps and augment it with public private partnerships and with someone who can exert leadership to bring those resources to Oakland.
For the full interview, check out KTVU’s debate here. The special election takes place on April 15, 2025.