This guest post is by an anonymous, Oakland-based educator. One time my mom tried to kill me. She chased me with a knife, cackling like a witch. It was hide-and-seek—but it wasn’t, it wasn’t a game. I trembled in a dark corner of the basement, which terrified me, but I was more terrified of her…
A Good Meeting from OUSD; How “the Public” Can Wreck a Public Forum
This is not an April Fool’s joke. I attended a powerful, informative, and productive meeting of an official OUSD committee. I repeat-not a joke. Before I dig in, let me describe it. I was a few minutes late, but got to the room at Skyline and saw an attentive circle of probably 25-30 folks. They…
Unintended Consequences and How NOT to Fix OUSD’s Broken Budget
Oakland Unified’s initial efforts to stem its budget crisis have failed, and unless we learn some lessons from this experience it will get a lot worse before it gets better. According to the East Bay Times’ recent article “Oakland school district spending ‘limits’ backfire, $10 million in cuts still needed” OUSD’s plan to cut spending,…
Even Teachers Think It Should Take More Than Just 18 Months to Get Tenure
This is a cross post from a CA teacher Erin Fitzgerald-Haddad I never intended to be a public school teacher. Growing up, I’d gone to private school. When it came time to send my kids to school, I didn’t hesitate to send them to private school. Then, in my 30s, I started thinking about starting a…
The Little School that Could; How a Relentless Community Fought for Lazear Elementary and Won
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them”–Frederick Douglass “We had to do it, our kids were first, no matter what it…