Students in Oakland have had to choose between food and the forty dollar monthly bus fare to get to school. That was one of many troubling things we heard at a recent committee hearing as students from Unity Charter High and Skyline, as well as community representatives testified about the hardships that students face getting…
The Real Stories of Unaccompanied Minors and What Oakland is Doing
Amidst the hysteria over cantaloupe-calved human marijuana “mules” you might miss stories from children like Victor found in the recent NPR story about unaccompanied minors and the ways the Oakland Unified has adjusted to, and tried to support them. And while I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these brothers and sisters are called “mules”…
The Real Challenges of District Reform
Changing District behavior is really hard. I learned this first hand working with OUSD to reduce restrictions on schools and implement so called “site based decision-making” as part of its broader New Small Autonomous Schools Policy. And it was often not bad actors or bad intentions, but just an inertia that kept the district hurtling…
Segregation “By Any Means Necessary”
Brother Malcolm would be spinning in his casket if he heard the so called BAMN (by any means necessary) caucus using his words for an agenda he certainly would not agree with, calling the attempt to integrate some special education students in Oakland into regular classes, “the New Jim Crow”. Ha, as most Black families…
Quality School Food as an Equity Issue
Small moments break your heart sometimes. The school food was not good, but as the bell rang to end lunch, she was hurriedly squirrelling leftover sandwiches and half sandwiches into her backpack. A slight kindergartener, she couldn’t eat all those sandwiches herself, but was taking them home for later, and maybe for others. We take…