Our parents almost universally want more challenging schools, at the same time they rightly believe that education is unequal according to a recent study. I say, rightly, because there is compelling evidence of a broad and wide belief gap about the capacity of kids of color, and in reality, our kids often do get the…
school choice
Bad Arguments Against Common Enrollment Part 2
The debate over creating a common enrollment system for parents that includes charters and district schools rages on. I attended the recent OUSD engagement session and the Oakland Post also ran an op-ed critiquing common enrollment by Rosie Torres, “’Common Enrollment’ is a Misfit for the Problems that Plague Oakland Schools Retaining and improving…
Bad Arguments Against Common Enrollment Part 1
As OUSD debates a proposal to create one unified enrollment system that includes charters and district schools the Contra Costa Times has framed the debate as whether we are creating, “a streamlined system that allows families to more easily navigate a daunting array of school applications to find the best fit for their child…(or) another…
Who’s Really Choosing in School Choice? Part 1
School choice, for me, was about empowering underserved families to have the same range of quality options that well off parents had, without having to buy a house in the Hills. Montessori, dual language, arts, technology-infusion, even military school, these were the options that families craved and we helped develop. Choice is empowerment. But there’s…
Segregated Housing, Costly Transportation, and the Practicalities of Inequality
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…