The Opportunity Ticket, Opportunity Hoarding, and What We Learned from the latest Enrollment Data

For my own mental health I skipped the last board meeting, but by the next day a half dozen, mostly fuming, folks had reached out to me on enrollment data the district presented.  And the presumed twisting of a policy that I helped write and pass, The Opportunity Ticket(OT).   While the idea behind the policy…


OUSD’s Double Talk on Reparations, Passing an Empty Policy While Moving to Exclude Black Contractors

If OUSD supports Black families it needs to support the Black economy and that means actually hiring Black, Brown and women contractors.  Unfortunately, its latest, pennywise pound foolish response is exactly the opposite.  Tonight they plan to dilute their policy that encourages the hiring of small, local and minority contractors, expanding the list of eligible…


Our Babies Can’t Read, Will OUSD Take Action to Change That, and How You Can Help

If you are born, Black, Brown, Pacific Islander, Yemeni, or in another underserved group in Oakland, chances are you will never learn to read in Oakland Unified.  For Black kids its less than 1 in 5, around 1 in 4 for Brown kids and the numbers are no better for our other babies.  There is…


How is Your School Doing by Black Families, Create your State of Black Education Report Card to Find Out

The first step to healing is admitting we have a problem.  It’s not a district problem, or charter problem, or a private school problem.  It’s a problem that underlies our societal fabric, and infects our institutions.  And until we step on the scale and look in the mirror, we probably won’t even know the true…


“Our Children Need to Learn How to Read” The NAACP’s Demand for Better Literacy Practices and the Coalition Behind it

If you can’t read, your life in Oakland is likely to be nasty, brutish and short.  And while we hear a lot of speeches, we haven’t seen changes in outcomes.  Thankfully, there are folks taking action, like our Oakland NAACP, with concrete solutions, and a coalition behind them.  Join us tonight for the  NAACP and…