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How would you fix a bankrupt school district with a bloated administration and poor student achievement? Would you make judicious cuts in personnel and offices that aren't in actual schools? Engage in a dialogue with students, teachers and parents to improve school attendance and academic programs?
Or would you close schools, turn others into charters, and hire a bodyguard at public expense to protect you from the angry throngs at school board meetings?
Dr. Randolph Ward, the administrator sent to Oakland by the state 18 months ago has chosen the latter course. He proposed shutting down four public schools and has slated two more for future closure, including a middle school whose "at risk" pre-teen students will be shifted to a high school. This is not a cost-saving move. The price tag for redesigning the remaining schools to accommodate additional students and grade levels far outweighs any actual economy of larger schools.
In the meantime, the state Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) has found that Oakland Public Schools' budgeting, human resources and payroll systems still do not work properly and that Dr. Ward has not completed a Fiscal Recovery Plan.
Ah, but Dr. Ward does have plans. Among them is to convert thirteen schools into "internal charters" run by outside and possibly private management companies. The rationale is that these schools do not meet the standards set by the federal "No Child Left Behind" Act. The irony is that charter school corporations have a worse achievement record than the existing Oakland schools. The reality is that Oakland will lose experienced teachers who do not want to lose seniority, preparation periods and input into the curriculum.
On December 15, 2004, over 500 teachers, students, parents and staff demonstrated in front of Oakland Technical High School and packed into a special hearing and school board meeting to protest the school closures and charter conversions. As board members and the public voiced their opposition, Dr. Ward walked out of the meeting with his bodyguard. After all, the elected Oakland school board has no decision-making power under the state takeover. Ward later returned and pretended to listen to the "hearing."
Does this sound like the evil machinations of proto-fascist Republicans? Democrats Don Perata, president pro-tem of the State Senate, and Sheila Jordan, Alameda County Schools Superintendent, helped install Dr. Ward and took away the powers of the elected school board. Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown had already staged his own coup. He created three seats on the school board to be appointed by himself. He went out of the school district to find a sponsor for his own pet charter school, a military academy which has proven to be a complete failure educationally.
The "No Child Left Behind Act" with its tests and sanctions was already previewed in California by former Governor Gray Davis. Jack O'Connell, now State Superintendent of Education, introduced most of the "school accountability" bills in the legislature while he was in the State Senate. In fact, California's testing regimen starts earlier and is more frequent than federal requirements.
The bipartisan "accountability" movement is a substitute for adequately funding the schools. It's robbing our students of their education and our teachers and other school workers of their livelihoods under the guise of reform.
The Oakland Education Association (OEA) -- the teachers' union -- is responding to this attack by joining with other community organizations to demand real reform: funding from Oakland's wealthy corporations to keep the schools open with no cuts, no layoffs, no debt, and democratic local control.
OEA also has an alternative plan to help Oakland students. Go to the OEA website, oaklandea.org, for more information.
[Marsha Feinland taught in public schools for over 30 years.]
This story is accompanied by a b¨lb¨l cartoon. The cartoon shows an adult standing at a blackboard with "Tests Today" written on it, while two kids with backpacks approach him. One of the kids asks, "If we pass the tests ... are we quality controlled acceptable market products?"
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