Jokeland
The Oakland Education Association is demanding a 15 percent raise over three years in its teacher contract negotiations. That’s ridiculous enough for a district that has lost a higher percentage of students in the last five years than any of California’s largest 125 districts. What’s especially galling is that Oakland placed a parcel tax referendum on the November 2008 ballot to raise $10 million for teachers’ salaries – and the union opposed it because it would have earmarked $2.5 million for charter schools. The measure failed.
The OEA then passed a resolution last October stating the union “would not participate in any parcel tax coalition that advocated giving money to charter schools.” Two of those Oakland charter schools were founded by then-mayor Jerry Brown, the once (and future?) governor of California who signed the state’s public employee collective bargaining law in 1976.
OEA is threatening to strike if it doesn’t get what it wants, and its position is bolstered by the efforts of the California Teachers Association, which managed to undermine a bill in the state Assembly that would have “allowed children in the lowest-performing schools to transfer to any school in the state or let their parents force overhauls that could include firing teachers or changing the school into a charter school. ”
With thousands of parents already voting with their feet, a teachers’ strike that closes down the Oakland schools would only accelerate the process. Be careful what you wish for, OEA.
December 11th, 2009 at 19:17
So I am not sure if you are from Oakland or just like to make jokes about Oakland as lots of folks do….
Where to even start…. do you know that when Oakland was taken over by the state (bogusly given a 100 million $ loan (that was the largest for any bankrupt district by a factor of 25) thanks to our hopeful next Mayor Don Perata.. we do not forget Don) the state administrator started by CLOSING SCHOOLS..(I believe they wanted to close 12 the first year… and got away with 7 or so, but don’t quote me on that) schools that were struggling but working…. and then miraculously those same schools open the following fall as CHARTERS…. the bane of the public ed system…So the decline in enrollment is cos many kids are now in charters…..
Mr Broad and Gates talk about education and making progress, yet NO school that is not a charter has access to any of their $$$… Not a good school or a bad school…. only a charter school… something wrong there…. So charters get to pick the students they want….. they get access to the Gates and Broad funds… and they get cheap untrained, oh sorry, they do train those TFA kids for 5 weeks in the summer…… folks to play teacher for a couple years….but they do not get stability, they do not get veteran trained teachers…. they do not get highly qualified teachers for the classroom….
As for the Inititative in ’08 it was put on the ballot by Vincent Mathews, (I believe over the objections of the Oakland School Board) by Jack O’Connell, Supe of Ca Schools, and due to the $$ for charters… remember they get access to Gates/Broad $$ so do not need to take anything more from us—they already got our buildings and many of our students…. who by the way dribble back to us when their parents get tired of how its not really working for them in the new charter … or their child is asked to leave for whatever reason…. Oh I do not want to rant, but you have twisted what goes on here.. so of course we did not vote for it… and do note that EVERY bond for schools always has passed in Oakland over the years… cos the parents in Oakland support the schools… but they knew it was bogus and a give away to the charters and they followed the teachers and did not vote for it…….
Parents are not voting with their feet….they come back to us and their kids are more behind than when they left….. Why not call for a Moratorium on Charters… and do a full unbiased assessment of the current charters… how many kids who start.. .actually are there for the final year…. very few….. how many teachers are still there after 5 years… again very few…..
As for the 15% raise over 3 years… Do you know what COLA is?? Cost of Living Adjustment.. which the state gives out so that when prices go up too much those stuck with contracts and no raise can continue to buy milk, feed their families and just sort of live. Well, did ya know that in OUSD, they took the COLA from the state for 3 or 4 years (not sure exactly here) but did not pass it on to their teachers and other employees… Now my husband is also a teacher and every year he would come home and tell me he got a raise… a COLA and poor me, I did not.. so his salary kinda went up with that COLA each year… and mine stayed the same… So in Oakland what with the 4% cut we took and the loss of the COLA.. no one seems to know or care too much what happened to it.. but sure thing is OUSD teachers who it was earmarked for did NOT get it….. so that with COLA loss and 4% cut… which they kinda gave back a bit in ’06…… we are 18-21% less than we should have been with the COLA over the past 5-7 yrs….
have you been to some of the schools in Oakland? you should visit and not just the charters……
Sue Morgan
Oakland teacher
December 12th, 2009 at 19:26
If Ms. Morgan’s post is any indication of the quality of Oakland teachers, God help the children and taxpayers of Oakland.
December 14th, 2009 at 13:41
Mrs. Morgan,
Regarding your question whether we know what COLA is, the answer is that we do. We also know that in the last 3 years COLA rose by 7%. The last time I checked, 15% was more than twice 7%.
We also know that the average per-student expense at a charter school is only about 70% of the regular public school per-student expense. Given that, can you please explain to me again why having more charter schools will financially harm those who stay in the regular public school? Unless it is about more union jobs rather than about “money for the kids”, that is.
Further, I suspect that also you know that charter schools don’t “get to pick the students they want.” If you don’t, you should be happy to learn that by law they have to take anyone that applies, and if the applications exceed space the selection must be done by lottery.
I join Jim Stegall in his hope for divine support for Oakland kids. They clearly need it.
December 14th, 2009 at 16:00
It is okay to have differing views on policy questions, but it ought to be a matter of fact…not open to opinion…whether or not Oakland teachers got the COLA adjustment for the past three years. Ms. Morgan specifically says they did not while other school districts did. Zeev claims they did.
Mike, perhaps you can clear this up. Did Oakland teachers get the COLA or not?
December 15th, 2009 at 14:48
The answer to your question, Rich, is that it is somewhat under dispute. Without getting into the insanities of education funding in California, I direct you to the district’s explanation for why what the state promises as COLA isn’t always what is delivered.
December 19th, 2009 at 11:32
Zeev is incorrect on two issues. Oakland teachers have not received any COLA in the last 7 to 8 years. We receive the lowest pay of all the 17 school districts in the greater Bay Area. Charters schools do select students. They actually come into the neighboring public schools and solicit. Students also apply, and they choose only those that will keep their test scores high. They do not take special education students as this also effects API and a schools test scores.
So whenever you hear a news item about how great charter schools are, just know you are not comparing apples to apples. You are comparing hand picked apples with all the other apples.
Furthermore, I support OEA’s decision not to endorse the last ballot measure for just the reasons above. Charter schools are not about educational innovation, as they are made out to be. They are leading by re-segregating our public schools. This is a dangerous and an undemocratic path for public schools.
Sue to Sue–Both veteran Oakland teachers