Oakland Teachers Plan One Day Strike April 29

Click to enlarge. PDF available upon request

Hey Norm,

This is Jack Gerson, a voice from the past. I've been meaning to drop you a line for a while, since every once in a while I've seen you reference something I've written, and also to compare notes about the privatization in Oakland and New York (I think that to some degree they track each other).

Anyway, as you may know OEA is locked in a pretty fierce contract struggle with our school district. We've been bargaining for more than two years, and we've been without a contract for nearly two of those years (I'm on our bargaining team). Five days ago the district imposed their "last, best and final" atrocious offer -- no raise (we're the lowest paid teachers in Alameda County); larger class sizes; the "flexibility" to eliminate the adult education program, etc. We're doing a one-day strike this Thursday (April 29), and will build the campaign to force them to lift the imposition and give us a decent contract.

I've attached a pdf file of a flyer / ad that four of us wrote, and which has been approved by our executive board. It was intended to be a full-page ad for the Oakland Tribune, but we decided not to empty our campaign fund at this time to pay their exorbitant rates. Instead, we're going to mass distribute it to our members and the community, and will try to go viral with it on the web. It tells a good piece of the story. There's more -- but given space limitations, the rest will come in the next thing we put out.

Anyway, I've attached it. If you can give it any play, I'd appreciate it.

Hope you're doing well. Maybe we can get together next time I'm in NY.

In solidarity,
Jack Gerson

Jack Gerson was part of the early 70's resistance here in NYC and worked with "Another View" which was based in District 14 before expanding into a citywide group that became the Coalition of NYC School Workers, some of the same people who helped form ICE in 2004.

Sharon Higgins report on Oakland charter per pupil spending

The work Sharon Higgins does at her Perimeter Primate blog is invaluable. This came in from Pete Farrugio. Pete and I taught together at PS 16 in Williamsburg in the late 60's when we were newbie teachers. When I started going to meetings of Another View in District 14 in 1970, my first teacher activist group, I brought Pete along. Pete has gone on to a college level career and has continued his activism. In the small world department, NYCORE's Bree Picower, who we are associated with now, told me Pete was a mentor when she was at Berkeley.


Sharon Higgins published a report on public per pupil spending that compares Oakland, CA's charters with regular public schools (some of which are part of Oakland's small schools initiative and have been treated favorably compared to larger neighborhood schools)

Here's the link to her blog. The punch line is that the politically connected charters are spending lots more than local schools, even though the locals have most of the ELLs and special ed kids. What's more, I've personally noticed that in most neighborhoods the lowest proficiency ELLs (kids who barely understand or speak English, and thus score lowest on the English high stakes exam) are pretty much not in the charters.

http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/

Pete