Who Are The Troublemakers?

 Parker School in Oakland was supposed to close way back at the end of May. Instead, parents and community members came to the fifth grade promotion at what would have been the end of the year. And stayed. They have maintained a presence there as well as providing a summer program with art and music as well as security shifts for the grownups who camped out there to make sure the school stayed open. 

Last week, a group of district "security officers" were dispatched to Parker to clear the occupiers out. Ironically, these quasi-uniformed individuals were acting in the stead of the now disbanded Oakland School Police force. Their attempts to move the community off their spot was ultimately unsuccessful, but not without first riling up those who were there to witness the dustup. 

Now we find ourselves at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year. It is at the end of this nine month journey that the Oakland Unified School District intends to close five more schools: Korematsu, Horace Mann, Brookfield, Carl B. Munck and Grass Valley. Korematsu is named for Fred Korematsu, a civil rights leader who resisted the interment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and native son of Oakland. Carl B.Munck was once the president of the Oakland school board and was instrumental in hiring the city's first African-American superintendent. If you look around, you can hardly escape the number of schools across the country named after Horace Mann. Way back in the nineteenth century to create public education. Though he wasn't from Oakland, he might have something to say about the way things are being handled here currently. 

The powers that be insist that enrollment and revenues are down. Enrollment? Of course it is. You may have read about the global pandemic that forced massive changes of lifestyle and habitation. As that crisis begins to ebb and people who were most immediately impacted by COVID-19 begin to find their way back to their neighborhoods, they need schools for their children to attend. As for revenue, well let's just say that California is currently trying to figure out how to manage a budget surplus of nearly one hundred billion dollars. Why isn't some of that finding its way to public schools across the state? 

And even if all that money has to go to Governor Newsom's plan to desalinate ocean water, maybe those powers could figure out a constructive way to engage with their community. Instead of sending in the goon squad, maybe they could discuss a transition process. Right now they have their hands full with one school and its troublemakers. I would imagine that if they go ahead with their stated program, that problem could be five times worse next August. 

We will have to wait and see.