Teacher Urges No on Measure B Bonds

Note: As an exception, ORPN widens its coverage to a school issue, Measure B on the June 6, 2006 ballot. There has been almost no press given to the side that argues Vote No. As you will read here, the school district under administrator Ward practices bait-and-switch much like the City of Oakland.

By Bob Mandel

Unintentionally, the front page photo of a broken shower at Skyline High School makes the strongest case why every Oakland voter should vote against Measure B. This is the $435 million bond issue proposed by State Administrator Ward.

Vote against monies that are supposed to fix the heat and get rid of the mice? Contradictory? Only if voters ignore recent history. Since 1999, the State has proven it will not disburse the $800 million under the Williams settlement to fix broken schools. Since his arrival in 2003, the State Administrator has proven that he, too, will not disburse Oakland voter-authorized monies to repair schools.

Look at Measures A and C, bonds which run to 2014 and 2010 respectively. These funds, too, promised to fix Oakland's collapsing school infrastructure. Have they? Not if you ask dozens and dozens of teachers and parents at school after school. Why not? Because citizen oversight of these funds, guaranteed in the measures themselves, has been ignored or suspended by the State Administrator. The community has played no controlling role in setting priorities for repairs or new buildings.

Everything has been up to Ward, and now he's back asking for more. To do what? The text of the measure explicitly says that no guarantees are made that any project on the list will be completed because matching funds from "outside funding sources cannot be predicted." Review, audit and allocation of the new monies will all be made by Ward. This is the same man who, having threatened strikebreakers would keep the schools open "by any means necessary," closed them in a blink on April 20 even though there was no strike, leaving thousands of children stranded and their parents hustling for childcare.

There are many other problems with B. It doesn't include the "opt-out" provisions for seniors and low-income property owners which previous measures had. It places absolutely no tax on downtown commercial property, among the fastest growing, most profitable markets in the U.S. It leaves Fortune 500 Clorox, world's fifth largest shipper APL, World Savings, and Kaiser Health completely free of responsibilities to support education. And the Port, which subsidizes WalMart, continues to pay not a penny to the schools under B.

Unilateral control of Measure B monies will allow Ward to choose first to modernize schools that are highest on his list for reconfiguration/conversion into New Small Schools. Those schools will have the union contract waived for the first year under Articles 12.9.1 and 27 of the new contract. Once the schools are modernized, Ward can close them; and once they are vacant, under state law he must offer the facilities to charter operators. So public funds will be used to fix up schools that will then be handed over to private interests.

Oakland's future is made clear by New Orleans, where Ward and his sponsor Eli Broad have helped separate 110 of the 135 schools from the public school system. These 110 are now unfunded charter schools.

It is time for the mayoral candidates to step up to defend the future of Oakland public education by opposing Measure B. Dellums, Nadel and de la Fuente must say: Restore Local Control Now! No Taxation Without Representation!

Mr. Mandel is an Adult Education teacher of English as a Second Language.