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Military School

Jerry Brown is defeated on his second bid to get a military school in Oakland

By Liana Fabiani PNN staff

OAKLAND---How do you change the make-up of an entire community?---maybe by changing the school system used by the community. Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown has come up with a sure fire way to move forward with his gentrification plans for Oakland..... or so he hoped.

Last week Mayor Jerry Brown was defeated for the second time this year by the Oakland School Board. The vote just before midnight Wednesday brought an end to a five hour hearing on the mayor’s plan to launch a Military Academy (magnet school) on the former Oakland Army Base by September. Arguments for and against the proposal were heard but, one vote in particular set forth by one of Brown’s own, drew a roar of applause from the very diverse crowd of people present. Brown was bewildered by his appointee Wilma Whites no vote who throughout the meeting seemed to lean towards casting a yes vote, but at the end denounced the plan as RACIST. White believed that the military academy proposal offered no real choice for students trapped in Oakland’s public schools. She described the plan as being the provider of a racist two-tier system in education. ìI do not think the proponents of this academy are racists; I respect them all,I found the military academy charter petition, however, racist in it’s effect.

Brown responded with "I don’t understand" (white male rhetoric), as well as lashed out against the other board members who voted against his plan by saying that they were flat-earth society members who jealously guard a failing school system and resist any kind of change

Along with White, board President Dan Siegel and members Jean Quan, Bruce Kariya, and Ken Rice all voted against Brown. Siegel argued that a military school would be a bad fit for progressive Oakland and that it would be unethical because the charter school would receive 2-3 times more funds than any of the 90 other public schools in Oakland.

"We’re not trying to nail Jerry", Board member Rice said last Thursday. He’s a bright guy. But he just doesn’t get it when it comes to what’s needed for real school reform in Oakland.

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Oakland’s School Superintendent Dennis Chaconas agrees. Formally Alameda's Superintendent, Chaconas also opposed Browns proposal. Believing that he had come back to a district that was in worse shape then when he had left it in 1993, he states that student achievement had not been the #1 priority of the Oakland School District like it should have been. He brought forth the notion that there is no significant data proving charter schools effectiveness and that he is therefore committed to improving the overall educational system and not for separating the community by only helping a small number of students through charter programs.

So what are some of the answers? Chaconas proposed, "We do need to pay teachers more, which requires more funding, fundamentally, you create a system with high standards and you hold teachers and principals accountable for performance. You tell those who are not doing their job how to improve and you reward those who are doing a good job."

Chaconas also believes that the real issues of education have been buried by politics, which have destroyed morale causing people and representatives to be on the defensive. They’re saying you can’t change the system, " I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t believe I could change it and if you believe it can’t change, then you should get out and do something else.Teaching is an art, a passion. You have to have standards. You have to care about the kids. Our teaching system doesn’t teach any of those"

He went on to say that there has been a disconnect between the district office and the school sites, a lack of support and understanding. This seemed to ring all so true on the night of the meeting as the crowd of more than 150 people (many of them Oakland students) got out of control because they were not getting a fair chance to be heard, forcing Siegel to temporarily shut down the meeting.

To push his proposal forward, it is publicly known that Brown had exhausted all of his resources and pulled all of his strings to get the idea funded through alliances with local and National agencies from the likes of Gray Davis and the National Guard. But it did not seem to make any difference, as together-- the People of Oakland, Wilma White, Siegel, Quan, Kariya, Rice, Chaconas, and Alameda’s Superintendent of schools Sheila Jordan stood up for what was best for all the kid’s in Oakland. Through their courageous votes and/or opinions they managed to slow Jerry and his troops down.

"The bottom line is we're going forward" Brown said, "and the point is Oakland School Board Members don’t have the last say on this"

No Jerry, I really think the bottom line is that the people of Oakland are simply not havin’ it.

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