Feature Archives

On Friday, Feb. 20, several students from Oakland's School of Social Justice and Community Development (SSJCD) were detained and harrassed by members of an Oakland Police taskforce. According to reports, the students were invasively searched, threatened with physical violence, and repeatedly called "nigg**" by white officers. Teachers were told that the students were being detained "under reasonable suspicion of being black" and the officers refused to provide their badge numbers to school staff. Under pressure from students and staff, police eventually released the students without comment, explanation or apology. A protest against police abuse and racism has been called for 4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26 at Eastmont Mall Police Substation, 7200 Bancroft Street, suite 273, Oakland. Read more

2/21/04:Dead Prez and Oakland's Education Not Incarceration came together in the wake of five planned school closures in Oakland, as tensions have continued to build in the Bay Area around the overall poor quality of existing schools and the prison-track they put many poor students on. In addition, though the state continues to alledge there are too many teachers in an attempt to cut resources, many schools barely have enough teachers, let alone seats for their students to study in. The next organizing meeting for Education Not Incarceration is this Monday, the 23rd of February.
"Man that school shit is a joke/ The same people who control the school system control the prison system, and the whole social system. Ever since slavery, nawsayin?"
— Dead Prez

On February 4, parents, teachers, students, community members and their supporters rallied outside the state office building in Oakland to fight the projected closure of five public schools. The closures would force approximately 1,000 students to travel long distances from their homes to new, already over crowded, schools. Working parents would have to fear for the safety of their children who will have to cross some of Oakland' busiest streets if the closures take place. Each of the schools is part of Oakland's "small schools" program, implemented by the community in 1999 to help raise student achievement levels. All five schools have raised their test scores over the past three years.
Photos | Steps You Can Take To Stop the Closures | Education not Incarceration

2/20/2004: A rally in support of accessible education at all levels was held Friday, February 20 in Cesar Chavez Park in downtown San Jose Photos
Community College fees are being raised to $26 per unit after being raised from $12 to $18 per unit just last year. Students with a Bachelor’s degree that are returning to college will now pay $50 per unit under the Schwarzenegger budget plan. Proposition 98 guarantee has been suspended and K-14 schools are getting will now pay 40% more for school and middle-income students will be offered less financial aid. Read More...
Community Colleges are planning a huge march to Sacramento on March 15 to protest these fee hikes and budget cuts.

On Thursday January 8th, several hundred students, parents and teachers gathered at the Oakland Public Schools Administration Building for a hearing on Oakland school closures. As dozens rallied outside and hundreds packed a hearing room, "Oakland police barred dozens of other people from the building, including at least one journalist and a woman who asked to be let in to find her young daughter. The crowd chanted, banged on windows and rang fire alarms, which could be heard from inside the meeting room." (Oakland Tribune).
Pictures: 1 | 2 | 3
The occupation of Oakland schools by the State of California enables the state to make cuts to Oakland schools that a democratically elected school board would never approve (see pdf). Administrator Randolph Ward at first threatened to close up 13 schools but settled on a short-list of 5.
Ward plans to rent shut-down schools to charter schools. Ward's attack is a thinly veiled attempt to privatize education. Ward is acting as an unelected, unaccountable overseer for the state to try to strip down, degrade and privatize education in Oakland.Read More...

Ignacio Chapela, an outspoken biotechnology critic, has been denied tenure by the University of California, Berkeley and will be let go when his employment contract expires in June. Read More...

On Feb 1, protests were held outside Orangeview Junior High in Anaheim in reaction to the Anaheim Union High School District's banning of books about prominent gays and lesbians. Despite instructions over the PA system that students were not to talk to protesters, many joined the activists and made their own signs and chants. Details